What Can I Do With a Degree in Public Health?
Public health is a field of study that focuses on preventing and stopping disease outbreaks, like the coronavirus pandemic, and dealing with health problems that affect many people at once, like pollution.
Experts say that even though there are many areas of public health that college students can focus on, they all have the same goal: to improve the health of the community as a whole.
Dr. Robert W. According to New York Medical College dean Amler, public health practitioners don’t focus on one person’s health. Instead, they are mostly concerned with the health of the whole group.
“In public health, it’s not as important to treat people when they’re sick as it is to make sure they can stay healthy,” says Amler. Amler says that having access to clean water and safety measures at work are also important for good health.
Experts say that big-picture thinking skills and the ability to analyze data are very important in public health because the field is about finding the things that have the most impact on the health of a population. Public health workers also need to be able to think creatively and strategically, since they are often asked to come up with solutions to big problems like the opioid crisis.
Cheryl Healton, dean of the New York University School of Global Public Health, says that a job in public health can be very meaningful and satisfying because it lets someone help a lot of people in important ways.
Healton, who has a Ph.D. in public health, says, “I’ve rarely met someone in public health who wasn’t happy with their job.” She also says that people who work in the public health sector rarely quit before they retire, unless they want to do something unusual for themselves, like become a novelist.
Why work in public health is important
Healton says that most people who work in public health do so because they want to help people and make society better. He also says that knowing “you left the world a better place” is a very satisfying feeling.
She says that efforts to improve public health have a big effect on everyday life because they make sure that people can do normal things safely. “There are so many ways that public health affects your life before you even eat lunch.” When you wake up and brush your teeth, it doesn’t kill you. The text contains 4 consecutive sentences starting with the same word…. “It’s the most everywhere, invisible field you can think of.”
People with degrees in public health say that the COVID-19 outbreak shows how important their training is because they are so important in stopping the spread of disease. These people who work in public health say that the coronavirus crisis has made it harder to find people to work in the field, and they say that new people would be welcome.
“There is no better time than now”
to work in public health, says Dr. Sylvia Owusu-Ansah, a doctor with a master’s degree in public health.
“Because of COVID, we’ll need more public health experts in both developed and developing countries,” says Owusu-Ansah, an assistant professor of pediatrics and the emergency medical services medical director for UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. “We’re trying to change the way our society works and how our health care works.”
Experts say that epidemiology, the study of disease patterns and health trends in a population, is a very important part of public health today.What career with public health degree Epidemiologists can make predictions and suggestions about diseases that are common based on what they know.
David M. Claborn, who has a Ph.D. in public health, hopes that the COVID-19 crisis will make people interested in public health science.
Claborn, who runs the master’s program in public health at Missouri State University, says that the country’s history shows how important it is to have good and complete data when making public health policy. “In order to meet this need, we will need people who know how to get accurate data on public health and how to analyze and understand that data correctly.” “Policies that are well-intentioned but dangerous can be made if the focus is on advocacy instead of understanding the science behind it.”
Types of Public Health Jobs and Different Parts of the Public Health Field
Bethann Wittig, who is studying for an MPH at Rutgers University in New Jersey and will get her degree this year, says that people who want to work in public health usually have more than one path to choose from. Wittig says that students can become experts in the following fields:
- Epidemiology.
- Biostatistic
- Environmental health and health at work
- Health education and the study of human behavior
- Disease that spreads.
- Public policy.
- Health around the world Nutrition and the health of mothers and children
Wittig wrote in an email that graduates of public health schools can work as “scientists, behavioralists, managers, leaders, coordinators, and educators,” among other jobs. “There is a need for public health workers in government, private, academic, and non-profit settings.”
Experts in the public health field say that most people who work in this field do so for local, state, federal, or international governments. Public health workers may also work for private, for-profit or not-for-profit organizations that have something to do with the health care system, such as advocacy groups or drug companies.
Experts say that people with public health credentials can make a wide range of salaries, depending on what they specialize in and who they work for. Kristi Mitchell, What career with public health degree who works in public health in the District of Columbia and is getting her PhD in public health at George Washington University, says that a public health salary could be anywhere from less than $60,000 to more than $200,000.
Amler of New York Medical College gave the following jobs as examples in public health:
- Epidemiologist.
- Biostatistician.
- Health educator.
- Sanitarian.
- Public health adviser.
- Public health nurse.
- Program director.
- Environmental health scientist.
- Toxicologist.
- Industrial hygienist.
- Health administrator.
- Health economist.
- Health analyst.
- Demographer.
- Medical administrator.
- Health director.
- Health commissioner.
- Minister of health.
- Surgeon general.
Denver doctor and public health worker Dr. Tista Ghosh advises public health workers to pick a vocation that suits them.
Ghosh, a senior medical director at the digital health business Grand Rounds, believes public health experts who concentrate on infectious diseases should relish the adrenaline of dealing with emergencies and surprises and the exhilaration of immediately solving major problems.
Public health specialists on chronic diseases like diabetes must consider long-term outcomes.
“Because you’re not going to earn a short-term payoff,” Ghosh explains. “You won’t be able to stop the rise in obesity in a month.”
For jobs in public health, having a degree in public health is helpful but not necessary.
Experts say that you can work in the public health field even if you don’t have a degree in public health. They also say that degrees in math, social sciences, policy, and professional fields are all relevant to public health.
“Public health is a very broad field, and many people with different backgrounds can find a place in it,” says Dr. Charlene Brown, a doctor who has both a medical degree and a degree in public health.
“It just depends on what they’re interested in, what they’re passionate about, and what skills they bring to the table,” says Brown, the CEO and founder of CaregiverJobsNow, an online job market for health care professionals.
Mitchell, the practice director for Avalere Health’s Center for Healthcare Transformation, says employees have degrees in public administration and public policy. In the public health field, she says, you don’t have to go to graduate school.
Still, people who work at schools of public health say that a degree in the field is very marketable.
Carol Gee, who directed Emory University’s public health department, said alumni have found many intriguing professions.
Gee said Emory public health students work for insurance firms, Planned Parenthood, the American Cancer Society, and the CDC.
South Carolina’s public health and anthropology departments employ David Simmons as an associate professor.
He claims that public health undergraduates who want jobs quickly get good jobs.
He also recommends them for graduate school.
Simmons was a Harvard Medical School Department of Social Medicine and Program in Infectious Disease and Social Change National Science Foundation postdoc. He says that public health programs are becoming more popular,What career with public health degree probably because “it is an incredibly exciting field to be in.”Public health’s multidisciplinary character attracts math, natural science, and social science students.
He argues public health gives you abilities you won’t get elsewhere to help you understand complex issues.
“Public health degree career?”
I recommend public health as a worthwhile topic of study. “Most people with degrees in public health don’t have trouble finding jobs.”
