Public health is crucial in promoting health awareness, disease prevention, and empowering individuals to manage illnesses and disabilities. Every new health policy, health awareness campaign, and scientific breakthrough introduces advancement in the field with innovative ways to fight against diseases.
Public health brings together multidisciplinary professionals to examine the root causes of health problems and develop sustainable long-term solutions to improve the quality of life. Therefore, a degree in public health will always be well-spent, as it is a fundamental element of strong and healthy communities.
What sets public health apart from medical practitioners is that public health workers work towards minimizing and preventing diseases instead of treating them as prevention is less costly and better than cure. Public health workers research and implement positive health interventions to ensure health sustainability over the long term.
Therefore, if you plan to pursue a degree in public health, you must know why it is popular today.
Table of Contents
1. Learn about the Healthcare Dynamics
A public health degree teaches you about the structural determinants of health, policies that affect the healthcare system, and how to implement public health programming in different communities. If you are committed to social justice, a public health degree can help you make a real impact by introducing positive social change.
An online MPH degree is the best way to bring innovation to healthcare and understand the implications of social justice. Furthermore, an online program allows you to gain insights from anywhere worldwide by eliminating barriers to education and enhancing your field horizon. Therefore, no matter where you are, you will have the ability to understand how the public healthcare system works and how you can contribute to it.
For example, you may learn about the reasons for disparities in mortality rates between different countries or continents and work towards improving it by exploring resources and working with other health professionals.
2. Solve the most Critical Problems
Public health workers are the ones who are constantly working towards solving the most critical healthcare issues every day. You may face challenging healthcare problems that require immediate action. They identify crucial health risks and develop prevention plans that enable other healthcare workers to find jobs.
At the same time, they are also responsible for determining the community’s needs and finding the relevant resources for optimal and sustainable solutions. Besides, the US healthcare system is evolving from preventing infectious diseases like polio and malaria to addressing more common issues like heart disease, mental health, and obesity.
However, recently, public health workers have shifted their focus towards Covid-19, the Ebola virus, the Zika outbreak, and measles transitioning back towards infectious disease prevention. Therefore, as the world evolves and human behavior changes, so will the focus of public health.
You will need to identify the most critical problems faced by your community before implementing solutions. Therefore, new problems require innovative solutions. You will only be able to tackle them with a degree in public health.
3. Ability to Help Others
One of the biggest reasons for the popularity of a public health degree is that people are looking for ways to help others and bring real change in their communities. What better way to do that than by pursuing a degree in public health?
By working directly with communities impacted by poor healthcare, you will be able to provide help on a much larger scale with a degree. If you are skilled in social interactions, you will find career satisfaction in this field as a patient navigator or a public health educator. Even if you are an introvert, you will contribute by designing programs and conducting statistical analysis. Either way, you will be helping the community positively. By working directly with communities, you can identify health problems more closely.
4. Help Make Worldwide Impact
Public health workers do not just create an impact locally but nationally and internationally. You can participate in worldwide policy initiatives by participating in international programs and introducing the necessary public policy changes. The international programs help improve public health in underserved and underdeveloped economies.
Some public health fields work towards analyzing data and creating statistical reports on public health trends in underdeveloped economies. Other public health practitioners use these reports to develop international programs with international organizations to bring permanent change and improve the health conditions of those societies.
Suppose you are passionate about making a worldwide public health impact. In that case, you will need a master's degree in public health and language fluency since you will correspond in different languages in foreign agencies.
5. Handle Emergencies
Public health workers are at the forefront of any national health crisis or emergency. Public health workers are always on the frontline, from controlling the spread of Coronavirus and Ebola virus to handling medical waste disposal.
You may specialize in epidemiology, which is the study of disease spread during your program to learn how to tackle infectious diseases. Alternatively, you can specialize in biostatistics and work for the federal government like the CDC or a non-governmental organization such as WHO. Non-profit organizations also tackle public health crises and address the long-term consequences of the spread of infectious diseases and outbreaks. They are also the ones to help bring awareness about novel diseases.
However, you will find that the larger organizations are typically the first responders with constant monitoring and health check geographically and socially. Hence, public health is the right field for you if you want to be at the forefront of emergencies.
Conclusion
Public health is something that nobody can ignore. The field will constantly evolve and develop over time as human behavior changes and developments take place. It is a highly lucrative career path with exponential growth.
You can work with international organizations, the federal government, non-governmental organizations, and non-profit agencies. Hence, you will be making a much more significant impact.
Moreover, you will learn about healthcare dynamics by acquiring an MPH in public health. You will understand how the public healthcare system works to be able to contribute to it. Furthermore, public health workers solve the most critical health problems each day. They can identify issues and match them with the right resources. This way, you can make a real impact by helping others directly and understanding their needs.
