Master in Public Health with a Specialization in Environmental and Occupational Health
Just a couple months I lost sight of all the things I hoped to accomplish as a public health professional. Recently, my family had suffered the loss of my grandmother. A month later my mother unexpectedly passed away. Losing my grandmother was hard but losing my mother was tragic. Everything I once knew to be true was gone. At that time, I began to turn my back on my hope for the future. My mother played a great role in my life. A significant role that no amount of money or time afforded would be enough to show my appreciation. My mother would shine brightest in moments like this when I felt lost and confused. She would breathe confidence and reassure me
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As the CDC states simply "Public health connects us all", years past, present and future. Public health is an all-encompassing field that does not just merely concern itself with diagnosing and treating patients. It observes, studies, researches, and mitigates the cause and effect relationships we have within our environments as well as the rest of the world. It is a field devoted to improving the lives of all. I have developed a passion and appreciation for public health because it does not merely observe end results and compute them into statistics, but reaches back in time to understand how and why. Coming from a single parent household, of a low economic status I was affected by what we as public health professionals understand to be the social determinants of health. I myself did not realize that these "determinants" existed in my personal life, nor did I understand the way they shaped the lives of everyone. Public health has played a vital role in my life since I can remember. From getting my vaccinations at the health department as a child, to the implantation of sidewalks in my neighborhood, to the banning of cigarette smoke in restaurants, to the seatbelt campaign "click it or ticket", to the free HIV education and testing offered on my college campus. Public health is fascinating and I would be honored to give to others what was so freely given to
Public health deals with the public, community, and society as a whole. It promotes and protects the health of people and the communities where they live, learn, work and play. I believe that the many leadership, teamwork, communication and community skills I have gained through NHS and FBLA, will allow me to excel in the Public Health Field. Which will, in turn, allow me to be the best I can be, enabling me to be a great positive force in my community.
The Advances in public health have been possible due to the contributions of people with ideals of change who decided to make a difference in their communities through the creation of innovative ideas capable of changing the lifestyle of a community. Public health is about helping people to stay healthy, and protecting them from that psychosocial factor that may affect their life and that is why the public health worker must have a passion for a change and for a better quality of life for their community. In the beginnings of public health there were two people who acted as agents of social change and they were Sara Josephine Baker and Clara Barton.
This impacts not only their loved ones, but also the rest of the population. Spreading cancer awareness allows others to be informed about cancers they may have not known about and possibly prevent them from happening to them in the future. Another aspect of Public Health that is very touching is the fact that they deal with suicide prevention. This is a very complicated legal situation and deals with public policies. Furthermore, helping with drug addictions was another impacting topic of Public Health. Not only is it difficult to watch a drug addict suffer on a daily basis, but also watching their families struggle emotionally. Public Health helps educate drug addicts by helping them quit the drug they are using and provide epidemics. In turn, this will allow the drug addict to quit their addiction as well as help their family’s situation get back to normal again. In conclusion, I learned that Public Health is a field in which it helps people feel happy again, teaches about health care disease, and helps change the lives of others positively. That is why the Public Health field will be an important career in the
I began volunteering at the Hope Line Resource Center to assist those in the community. This way I could assist with helping people become healthier to avoid facing the same situation my mother was in. Furthermore, I volunteer in health fairs to spread awareness of the ways people can put their body in a healthier state with Urban Health Plan. I wanted to do this to increase the community’s knowledge of how they can take control of their health. I eventually became an intern in the clinic with Urban Health Plan to have a chance to get involved in the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) department and to collaborate with pediatricians to further understand the healthcare field. What happened to my mother motivated me to get involved, which eventually taught me that we all have the ability to take care of
In the whole of the United States, the Public Health System comprises of the National, State and community, often referred to as Local agencies (Slover, 2005). As opposed to Medical Care, Public Health focuses on the promotion of health in the community. It, further, promotes and enhances prevention of diseases and injuries to the community members. As such, the primary goal of the Public Health System lies in the promotion and protection of health in the local community (Slover, 2005).
While both medical care and public health work to improve the lives of many people, there are several distinctions between the two fields. Healthcare providers such as nurses and doctors are responsible for diagnosing and treating illnesses for individual patients. The care ranges from minor injuries to severe and chronic diseases. Meanwhile, public health strives to improve the well-being of a population. Public health advocates for the overall “promotion and prevention” of diseases before it even becomes an issue for healthcare providers. Public health encourages people to adopt healthy lifestyle choices and strives to control the outbreak of diseases. Although public health is often overlooked in the grand scale of medical care, it is undoubtedly the main aspect in ensuring that the overall health of a community is prospering.
For second part of reading response, I choose to report on Promoting public understanding of public health article by our professor Stephen Bezruchka. I really enjoyed reading the article he wrote about how people in the America are being less healthy than those people in other rich nations. Promoting public awareness about this topic should be high priority for all Public Health majors. Health is the most important part of human life and it surprising to me that people in America are not really doing anything to change it. Solving this problem need individual supports and public supports.
‘Public health is everyone’s business’ illustrates Jones (2012, p.2). The Faculty of Public Health regard public health as a combination of health protection, health advancement and promoting health (Griffiths and Dark, 2006, cited in Jones, 2012, p.6).
With my older sisters away at college, the responsibility of caring for my ailing mother, suddenly fell to me, and my once picturesque childhood was at an end. I spent the early part of my adolescence learning how to run a household and play nurse to my mother. In addition to school and keeping the house in order, I administered her medications, gave injections, learned to catheterize her, helped her bath and use the restroom, and did all of the physician prescribed exercises to help with her leg cramps and numbness. When I had time I studied her disease, determined to find anything that might help alleviate her symptoms and bring the mom I remembered and craved back to me. And though she was often too far gone within her own mind to realize what was going on around her, when she was fully lucid she would smile softly and tell me what a wonderful nurse I would be when I grew up, just like she had been before the disease struck her. Looking back, I wish I could say that I preformed my duties with a smile on my face, but unfortunately that’s simply not
An executive master's in public health is designed for working professionals who want to advance into public health leadership roles. These individuals are committed to advancing their careers and acquiring the knowledge needed to become public health proponents and stakeholders. Any accredited Executive MPH program should be approved by the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH).
My unwavering interest in infectious diseases began in middle school when I read the book, The Hot Zone, by Richard Preston that intricately describes the Ebola virus. While the description of how the virus destroys the human body are unpleasant, this virus fascinated me. Consequently, in my spare time I read about other infectious diseases, such as cholera and tuberculosis, on Wikipedia and other web pages for my personal enjoyment. Years later, I participated in Princeton Model Congress in high school where I first learned about public health. Participants made mock congressional bills to be passed in a congress comprised of high school and college students in order to implement a national change. My mock bill advocated for the incorporation of HIV tests within annual physicals. The purpose of this bill was to ensure that more people became knowledgeable about their status and with this knowledge, HIV positive individuals can receive care faster and take proactive measures to prevent infecting others with this virus. As I researched various facts about the HIV epidemic and how HIV impacts communities in Washington, D.C., my interest in public health evolved even though I did not know of the official name, public health. At the time, I wanted to be a lawyer and averted from anything science or math related. Yet, I cared about my community and I wanted to make a difference. I rediscovered my interest in public health in college as a biology major.
Walking through Louisiana in the middle of summer is no picnic. Not only is the temperature sweltering, but the mosquitos are ferocious. Every year my church sponsors a missionary trip down the Tigre Bayou to vaccinate at risk communities, and to educate population centers about the importance of exercise and diet. Although the United States has some of the best doctors in the world, we have many population centers that have little to no access to medical care, which places them at risk. The healthcare disparity in the U.S.A is egregious and unfortunately is a reality in rural America. I am passionate about not only healthcare disparity, but diseases that afflict at risk populations, such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer. The purpose of this personal essay is to communicate why I would like to study public health at Campbell University, how my past education has prepared me to be a public health professional, my reasons and motivation for enrolling in a public health program and my career plans upon completion of the public health program.
The current field that is in is the Healthcare field and I’m currently seeking my associate Degree in Healthcare Management. My goal is to keep going to school until I obtain my master degree in Healthcare. I want to continue to become knowledgeable in all the aspect of healthcare so I will be able to obtain a stable career. I feel like by me doing this will always open new doors and jobs for where I will be able to use my knowledge within my field because the healthcare field is currently growing each and every day and to be honest I don’t think it will never end at
Public Health is an interesting topic. Many people may not understand the purpose of Public health, it is a fairly new field although it has been around since the 1800’s. Before being introduced to the the field, I was clueless and never knew such a subject existed. Going into college with dubious decisions on my major within the pre-med program I knew I wanted to help people and the society, but was unsure what to major in.
When I first began my college career in 2011, I was a first generation college student. I entered into college with only a vague goal of becoming a Physician’s Assistant. The most common question I was asked was why? Why a Physicians Assistant? And I my answer was always the simple standard answer of: “I want to help people”. I, undeniably, still want to help others but it was not until the Christmas of my sophomore year, that I truly understood what it meant and took to be a successful Physician’s Assistant. A few days after Christmas my mother was hospitalized for two and a half weeks with a continuous blood clot in her leg and a small blood clot in her lungs. She spent the first 3 days in ICU, required multiple blood and iron transfusions, and eventually surgery. For me, the worst part of the entire experience was being awakened in the middle of the night by nothing more than the faint whisper of my name. Till this day, I don’t know how I heard it. My mom had collapsed on the stairs in excruciating pain. She was extremely weak and unable to move. I thought I was watching my mother die, and the immediate fear and panic that I felt, still haunts me sometimes. I didn’t know what to do or what was