(Page 2 of 2)
Far more than an academic discipline, public health is a set of skills that can be fruitfully applied to a variety of fields. The value of public health training extends not only to directly health-related fields like health administration, healthcare economics, and social work, but also to careers in law, business, and politics – fields in which people often adopt a perspective of populations rather than individuals, and in which issues of public health lie at the center of major cases, contracts, and controversies. Furthermore, the critical thinking, quantitative ability, and computer skills developed in epidemiology are in widespread demand.
As long ago as 1978, Dr. David Lilienfeld published a model for an undergraduate program in public health. Since that time, however, no consensus has emerged about how effectively to institute such a course of study. Instead, different schools have adopted different approaches. Some universities locate public health programs within a variety of existing graduate departments. Others, like the University of Michigan, offer students a combined BS/MPH degree, easing the transition from undergraduate studies to an MPH program and reducing the time needed to fulfill both degrees. Since the Council on Education for Public Health does not evaluate any of these undergraduate programs, and since no other national body exists to standardize or accredit them, many schools have been hesitant to invest in designing a major.
George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services (GWSPHHS) is perhaps the sole institution attempting to develop a liberal arts undergraduate major in public health. In designing the new major, GW has decided that undergraduate public health education should not merely replicate graduate courses at an introductory level, but should rather possess its “own goals and strategies.” The GW major attempts to combine the critical analysis of social sciences and humanities with the traditional quantitative focus of science course work. To satisfy this breadth of focus, all students begin the major with an introduction to the study of public health as well as a course in the history and philosophy of public health, which helps students situate public health in a larger intellectual context. In the last semester before graduation, students are encouraged to take a seminar on case study analysis.
George Washington intends its model not to be a feeder into graduate programs of public health, but rather to be a “pre-professional degree program” compatible with a variety of graduate studies, from medicine to business. While the “challenge of articulating both graduate and undergraduate course work” may be daunting, it is not impossible. Business, international affairs, and many other disciplines have already devised strategies for allowing students to pursue graduate and undergraduate training without repeating course work. At Yale, the School of Public Health has recently worked with faculty from the School of Arts and Sciences to consider a combined five-year BS/ MPH degree. The concept program builds on Yale’s impressive pedigree as the first university to establish a graduate school of public health. Since 1915, the School of Public Health has been at the forefront of both academic and professional public health innovation. Now, as public health increasingly attracts undergraduate interest, Yale is exploring the most effective means of allowing undergraduates to participate in public health studies.
Undergraduate education in public health is now on the national agenda. As the Association of Schools of Public Health stated last year, “Undergraduate public health education is already flowering and is about to bear fruit, and it will soon be the season for national discussion of the goals and strategies for undergraduate public health education.” In order more effectively to combat future natural disasters, human violence, and health inequalities across the globe, the world will need a core of highly trained public health professionals. If Yale takes advantage of having one of America’s leading schools of public health, it can create a benchmark undergraduate program that will attract interest nationwide.
Lindsay Hayden is a junior in Pierson College and Assistant Publisher of PH.
<<Previous | 1 | 2