Arizona School of Public Health – AZ

By Jennifer Williams, allied health world contributing writer
Published:  February 2nd, 2010

Public Health Defined

Public Health is a dynamic career involving the healthcare of the community. This profession is responsible for informing the public of new disease threats and for helping the community to find treatments and vaccines of existing or developing pandemics.
Public health also plays a large role in turning out healthy mothers and healthy children by administering and monitoring the usage of healthy foods during and after pregnancy. It is a career that identifies the community in general as its patient and one which takes a proactive approach towards keeping the public healthy.

Here is a look at some of the career options in public health:

• Environmental Health
• Biostatistics
• Behavioral Science
• Health Education
• Epidemiology
• Health Services Administration and Management
• Mother and Child Health
• Nutrition

Education and Degrees for Arizona Public Health Professionals

In the State of Arizona, you will need the minimum of a bachelor’s degree to be able to work in any branch of public health. A bachelor’s degree usually consists of about 3 to 4 years of full-time education either online or through campus based Arizona public health schools.

In order to advance to any supervisory level or higher in this field, you will need that of a master’s degree. Because the field of medicine and public health is constantly changing, there is a direct need for those who can excel in the profession to have a substantially higher level of education than those that are just beginning. You will not need this level of degree to begin your career; however, you will need it to advance your career. This is something that you may want to keep in mind as you consider your future prospects in public health.

As you are making your decisions on school choice, it is most important to remember that it should be accredited by the CEPH. The next thing that you may want to look into is online degree options. There are so many schools that are now offering their programs online, and many of these programs are accredited by the CEPH. Depending upon your current employment status and individual needs, online schooling may be able to provide you with several benefits over that of traditional educational institutions.

References:

www.indeed.com
The Council on Education for Public Health, www.ceph.org
The National Board of Public Health Examiners, www.nbphe.org
Arizona Medical Board, www.azmd.gov
Arizona Department of Health Services, www.azdhs.gov