Preparing for these jobs is a good way to increase chances of being able to get one of these available positions.
It is widely accepted that the health care industry is going through a lot of changes, and that prospects are good for it being a solid career choice for the future. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, who monitors and forecasts different careers and industries outlooks, provides proof that mirrors this thinking.
According to their Occupational Outlook Handbook, they anticipate a 22% growth in employment for medical and health services managers between 2010-2020. When the average management career is expected to see a 7% growth rate, the health care field makes a positive impact. This supports the idea that health care is likely to have better chances of employment.
Preparing for these jobs is a good way to increase chances of being able to get one of these available positions. Returning to college to further educational background is a great choice, and the Master of Public Health is a way to master this knowledge. Choosing to concentrate in community health is also an option if the goal of improving health care provided to disadvantaged members of the population is something of importance.
MPH Degree Programs in Community Health
There are many colleges and universities that offer graduate degrees in public health, and also with concentrations in community health. There are also a large number of schools now offering online options, where the complete course can be done without needing to attend lectures in a traditional classroom setting. Some examples of these programs are:
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University of Illinois at Chicago – MPH in Community Health Sciences – Available as a fully online degree program, with a flexible schedule that fits well for those with current obligations. The program requires a field experience that consists of 320 hours in a public health setting. In addition, a capstone experience serves to provide each student the opportunity to demonstrate the skills and knowledge they have acquired through a final project.
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University of Liverpool – (Featured & Highly Recommended!) – MPH in Public Health – Want to study at a UK Non-Profit university without leaving your house? The University of Liverpool offers a fully accredited Online Masters in Public Health. Specialization tracks include Epidemiology, International Public Health, Management of Health Systems & Management. Ideal for developed and developing country students.
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Tulane University – MPH in Community Health Sciences – This program also requires a field experience, or practicum, that involves 300 hours in the practice setting. The degree focuses on preparing graduates for careers in community health care or research. The core courses provide a base of knowledge, and the extra credit hours focus on the community health related topics. The curriculum at this school enables individual students to tailor their courses to their particular interests.
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University of Nebraska Medical Center – MPH in Community Oriented Primary Care – This concentration provides specific expertise in the area of community level care. It focuses on design and implementation of community health care programs in order to maintain quality health care for all individuals. This school provides some concentrations of the MPH as an online program, but this community-oriented primary care is not one of them. It is only available as an on-campus delivery option.
- University of Illinois Springfield – Master of Public Health with a concentration in Environmental Health – This degree requires successful completion of 48 semester hours of coursework; 28 hours of general core courses, including a 4-hour internship, plus eight hours of EH concentration core courses.
YouTube Special Feature
UNTHSC School of Public Health – MPH Community Health -Master of Public Health student Sotear Tep talks about the Community Health degree in UNTHSC’s School of Public Health.
Curriculum and Courses for a MPH in Community Health
The curriculum for this degree option is made up of two elements–the MPH core courses, and the combined elective courses that create the concentration in community health. The core courses will incorporate the five main areas of public health. These five areas were defined and updated by the Association of Schools of Public Health, the main association that oversees the educational components essential of an MPH degree. These five areas are:
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Biostatistics
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Environmental Health Services
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Epidemiology
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Health Policy Management
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Social and Behavioral Sciences
When the specific courses that are designed to create expertise in community health, these courses will be more specific and tailored to this study in particular. The actual courses offered will vary between different colleges and universities. An example of courses is being considered from the program at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. Their program includes courses such as:
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Theory and Practice
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Building Communities, Increasing Health: Preparing for Community Health Work
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Advanced Community Practice: Assessment, Organizing and Advocacy
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Social Inequalities in Health
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Program Evaluation for Public Health Practice
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Supervised Field Experience
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Culminating Experience Project
The combination of these courses prepares graduates of a MPH degree for successful careers in leadership positions within various community health organizations
Sample of Core Competencies
The Association of Schools of Public Health is also in charge of defining the core competencies required of graduates of an MPH degree from an accredited college or university. All graduates will have a core knowledge of the five areas of public health as listed above, as well as the overall integrated interdisciplinary skills of a graduate degree. These will include:
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Communication and Informatics
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Diversity and Culture
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Leadership
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Professionalism
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Program Planning
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Public Health Biology
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Systems Thinking
That preparation is what is considered to have the greatest foundation for the skills needed for an effective way of delivering improved health services at the community level.
Community Health Scholarships, Fellowships & Training
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Brown Scholars – This award is given to approved students with a public health focus who have committed to working to improve the underserved and their access to health care and a higher quality of life. This work is to be done in Baltimore and other urban areas.
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NHSC Scholarships – Provided by the National Health Service Corps, it supports U.S. citizens interested in pursuing a career that involves providing health services to communities that have limited access to health care.
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Community Health Leadership Scholarship – Eligible students must be students of the Department of Kinesiology and Community Health at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Career intent must also include work in non-profit setting providing public health services to disadvantaged members of society.
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United Health Foundation Diverse Scholars Initiative – Provide financial support to the future leaders with multicultural backgrounds is the primary goal of this award. They believe that a more diverse pool of professionals in the health care system will create a more represented health network, leading to more comfortable patients.
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Bernard D. Goldstein Student Award in Environmental Health Disparities and in Public Health Practice – This scholarship is for students at the University of Pittsburgh studying causes of health disparities. Intends to encourage students to become involved in the struggle for eliminating disparities in the care received by many members of underserved communities.
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Carol McAllister Award – Provides financial assistance for students that demonstrate need and merit, and can be used to tuition as well as materials, research, or travel associated with a student within the Department of Behavioral and Community Health Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh.
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University of Texas School of Public Health Scholarships – These awards are for students of the School of Public Health in good academic standing and is to cover educational expenses associated with the graduate degree program.
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Kraft Fellowship in Community Health Leadership – This two year program prepares community health professionals to develop new ways to collaborate between academia and community health centers. This program provides opportunities to work with Harvard faculty and to engage in practice at community health centers.
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Community Health Center Executive Fellowship – Open to students from any state, and prepares the awarded individuals for positions in management at various community health centers. Uses full facilities to provide a wide range of experiences from which to gain real world experience.
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Encore Fellows in Community Health Centers – Created by the California HealthCare Foundation, and designed to bring new experienced management talent to health centers in California areas. They interact with members of various departments of the health center.
Top Community Health Journals
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Journal of Community Health – Incorporates current articles on the practice, teaching, and research being done in the area of community health. This provides the opportunity for peer review and covers topics of everything relevant to community health care professionals.
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Family & Community Health – This journal provides easy access to find content, collaborate with other public health professionals and share innovative ideas with other practitioners. Use of the journal requires registration but no subscription fees.
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Journal of Primary Care & Community Health – Four times a year this journal offers relevant information about the practice, impact and outcomes of various forms of community health. Seeks to create an interface for the exchange of ideas and information to bring together the newest thinking with medicine and community health.
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Progress in Community Health Partnerships: Research, Education, and Action – Used to broadcast community partnerships that have been created to encourage progress in these beneficial relationships. This increases the involvement of communities and research towards improving the way these groups work together.
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Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health – International journal that makes original research and reviews available to all practitioners of the community health field. Includes applied, methodological and theoretical issues but focuses on the studies of public health that use multidisciplinary or integrative means to improve knowledge and community health.
Free Online Courses in Community Health
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Engaging Communities in Public Health Research: Practice and Policy – Focuses on the benefits to be achieved by including the public in the identification of the problems they face in health care terms, as well as to incorporating their thoughts and ideas into coming up with the solutions that may improve the quality of the health care they receive.
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Health Promotion and Adult Education – Study of the many different ideas related to the improvement of health behaviors in their lives as well as creating programs designed to promote healthy living in a workplace as part of the employee motivation in their own lives.
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Operationalizing Quality Improvement in Public Health – Introduces the various elements of the study of quality improvement. Includes principles, tools, and practices that can bring about changes that incorporate these ideas into the daily habits of public health workers. Learn to design and implement new quality improvement programs and create measures that will monitor progress towards that end.
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Translating Data Into Public Health Priorities – Teaches the procedures used by health departments to assess and plan for their own public health priorities. Students will access data sources for their own area and organize it in a way that provides opportunities to see what public health issues may need addressing there.
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Community Change in Public Health – This course concentrates on the community element to improving public health. Instead of focusing on individual health or health choices, the viewpoint is of the community as a whole, and the dynamic that includes in these sorts of assessments.
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Decreasing Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities – Investigations of the ways that health disparities exist on racial and ethnic lines, and seeks to explain ways that these factors can be minimized. Examples of the ways these conditions weigh on the community-oriented health care system are also studies.
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Diversity & Cultural Competency in Public Health Settings – This basic course serves as an introduction to the tools that a community health practitioner needs in order to respect the diversity and cultural issues they face with patients. Issues cover many ideas relative to cultural health disparities, as well as some community health models that have been created to reduce the incidence of disparities in public health care for individuals.
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The History of Public Health Informatics: Where Do We Go From Here? – This program serves as an introduction to what health informatics are. It begins by reviewing how it started and then details the steps that the field has taken to get to where it is today. Includes computerized systems, data collection techniques, what the future holds for these informatics.
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Orientation to the Essentials of Public Health – This introductory course describes the history of public health in the United States. Details the ten essential public health services that have prescribed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The need of addressing public health during times of disaster has also been a development in the more recent history of public health.
Additional Community Health Links
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Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – Division of Community Health
