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Master of Public Health

Overview

The Master of Public Health (M.P.H.) educational degree program at the Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health at Georgia Southern University prepares professionals for broad-based practice in public health, through the integration of core competencies in the five areas of knowledge basic to public health (biostatistics, environmental health, epidemiology, health services administration, and social and behavioral sciences) with specialized knowledge and expertise in one of these areas.

The program serves both the full-time student preparing for a career in public health, as well as currently employed health professionals seeking an advanced education to augment their existing skills and background.

Purpose

The purpose of the M.P.H. is to prepare graduate level public health practitioners capable of applying practice-based skills to promote the concepts of the field. Public health is defined as the art and science of promoting health, preventing disease, and prolonging life among human populations, and the broad mission of public health is to enhance human health through organized community efforts (Council on Education for Public Health, 1978). The Institute of Medicine (1988) further defined the role of public health as “the fulfillment of society’s interest in assuring the conditions in which people can be healthy.” Moreover, this report unveiled the three core functions of public health to include assessment, policy development, and assurance. Public health activities focus on improving the health of whole communities – “healthy people in healthy communities” (Healthy People 2010).

A comprehensive public health education program should provide skills enabling students to assess the magnitude and potential impact of the multiple problems facing populations, as well as recognize existing community capacities or resources. In conjunction with assessment skills, students enrolled in a public health program should understand the role of community empowerment, community mobilization, networks, and partnerships in the development of comprehensive public health policies designed to impact the priority areas identified in the assessment phase. Lastly, student skill sets in a public health program should focus on the task of assuring a presence of services and infrastructure necessary to address problems identified in the assessment phase, as well as enforce policies developed in response to the assessment.

Specific skill sets related to the three core functions of public health practice are as follows:

• Monitor health status to identify community health problems
• Diagnose and investigate health problems and health hazards in the community
• Inform, educate, and empower people about health issues
• Mobilize community partnerships to identify and solve health problems
• Develop policies and plans that support individual and community health efforts
• Recognize the importance of the enforcement of laws and regulations necessary to protect health and ensure safety
• Link people to needed personal health services and assure the provision of health care when otherwise unavailable
• Evaluate effectiveness, accessibility, and quality of personal and population-based health services
• Research for new insights and innovative solutions to health problems

The M.P.H. program at Georgia Southern University is committed to producing public health practitioners that possess the knowledge, skills, and values necessary to produce an effective public health workforce.

Areas of Concentration

The M.P.H. Program offers students the opportunity to specialize their training in five program concentration areas:

• Biostatistics
• Community Health
• Environmental Health Sciences
• Epidemiology
• Health Policy & Management Program