Ebola. Avian Flu. Tuberculosis. CoronaVirus (COVID-19). HIV/AIDS. Malaria. When people think of public health, these are the names that come to mind, and indeed, with our increasingly interconnected world, the spread of epidemic diseases is a major public health issue.
However, Public Health is much more than mere crisis response. Public Health is the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life, and promoting human health through organized efforts and informed choices. It covers a wide range of sociological, scientific and mathematical approaches and seeks to improve standards of living, affect healthcare policy, and prevent the looming crises that stem from issues such as Antibiotic Resistance.
The Public Health Major is intended to prepare students for a wide range of career options including Healthcare Administrator (Med. Salary: $104,830, 10-yr growth, 28%), Health and Safety Engineer ($100,660, 4%), Environmental Specialist ($76,480, 6%), and Health Educator ($59,990, 7%). Furthermore, it provides students with a pathway towards graduate programs in Public Health, and Epidemiology. Lastly, when supplemented by Medical School requirements, it provides an excellent course of study for Pre-Medical students who wish to understand the broader context of a physician’s work, or those who wish to work in healthcare policy.
We conducted interviews with academics at Yale University, the University of Washington, UNC Chapel Hill, and LSHTM (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine), as well as public health specialists from the World Health Organization to determine the key learning objectives of a successful undergraduate program in public health.
In addition to a strong liberal arts background, epidemiology, and certain topics from sociology, anthropology, and political science, we identified the following priorities:
The Public Health major addresses these concerns by functioning primarily as a social sciences degree. In addition to providing students with an understanding of research methods and data analysis, it also provides students with an understanding of the history and present reality of public health systems.
Students will learn about the role of both the citizen and the state in public health, understand the importance and implications of economics in healthcare, and master the key approaches and heuristics of public health.
With very positive student reviews being received for the introductory level courses, the core of the committee’s recommendations was to increase exposure to potential careers in the field for all courses. Additionally, the committee recommended an increased emphasis on data and analytics, as well as a deeper look at the broader systems and designs that inform public health outside of healthcare institutions. In response to these recommendations, we have begun to integrate career exploration into relevant course assignments, increased exposure to applications of data analysis, and further expanded the course topics on the social and environmental determinants of health.