About MPH Degrees
What type of training does an MPH degree provide?
Public health has a broad mission to create and provide the expertise, information,
and tools that people and communities need to protect their health. Key aspects of
public health include community health promotion, preventing disease, disability, and
injury, and ensuring we are prepared for new health threats. Providing public health
services is a core function of government, through national, state, and local health
agencies. Public health commonly collaborates with other medical care providers, and
with non-health sectors to accomplish its mission. Appropriate for the broad mission
of public health, its workforce includes health professionals from almost every profession
associated with health services, as well as from some professions outside of health.
The Master of Public Health (MPH) degree is the degree most closely associated with
expertise in public health practice. The educational content of an MPH degree varies
substantially from program to program. A school of public health typically offers several
different MPH degrees, e.g., in epidemiology, international health, environmental health,
or community health promotion. MPH degrees offered by individual departments in a
university often provide focused or specialized training in a particular area of public
health.
What factors should influence my decision to apply for an MPH degree?
There are many factors to be considered, but a few stand out.
Factors
- The MPH degree is for people interested in public health practice. Other degrees are
more appropriate for people interested in public health research.
- Public health practice (and training) requires quantitative skills, particularly in
statistics. These skills are necessary to understand the scientific research which guides
public health practice, and to do public health projects like: assessing the health needs
of a community, evaluating a health promotion initiative, and interpreting data from public
health surveillance systems.
- The MPH degree provides training in population-level approaches to protecting health.
Other degrees are more appropriate for people interested in individual level approaches to
protecting health, e.g., by providing medical services to individual patients in a clinic.
- Advancement to leadership positions in a public health career generally requires a
masters or doctoral degree.
What types of careers area available to MPH graduates?
There are a wide range of careers open to MPH graduates. MPH graduates find work in the
public sector, the not-for-profit sector, and the private sector. Obviously, graduates
commonly work in state or local health departments. MPH graduates work as providers of
population-based preventive services in for-profit medical care organizations, and can
find jobs in worksite health promotion programs. They work in non-profit organizations,
such as health foundations or community service organizations. Some careers merge MPH
training with another professional degree. A person with a degree in urban planning may
obtain an MPH degree, so as to understand how to design communities which facilitate a
healthy lifestyle.