scholarly journals Future directions of Doctor of Public Health education in the United States: a qualitative study

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chulwoo Park ◽  
Gene Migliaccio ◽  
Mark Edberg ◽  
Seble Frehywot ◽  
Geralyn Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Teaching Practice ◽  
Public Health Education ◽  
The United States ◽  
Public Health Research ◽  
Leadership Education ◽  
Academic Program ◽  
Unique Character ◽  
The Future

Abstract Background The Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) degree is an advanced and terminal professional degree that prepares the future workforce to engage in public health research, teaching, practice, and leadership. The purpose of the present research was to discuss the desirable future direction and optimal education strategies for the DrPH degree in the United States. Methods A total of 28 Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH)-accredited DrPH programs in the United States was identified through the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH) Academic Program Finder. Then, a qualitative analysis was conducted to obtain perspectives from a total of 20 DrPH program directors through in-depth interviews. Results A DrPH program should be recognized as equal but different from an MPH or a PhD program and strengthen the curriculum of methodology and leadership education. It is important that a DrPH program establishes specific partnerships with other entities and provide funding for students. In addition, rather than being standardized nationwide, there is value in each DrPH program maintaining its unique character and enabling students to be open to all career pathways. Conclusions The future of DrPH programs in the twenty-first century should aim at effective interdisciplinary public health approaches that draw from the best of both academic and applied sectors. A DrPH program is expected to provide academic, applied public health, and leadership training for students to pursue careers in either academia or the public/private sector, because public health is an applied social science that bridges the gap between research and practice.

scholarly journals Toward a Culture of Health in the United States: Introducing the HPP Arts in Public Health Supplement

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1_suppl) ◽  
pp. 5S-7S
Author(s):  
Jill Sonke ◽  
Lourdes Rodríguez ◽  
Melissa A. Valerio-Shewmaker
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Health Promotion ◽  
Public Health Education ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Agents Of Change ◽  
The University ◽  
Critical Public Health ◽  
Health Promotion Practice

The arts—and the arts and culture sector—offer fertile ground for achieving a culture of health in the United States. The arts and artists are agents of change and can help enable this vision and also address the most critical public health issues we are contending with, including COVID-19 and racism. The arts provide means for engaging dialogue, influencing behaviors, disrupting paradigms and fueling social movements. The arts uncover and illuminate issues. They engage us emotionally and intellectually. They challenge assumptions. They call out injustice. They drive collective action. They heal—making arts + public health collaboration very relevant in this historic moment. In this special Health Promotion Practice supplement on arts in public health, you’ll find powerful examples and evidence of how cross-sector collaboration between public health and the arts can advance health promotion goals and impacts, and make health promotion programs not only more accessible to diverse populations but also more equitable and effective in addressing the upstream systems, policies, and structures that create health disparities. You will see how the arts can empower health communication, support health literacy, provide direct and measurable health benefits to individuals and communities, and support coping and resilience in response to COVID-19. This issue itself exemplifies cross-sector collaboration, as it was created through partnership between Health Promotion Practice, the Society for Public Health Education, ArtPlace America, and the University of Florida Center for Arts in Medicine, and presents voices from across the public health, arts, and community development sectors.

scholarly journals Characteristics of Twitter Use by State Medicaid Programs in the United States: Machine Learning Approach

10.2196/18401 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (8) ◽  
pp. e18401
Author(s):  
Jane M Zhu ◽  
Abeed Sarker ◽  
Sarah Gollust ◽  
Raina Merchant ◽  
David Grande
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Machine Learning ◽  
Public Health Education ◽  
The United States ◽  
Machine Learning Algorithms ◽  
Supervised Machine Learning ◽  
Care Organization ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Mean

Background Twitter is a potentially valuable tool for public health officials and state Medicaid programs in the United States, which provide public health insurance to 72 million Americans. Objective We aim to characterize how Medicaid agencies and managed care organization (MCO) health plans are using Twitter to communicate with the public. Methods Using Twitter’s public application programming interface, we collected 158,714 public posts (“tweets”) from active Twitter profiles of state Medicaid agencies and MCOs, spanning March 2014 through June 2019. Manual content analyses identified 5 broad categories of content, and these coded tweets were used to train supervised machine learning algorithms to classify all collected posts. Results We identified 15 state Medicaid agencies and 81 Medicaid MCOs on Twitter. The mean number of followers was 1784, the mean number of those followed was 542, and the mean number of posts was 2476. Approximately 39% of tweets came from just 10 accounts. Of all posts, 39.8% (63,168/158,714) were classified as general public health education and outreach; 23.5% (n=37,298) were about specific Medicaid policies, programs, services, or events; 18.4% (n=29,203) were organizational promotion of staff and activities; and 11.6% (n=18,411) contained general news and news links. Only 4.5% (n=7142) of posts were responses to specific questions, concerns, or complaints from the public. Conclusions Twitter has the potential to enhance community building, beneficiary engagement, and public health outreach, but appears to be underutilized by the Medicaid program.

Quality Assurance in Professional Preparation of Community/Public Health Education Specialists: Contributions of SABPAC

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 62-69
Author(s):  
Ellen M. Capwell ◽  
Carol Cox ◽  
Alyson Taub ◽  
M. Elaine Auld ◽  
Elias Berhanu
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Quality Assurance ◽  
Health Education ◽  
Public Health Education ◽  
The United States ◽  
Professional Preparation ◽  
Preparation Programs ◽  
Task Forces ◽  
Education Profession

The Society for Public Health Education and American Association for Health Education Baccalaureate Program Approval Committee (SABPAC) provided a valuable service to the health education profession in the United States for 27 years. From 1987 to its sunset in 2014, SABPAC offered a voluntary process whereby undergraduate community/public health education professional preparation programs could seek review and evaluation of their programs against published national health education criteria. Those programs meeting SABPAC criteria were granted “Approval.” SABPAC approval was instituted as one way by which the health education profession could strive to promote consistent professional preparation in the field and ensure that health education graduates were prepared for contemporary workforce demands. Over the years, SABPAC chairs, committee members, and volunteers devoted countless hours reviewing self-studies and conducting on-site visits of professional preparation programs and documenting how they met SABPAC criteria and/or could enhance compliance with guidelines. Seeking SABPAC approval provided many program benefits. Recognizing that accreditation is the “gold standard” in education, the health education profession applied a thoughtful and researched process beginning in 2001 to transition from SABPAC approval to undergraduate accreditation through the Council on Education for Public Health. Three national task forces developed recommendations, conducted events to foster communication about the change, and assisted professional preparation programs to prepare for and seek the Council on Education for Public Health accreditation. This brief article documents the genesis, organization, and processes of SABPAC in the United States, until its sunset as a major contributor to quality assurance in health education for more than a quarter of a century.

scholarly journals Impact of Public Health Education Program on the Novel Coronavirus Outbreak in the United States

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Enahoro A. Iboi ◽  
Ariana Richardson ◽  
Rachel Ruffin ◽  
DeAndrea Ingram ◽  
Jailyn Clark ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Health Education ◽  
Education Program ◽  
Public Health Education ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Health Education Program ◽  
The Us ◽  
Novel Coronavirus

AbstractThe coronavirus outbreak in the United States continues to pose a serious threat to human lives. Public health measures to slow down the spread of the virus involve using a face mask, social-distancing, and frequent hand washing. Since the beginning of the pandemic, there has been a global campaign on the use of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) to curtail the spread of the virus. However, the number of cases, mortality, and hospitalization continue to rise globally, including in the United States. We developed a mathematical model to assess the impact of a public health education program on the coronavirus outbreak in the US. Our simulation showed the prospect of an effective public health education program in reducing both the cumulative and daily mortality of the novel coronavirus. Finally, our result suggests the need to obey public health measures as loss of willingness would increase the cumulative and daily mortality in the US.

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