Public Health Department M.P.H. Competencies
MPH Competencies
Graduates of the Master of Public Health program will be able to contribute in meaningful ways in more advanced positions to the conduct and advancement of the ten essential services of public health, which include:
1. Monitor health status to identify community health problems.
2. Diagnose and investigate health problems and health hazards in the community.
3. Inform, educate, and empower people about health issues.
4. Mobilize community partnerships to identify and solve health problems.
5. Develop policies and plans that support individual and community health efforts.
6. Enforce laws and regulations that protect health and ensure safety.
7. Link people to needed personal health services and assure the provision of health
care when otherwise unavailable.
8. Assure a competent public health and personal healthcare workforce.
9. Evaluate effectiveness, accessibility, and quality of personal and population-based
health services.
10. Research for new insights and innovative solutions to health problems.
These contributions will be enabled by a broad knowledge base and specific skill sets appropriate to twelve areas of study important to public health practice.
A. Biostatistics
Able to apply statistical reasoning and methods in addressing, analyzing and solving
problems in public health.
B. Environmental Health Sciences
Able to identify important environmental factors, (including biological, physical
and chemical), affecting the health of a community.
C. Epidemiology
Able to delineate patterns of disease and injury in human populations and to apply
the understanding to the control of health problems.
D. Health Policy and Management
Able to affect the delivery, quality, financing and costs of health care for individuals
and populations through managerial and policy actions.
E. Social and Behavioral Sciences
Able to identify behavioral, social and cultural factors related to individual and
population health and health disparities over the life course and to apply such knowledge
to the development, administration and evaluation of programs and policies in public
health and health services to promote and sustain healthy environments and healthy
lives for individuals and populations.
F. Communication and Informatics
Able to collect, manage and organize data to produce information and meaning that
is exchanged by use of signs and symbols; to gather, process, and present information
to different audiences in-person, through information technologies, or through media
channels; and to strategically design the information and knowledge exchange process
to achieve specific objectives.
G. Diversity and Culture
Able to interact with diverse individuals and communities to produce or impact an
intended public health outcome.
H. Leadership
Able to create and communicate a shared vision for a changing future; champion solutions
to organizational and community challenges; and energize commitment to goals.
I. Public Health Biology
Able to incorporate public health biology - the biological and molecular context
of public health - into public health practice.
J. Professionalism
Able to demonstrate ethical choices, values and professional practices implicit in
public health decisions; consider the effect of choices on community stewardship,
equity, social justice and accountability.
K. Program Planning
Able to plan for the design, development, implementation, and evaluation of strategies
to improve individual and community health.
L. Systems Thinking
Able to recognize system level properties that result from dynamic interactions among
human and social systems and how they affect the relationships among individuals,
groups, organizations,communities,and environments.