Practicum for Public Health Practice Students
All M.P.H students who matriculated in the fall semester 2007 and thereafter are required to complete a practicum as part of their degree requirement, and will receive three credits for the practicum. The minimum time for a practice experience is 200 hours. However, individuals with evidence of 3 years of experience and currently employed fulltime in public health or health care setting practice would be given 80 hours credit toward the practicum. This credit would reduce the minimum practice requirement to 120 hours. Practice experiences may be paid or unpaid. Placements are found by the student and approved by the Practicum instructor.
Scope of Work: The below questions (1-4) need to be answered before signing up for PUBHLTH 698P – PHP Practicum and sent to the faculty mentor (TBA).
1. What type of educational or professional experience are you seeking during your practicum? Is there a specific content area of interest (environmental, occupational, communicable disease, cancer, reproductive, nutritional, etc.)?
2. List your goals for the practicum. Examples of typical goals:
By the end of this Practicum, I will have: (Important: The below goals are only examples.)
- Applied occupational hygiene risk assessment methods in exposure assessments.
- Evaluated the effectiveness of a community health program.
- Assisted in the design of an epidemiological study.
- Assisted in the analysis of a public health data set.
- Assisted in the analysis of public health surveillance data.
- Participated in field activities associated with a public health research or surveillance.
Assisted in the analysis of organizational systems or health policy process.
3. What type of organization or setting do you want to work in that will provide you with the kind of educational & professional experiences you would like (hospital, health department, research group, federal agency, etc.)?
For OnLine MPH Public Health Practice students you have the options of implementing your Practicum at the organization you work for as long as the following guidelines are followed:
- A practicum at an organization where you are already employed usually means you will implement a public health project within this organization. You can do this but working on a public health project that already exists or design your own small project and implement it. The major learning theme for the practicum is to receive practical work experience in public health and utilize your classroom knowledge.
- The practicum cannot be part of your job description at present. It has to be something new that will help you learn the goals you development.
- It can be accomplished during your normal working hours but again it has to be something new.
- You will need to find someone in the organization to supervise (or more likely) advise you. (See attached form: Site Supervisor Evaluation for OnLine Public Health Practice)
4. Concentration Specific Competencies
Your practicum should allow for as many of the below concentration-specific competencies learned in the academic program to a public health setting:
- Describe origins of current health care dilemmas
- Implement best practices in community approaches to health promotion
- Apply epidemiological methods
- Design research protocols and interpret findings from research studies
- Employ appropriate methods for analysis of data
- Explain the influence of environmental factors on the public’s health
- Summarize regulations and laws in public health
- Design planning and evaluation procedures
5. You will need to sign up for PUBHLTH 698P- PHP Practicum for 3 credits. IMPORTANT: The practicum will be graded pass/fail (SAT/UNSAT). The pre-requisites for this course are: PUBHLTH 540, PUBHLTH 565, PUBHLTH 601, PUBHLTH 620, and PUBHLTH 630.
6. Upon completion of the Practicum the attached form/paper will need to be submitted by email to the faculty mentor (TBA) (see attached: Student Evaluation of for OnLine PHP Students)
For any questions or comments, please direct them to: MaryBeth Lizek at: phonline@schoolph.umass.edu.
Thank you.
Dr. Daniel S. Gerber
Director of the OnLine Public Health Practice Program
Printable word document: Practicum for Public Health Practice Students.doc
Printable word document: Site Supervisor Evaluation for Public Health Practice.doc
Printable word document: Student Evaluation of the Practicum Form.doc
