Public Health Degree

Public health is a career worth considering because professionals don’t just focus on treating the sick, but also on keeping those that are healthy from becoming ill. Public health is concerned with reducing common health risks, such as substance abuse, environmental hazards, or highly contagious and life-threatening diseases. In addition to being an altruistic career, public health is a diverse avenue because it has a variety of jobs to take an interest in. 

Public Health Degree Description

A public health education starts at the undergraduate level. It’s rare to find an associate’s or bachelor’s public health degree, but it’s important to use your undergraduate career as a foundation for what you’ll learn later in your public health schools. Because there are so many different areas of public health to specialize in, including nutrition, epidemiology, environmental health, health education, and others, you may choose to focus your undergraduate public health degree on one or more of these topics. If you’re unsure where you think you might like to take your public health career, a degree in health care administration would be equally as helpful once you get to graduate school.  Students enrolled in public health schools at the graduate level will receive public health education in a variety of health care subjects. You’ll learn the methods used to prevent disease contraction and epidemiology, bio hazards and health concerns, environmental issues, public health education, and other large public health concerns. Gaining acceptance into these public health schools can be challenging, as you need to provide recommendations and a solid GRE score, but it’s a necessary step in your public health education because most jobs require at least a master’s degree. 

Public Health Careers

Choosing where to focus your studies while earning your public health degree can be difficult, but if you’re able to pinpoint certain topics that interest you more than others, you can start down your career path as early as high school. Behavioral science or health education is about teaching the public the right way to take care of themselves. This could include physical education classes, as well as classes about safe sex habits and the dangers of substance abuse. Environmental health focuses on keeping the environment safe by reducing the amount of chemicals in the air, toxic spills and disposal management, and other biological concerns. Epidemiology involves the study of infectious and dangerous diseases, especially on preventative measures as well as containment procedures should the disease start to spread. This field uses biostatistics to analyze the possible repercussions if a disease were to escalate; for example, calculating numbers of potential casualties. Health services administrators are in charge of managing resources and deciding which efforts require the most funding and attention. International health experts concern themselves with hazardous diseases or materials from regions around the world and how to prevent their spread. These experts may also be concerned with reducing starvation and malnutrition globally.  Those that choose to specialize in maternal and child health, focus their expertise on keeping pregnant women healthy and promoting a safe birth. If you’re especially interested in the scientific aspects of public health, public health laboratory practice could be a potential fit for you. These professionals analyze bacterial and viral specimen to determine their compositions and help to prevent the spread of disease or to find a cure. Students interested in law or politics may choose a career in public health policy, which defines and upholds laws that are designed to keep the public safe.