All students must submit a minimum of two products produced in the practicum setting for the practicum organization that demonstrate the attainment of five MPH Foundational Competencies.
Practicum-Appropriate Activities
Practicum Appropriate Site Products
Practicum-Appropriate Activities
Practicum activities must allow for application of graduate-level public health skills and be public health practice, applied research, and/or policy focused. Below are examples of practicum activities:
Analysis and Assessment
- Analyze, interpret, or summarize available data to help the Site disseminate community-based public health intervention strategies.
- Describe how data are or can be used to address scientific, political, ethical, or social public health problems the Site is tackling.
- Conduct a cost-effectiveness, cost-benefit, or cost utility analysis based on available data to inform decision-making on the Site’s programs and initiatives that aim to reduce health disparities in communities.
- Use community profile reports to compare rates of health outcomes in one community to those of similar size and characteristics across the state to inform health policy.
- Develop a feasibility analysis model to assess new program proposals or programs in need of revision to better address current public health challenges.
Policy Development and Program Planning
- Identify mechanisms to monitor and evaluate current practices at the Site in addressing its public health mission.
- Interpret current public health laws and regulations governing public health programs to support new program proposal and implementation.
- Identify policy development strategies from a scoping review of literature published on specific public health issues.
- Identify strategies to determine budget priorities based on new/current public health program needs.
Communication and Advocacy
- Contribute to community recovery plan in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic.
- Create fact sheets/briefs/web-based tools/social marketing campaigns/training materials to disseminate public health research results and interpret ongoing research for the public.
- Create education or advocacy tools such as online community forums or webinars to help local residents stay informed and engaged in public health work.
- Contribute public health communication and advocacy work through community advisory board meetings, ongoing committee assignments, and ad hoc working groups.
Practicum-Appropriate Site Products
Site products are tangible outputs from the student’s practicum experience, supervised by a Site Supervisor with expertise in the practicum project area, and must demonstrate attainment of five MPH Foundational Competencies.
The following are practicum site products that UWSPH students completed in recent years:
- Design a program evaluation for an Indigenous community health worker program aimed at increasing breastfeeding rates and knowledge on tribal reservations nationally. (Patanjali de la Rocha)
- Collaborate with the Colombian NGO Sinergias to review and evaluate the routes of attention for victims of Gender-Based Violence (GBV) from indigenous tribes in the Colombian Amazon. (Edgar Jose Calderon)
- Developed an organizational theory of change to communicate both internally and externally the resources, strategies, activities, outcomes, and goals of the Health Tanzania Foundation. (Haley Millet)
- Lead development of a communications strategy for the upcoming launch of the WHO World Report on Hearing. (Paige Stringer)
- Build a case for expanding the harm reduction services within the Whatcom County Health Department's Syringe Exchange Program, highlighting the community needs and the progressive actions the program is introducing to the community. (Thomas McAuliffe)
- Build out the communications for the dissemination of a scenario-based planning tool developed in collaboration between the PATH market dynamics and cervical cancer teams.(Michelle Shin)
- Develop a countywide Disaster Recovery Plan for Boone County, a small rural health department in northern Illinois. (Kate Pedersen)
- Create a toolkit for advanced practice clinicians to utilize when starting the process of integrating care for early pregnancy loss into their practice. (Sara Magnusson)
- Developed a toolkit for wildfire smoke communication in the state of Washington as a member of the Wildfire Smoke Impacts Advisory Group. (Kaitlyn Kelly)
- Develop prenatal care education tools that are catered to the needs of the rural community of Armenia Village and the skills of the community health workers. (Grant Donovan)
- Start a quality improvement project for the care of animal workers with occupational allergies at the Healthy Animal Worker Clinic at Harborview Medical Center. (Marine de Marcken)
- Coordinate a county-level healthy eating policy committee and collaborate with communities on developing a potential nutrition-focused health policy with the Healthy Eating, Active Living unit at Public Health - Seattle & King County. (Sara Woolcock)
- Implement social emotional learning strategies within the cafeteria to foster a supportive environment with improved behavior changes. (Kelsey Kinderknecht)
- Collaborate with a health literacy special interest group at a clinic to hold educational sessions for patients on various health care topics, such as on medications, to improve health literacy and provider patient empowerment in their own health care. (Kristin Linzmeyer)