Undergraduate Public Health Education: 4-Year Colleges
An article in Community College Journal1 has recommended prototype Associate degrees in public health. The prototypes all include the following three components:
Core Public Health Curricula
All of the prototypes are built on core curriculum in public health designed as part of general education. The core courses are:
The Association of American Colleges and Universities' Recommendations for Undergraduate Public Health Education encourages the development of public health studies built upon core public health curricula such as "Public Health 101", "Epidemiology 101" and " Global Health 101". Professional degrees such as those leading to certification as a Health Educator or an Environmental Health Specialist should also incorporate the core "101" curriculum.
Public health studies may include minors and/or majors in public health. Public health studies can include core curricula, introductory specialty curriculum, electives, experiential learning, and integrative synthesis curricula. Public health studies should take an academic generalist focus which complements the specialty focus of graduate public health curricula.
Undergraduate public health studies, either minors or majors, may lead to graduate public health education, clinical health professions education, as well as graduate education in law, business, international affairs and careers in a wide array of other fields. In addition it should prepare students for entry level positions in the public health workforce.
Minors in public health generally are 18 to 21 semester hours and should include core curricula, selected public health specialty courses and a limited choice of electives. Experiential learning such as community-based service learning is encouraged.
Majors should include all of the above plus a full spectrum of specialty courses covering all the key disciplines of public health. Cross-cutting or integrative curriculum as well as capstone or synthesis experiences are also encouraged.
The following demonstrates how textbooks in the Essential Public Health series can be used to develop public health studies.
Public Health Core–all three for Minors and for Majors
Public Health 101–Riegelman or Essentials of Public Health–Turnock
Epidemiology 101–Friis
Global Health 101–Skolnik plus Millions Saved-Levine
Public Health Specialty Courses–Minor Select 2, Majors take all
Health Policy–Teitelbaum/Wilensky
Health Services Management and Economics–Burke/Friedman or Dewar
Environmental Health–Friis
Health Behavior–Edberg
Biostatistics–Sullivan
Public Health Biology–Battle
Electives
Public Health Communication–Parvanta et. al
Infectious Disease Epidemiology–Magnus
Community Health–J. Gofin/ R. Gofin
For more information on these book go to www.essentialpublichealth.com
In the fall of 2010 Healthy People 2020 is expected to announce a Healthy People 2020 objective to increase the proportion of four-year colleges that offer minors and/or majors in public health.
Next: Additional Resources for Undergraduate Public Health Education »
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