MPH - Public Health

Course used to facilitate MPH orientation.

This course provides an overview of the major social and behavioral factors relevant to public health. Students will explore various health problems and investigate how social and behavioral issues impact both the individual and public health. Major theories of behavior change and their application to public health interventions are introduced. Finally, community dynamics and their influence on both onset and management of public health issues are also discussed. Prerequisite: MPH-540

This course explores the principal health problems of the world's population and the major challenges to improving health at the rural and global level in resource-constrained and marginalized communities. It explores factors that result in unequal distribution of health and disease services int he world. The course will incorporate knowledge and views from multiple academic disciplines (public health, economics, politics, management, sociology, etc,) and does not require background knowledge in global health.

This is an introduction to the field of epidemiology that focuses upon basic epidemiological definitions, common courses of data, and measures of disease occurrent and epidemiological study designs. Epidemiological processes of both chronic and infectious diseases are discussed. Practical skills such as calculation of rates, estimating risks and evaluation of public health screening programs are also included.

This is a core course for graduate students in the IWU-Public Health Program (MPH). This course will focus on addressing the core competencies and basics principles, structures, and practices in public health. The course introduces the MPH students to the rationale, history, and development of public health in the United States.

This is a core course for graduate students in the IWU-Public Health program. The course covers basic epidemiological concepts and methods, and demonstrates how these can be applied to improve population health. The course focuses on basic epidemiological definitions, measures of disease occurrence, and epidemiological study designs. Practical skills for public health practice, including calculation of rates, estimation or risks, and evaluation of public health screening programs, surveillance systems, and field investigations. Students will also learn about applications of epidemiologic principles to infectious diseases and chronic diseases, identifying sources of data, and how to interpret published epidemiological literature.

This course will provide graduate Health Sciences students a comprehensive exploration and sound understanding of the origins and applications of diverse research methods used in the health sciences, with an emphasis on selecting and applying appropriate research designs. It includes an overview of the scientific methods and the various research paradigms in current use.

This course is designed to introduce students to environmental health, a core public health discipline. Course content will focus on introducing major sources of physical, chemical, and biological agents that pose a threat to the environment and how those agents influence the health of the public. The ability of prevention programs, intervention strategies and governmental policies and regulations to control environmental issues will also be discussed. Prerequisite: MPH-540, MPH-560, IPE-545

This course will serve as a continuation of the Research Methods I course. This course will cover measurement theory and the use of techniques such as factor analysis to validate measurement scales, risk and sensitivity analysis, qualitative research, and mixed methods designs. In addition, the course will continue to develop the student's ability to produce a research proposal by expanding the previous semester project to include methodological sections of a research proposal.

The Public Health Practicum is a supervised practice experience in which MPH students perform assigned tasks under the supervision of a professional mentor to address real-world national public health objectives. These tasks must represent work that is of value to the preceptor's organization. The Host Organization may be a state or local public health department, another government agency that is engaged in public health tasks, a non-profit community service organization, or a hospital or other healthcare agency so long as that agency is engaged in public health endeavors and not exclusively in patient care. Prerequisite: MPH students will be eligible to enroll in MPH-610 Public Health Practicum after successfully completing four out of the five MPH core courses: MPH-560, MPH-510, IPE-545, MPH-570, and MPH-620

This course provides an overview of public policy interventions within the various domains of public health, the motivations for undertaking them, and the influence of the political and social environments in which policy decisions are made. Students examine the development, implementation, and evaluation of healthcare policies and law and their impact on the delivery of health services and the promise of public health. The students learn about healthcare policy foundations and social justice frameworks that apprise the understanding of the determinants of disparities in population health and healthcare systems.

This course provides a macro-level study of healthcare systems including delivery, integration, reimbursement mechanisms, multi-organizational and inter-organizational arrangements, health policies, and future solutions. This course also provides a general overview of leadership, management, and organizational principles in the healthcare sector. Through readings, case studies, online discussion boards, written assignments, and problem-based learning, students learn the basic principles and skills needed to lead and manage a healthcare organization.

This is an advanced epidemiology course designed to expand on topics from the introduction to epidemiology course and introduce new material, including a practical guide to the EPI-INFO software, logistic regression methods, and an introduction to field epidemiology. Areas of additional emphasis will include the evaluation of epidemiological surveillance systems, identification of threats to validity and sources of bias, and topics on the epidemiology of infectious and chronic diseases. Prerequisite: MPH-530.

The course provides an overview of rural communities, rural health disparities, and rural health delivery systems. It identifies federal, state, and local official health organizations and their role in the intergovernmental health system in the U.S. It discusses the need for a stronger public health leadership presence. The course highlights illustrative public health problems, diseases, and risk factors and the role of public health as an intervening agent.

This course examines the health risk factors, prevention challenges, and socio-cultural healthcare approaches creating disparities among diverse populations in the United States. This course addresses practical guidelines for incorporating cultural competencies in public health settings among diverse populations, as recommended by the National Public Health goals to achieve health equity, reduce disparities, and improve population health.

Students explore the fundamental concepts and techniques of planning, implementing and evaluating public health programs. It covers concepts that are relevant to evaluation of health, social and behavioral interventions in the community settings. These include program interventions, implementation and impact evaluation concepts, models, indicator development, methods of practice, data collection, analysis and interpretation strategies. The course investigates the role of planning and evaluation in improving program implementation, management and outcomes. Prerequisite: MPH-540, MPH-560, IPE-545, MPH-620

The capstone is a scholarly project to demonstrate competency attainment in public health practice. The student will synthesize and integrate knowledge acquired in the MPH coursework and other learning experience and apply theory and principles to public health professional practice. The capstone project addresses a tangible public health problem. Students will demonstrate their mastery of the body of knowledge acquired from MPH program coursework and demonstrate proficiency in the required Public Health core competencies through the applications of theory and principles to "real world" public health issues and concerns. The project is conducted under the supervision of a faculty advisor. Prerequisite: MPH students will be eligible to initiate their capstone project learning experience after successful completion of the following MPH core courses: MPH-560, MPH-510, IPE-545, MPH-570, MPH-620, IPE-565, IPE-605, MPH-610.