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Overview of the MPH Program

The School of Public Health offers several areas of study within its MPH Program. The Department of Biostatistics offers an MPH degree to students who hold a doctoral level degree in another field (e.g., M.D., Ph.D., J.D.) or are currently working on such a doctoral degree. The Epidemiology Department offers programs in Epidemiology, International Health, Maternal & Child Health, Nutritional Sciences and the Institute for Public Health Genetics. The Department of Global Health offers program in Global Health and the Peace Corps Masters International. The Health Services Department offers programs in Maternal & Child Health, Community Medicine, Health Policy and Research, Health Policy and Planning, Social & Behavioral Sciences, and the Extended Degree Program. The Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences offers program in Occupational and Environmental Medicine Residency program and Environmental and Occupational Health. All MPH students are required to complete a practicum project. The overall responsibility for ensuring that students have met the requirements for completion of the practicum lies with the Department/program.The goal of the MPH practicum is to provide students the opportunity to use knowledge and skills acquired in the academic program in a practice agency or environment, under the direction of a supervisor in an agency different from their academic advisor or their job supervisor. The practicum also affords an opportunity to develop and apply certain competencies (see Appendix D) that tend not to be well developed in academic coursework. Examples include the development of communication skills, political awareness and understanding of public and private financing mechanisms, and understanding organizational behavior, leadership ability and group process skills.

The MPH Degree
The Master of Public Health is a professional or practitioner-oriented degree that emphasizes the improvement of policy and practice. The field practicum is an integral component of professional training in public health and is required of all MPH students.

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The Field Practicum

Purpose
The goal of the MPH Practicum is to provide students the opportunity to use knowledge and skills acquired in the academic program in a practice agency or environment, under the direction of a supervisor in the agency different from their academic advisor or their job supervisor. The practicum also affords an opportunity to develop and apply certain competencies that tend not to be well developed in academic coursework. Examples include the development of leadership ability and group process skills, political awareness and communication skills, understanding of public and private financing mechanisms, and understanding organizational behavior.

It is each student's responsibility to find, arrange, and complete a satisfactory field experience that fulfills program requirements. The faculty, departments and the school can and will assist you, but the student retains the final responsibility. Faculty advisors are not expected to find placements. One of the benefits of this process is that each student will learn to contact and communicate with professionals in the field.

Objectives
All students enrolled in the MPH program are expected to complete a field practicum experience in an organization, agency, or community that provides planning or services relevant to public health. The objectives of the practicum are:

  • to provide students with practical field experience in an organization, agency, or community that provides planning or services relevant to public health
  • to help students further develop skills or competencies learned in the academic program by applying them in a public health practice setting
  • to provide a means for acquiring practical skills that are useful to public health professions and are not available through academic instruction
  • to link academic training to the core functions of public health practice as described in the Washington State Public Health Improvement Plan
  • to understand the political, economic, social and organizational context within which public health activities are conducted
  • to gain exposure to an organizational and/or community context for public health activities

A field practicum experience could serve as the basis for both the practicum and a thesis. However, neither requirement should be diluted simply to allow them to be combined. Stated another way, a field setting could suggest a line of research that might lead to a thesis topic, or begin the process, but combining the practicum and a thesis is neither required nor expected.

Practicum Requirements:
Washington State Background Check, Self Disclosure and Immunization Requirements
To comply with Washington State law regarding the Child/Adult Abuse Information Act, all students must complete a Washington State Patrol Criminal History Background Check and a criminal self-disclosure form for the MPH practicum. All students in Health Sciences must meet immunization requirements developed by the University of Washington Health Sciences Center. Students must ensure that the immunizations and skin tests are current during the first quarter of enrollment in the MPH program as well as prior to the practicum placement. Program student coordinators must have a student’s complete, up-to-date immunization information on file before the student will be allowed to participate in the practicum.

MPH Practicum Learning Contract
The MPH Practicum Learning Contract serves as a proposal for the project and outlines work to be undertaken during the field placement. The student works with the Site Supervisor and with a Faculty Advisor in developing the MPH Practicum Learning Contract. The MPH Practicum Leraning Contract must be completed and returned to the MPH Practicum Coordinator before beginning the field practicum.

Affiliation Agreement/Statement of Understanding/or student specific Letter of Understanding
One of these agreements will be completed for all MPH practicum sites. This legal agreement between the University of Washington, School of Public Health and the Site, outlines expectations as to the conduct of all parties, the resources to be provided and the liability to be assumed. The agreements must be initiated prior to students beginning their field-based placement. The MPH practicum coordinator will initiate the correct agreement with sites with information from the MPH Practicum Learning Contract.

Additional Information:
Car Insurance Coverage for UW Students – Office of Risk Management
The student’s personal insurance is the primary source of liability coverage, and the UW would cover the student only if the student’s personal policy is exhausted. The student should contact their personal auto liability carrier. The student’s personal insurance is the only source of coverage for damage to their vehicle.

As for rental cars, unless coverage is provided under the State Automobile Rental Agreement, whoever rents the vehicle must accept the CDW offered by the rental company. See UW Operations Manual D14.1, Section 3 for full details. Also, see the Car Insurance Coverage chart - http://www.washington.edu/admin/travel/car.insurance.html

Human Subjects Review
If students are uncertain as to whether their practicum will require a Human Subjects review, it is recommended that they consult their faculty advisor.

When is a Human Subjects Review Required?
Many times clinicians, teachers, faculty or staff have duties that involve interviews, and yet projects are not research. For example, a department may want to evaluate a program. Or a faculty member may conduct evaluation procedures for an agency. However, the intent of the department of faculty member is not to collect data that will be published as research.If a student is requested to conduct interviews or focus groups as part of their training, it is not necessarily research. However, some students conduct interviews or focus groups with dual purposes: to perform assigned tasks as part of a training program, and to use the data collected for the research component of their master’s program. Then it is research. The intent of the student is to gather data for the purposes of research. Often the student/investigator will design study instruments or interview protocols to address their hypothesis. Participants should be informed about the research and offer consent, and the project should have Human Subjects review. The critical factor is whether the student is doing “solely” public health practice versus doing “both” public health practice and research. If the latter is the case, then Human Subjects review is required.

Site Criteria:
The practicum site enables the student to develop further and apply specific skills or competencies learned in the academic program (e.g., assessment, program planning, evaluation, management, data analysis, policy development, etc.)

  • The site provides a supervisor who is willing and able to spend regularly scheduled time with the student and provide guidance. In addition, the site supervisor should have a population health perspective.
  • The site should afford the student regular/daily contact with public health practitioners.
  • The site supervisor exhibits a willingness to increase student responsibility and independence gradually over the duration of the practicum experience.
  • The site exhibits a willingness to provide support, such as a desk and a phone, to stipends or salary, transportation and lodging when appropriate.
  • The site is a good match with the needs of the student.
  • The site offers a uniquely valuable experience.

Summary of Requirements
The practicum may be taken at any time after the student has completed their first quarter in the program. This allows the student to complete preliminary coursework in the understanding of the core functions of public health (assessment, policy development, and assurance) prior to beginning the fieldwork placement. The practicum project may be undertaken as a single block of time or may be spread over one or more quarters. Recognizing that this is practical experience as opposed to academic coursework, one 40-hour week (FTE) earns one course credit.

Students are required to complete a minimum of 120 hours of practical fieldwork in a public health practice setting. It is 120 hours of fieldwork at/or for the site. The 120 hours does not include technical aspects of the practicum requirements such as completing the Practicum Agreement with the site supervisor and getting the required signatures. The 120 hours does not include the work students need to do to create their poster and written assignment.

All MPH students, (Occupational Medicine, Preventive Medicine (Madigan) and Extended Degree Program, see above) must complete a minimum of three (3) credits, BIOST 595 (Master’s Practicum), EPI 595 (Masters Practicum), ENVH 599 (Field Studies), GH595 (Masters Practicum), HSERV 595 (Fieldwork in Community Health), NUTR 595 (Nutritional Sciences Master’s Practicum) and PHG 595 (Public Health Genetics Master's Practicum) to satisfy the MPH practicum requirement. A maximum of 6 credits of practicum may be taken with faculty advisor's approval. Students are required to register for the minimum three (3) credits, 120 hours the first time they register for the practicum.

Grading
Field practicum is graded credit/no credit. Final grades will be reported only when the required written assignment and Power Point poster is completed and received.

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Please direct all questions regarding the practicum program to:

Rene' M. Lucas, MPH Practicum Coordinator
Dean's Office
School of Public Health
Box 357230
University of Washington
Seattle, WA 98195-7230
(206) 685-8904