Public Health

The Profession

The field of public health: Public health is defined by any health threat that can be prevented or health condition that can be improved.

Public health professionals work to prevent illness, disease and injury with whole communities and populations at a time. They conduct and implement research, promote health and disease prevention interventions, and develop policies to improve and enhance quality of life.

In their work, public health professionals also address a very wide range of public health threats including infectious diseases (such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and influenza), chronic diseases (like diabetes and cardiovascular disease) and other epidemics (such as obesity). They work to implement safety laws and policy to positively impact people at work, school, at home, and beyond.

The field of public health is also constantly changing and evolving to reflect new threats, such as bioterrorism and avian influenza, but also includes policies, such as assuring smoke-free restaurants for employees and customers.

Who they are: The field of public health includes a wide-array of professionals, including epidemiologists, community health educators, biostatisticians, health administrators, health researchers, environmental health specialists, nutritionists, and maternal and child health specialists to name a few.

Public health professionals come from a wide-array of backgrounds, both in medical fields and non-medical fields. They might have academic backgrounds in social sciences, liberal arts, or quantitative fields. They might have backgrounds in health fields such as medicine, nursing, nutrition, and veterinary medicine, to name a few. They might even have backgrounds in other professional areas, such as law or journalism.

Is this Profession a Fit for You?

If you are you interested in a health profession, but prefer not to be involved in direct patient care, public health can offer you many options.

Public health professionals demonstrate a wide range of core competencies, including:

• assessing risk factors and patterns of disease,
• conducting primary research,
• evaluating programs,
• planning, organizing, and managing projects and people,
• demonstrating cultural sensitivity and competency, and
• applying systems-based leadership.

 If you like math and science and the idea of tracking diseases is interesting, you might like epidemiology or biostatistics. If you want to help educate whole communities how to stay healthy, or are interested in designing policies to help encourage healthy behaviors, you might be interested in community health education. If you enjoy business, administration and policy development, you might like public health administration and policy or healthcare administration. If you are interested in the environment and want to protect people from environmental threats (both indoors and outdoors), you might like environmental health.

To learn more about public health, explore the “What is Public Health” site.

Education and Prerequisites

The University of Minnesota School of Public Health offers many different educational opportunities. Explore the different areas of study and degrees offered. Wondering which program is a fit for you? Look at the “Choosing a Public Health Program” section to help you decide.

Prerequisites can include both courses and experience. They will vary depending on the area of public health to which you are applying and the level of degree (MPH, MHA, MS, or PhD) or graduate certificate program. Prerequisites differ by program, so look at the “Admissions” tab in the blue box for each area to view the prerequisite information you seek.

The range of experience required for public health varies from program to program. When exploring the prerequisites, it is important to pay close attention to the type of experience identified.

Prepare to Apply

Look here for detailed information on the application process to the University of Minnesota School of Public Health.