600

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.