Health Policy & Management

The practicum requirement provides special opportunities for learning which are different from, supportive of, and supplementary to the more didactic aspects of the MPH program. These special opportunities enhance and enrich the students' educational experience and outcomes.

The overall purpose of the practicum experience is to provide an opportunity for students to utilize and expand their substantive public health policy and management knowledge and skills in a field setting that could include: program design, implementation, management, and evaluation; policy development, implementation, and analysis; research data collection, analysis, and reporting; and health advocacy. Hospital internship placements offer students the opportunity to accompany high level administrators, participate in strategic planning meetings, and work on specific management project.

During the practicum, students will:

• Apply learning to distinct, coherent practicum projects focusing on a specific area of public health policy and management; and
• Provide host sites with valuable materials, services, analyses, and/or research that relates directly to the ongoing activities and mission of the site.

The practicum benefits students by offering opportunities to:

• Conceptually integrate classroom and real-world experiences.
• Help establish career goals by providing a transition from theory to practice.
• Experience apprenticeship training not often available on the job.
• Gain exposure to a variety of healthcare organizations.
• Gain confidence, competence, and satisfaction in completing individual projects, and achieve insight into personal skills and attributes.

A variety of experiential approaches may be used to achieve these objectives. The one essential ingredient of the practicum is that it be tailored to fit the educational needs and goals of each student.