Why Public Health
Public Health is for people that want to make a difference in a community, a nation, or even the entire world.
Preventive Health Care
Public Health focuses on prevention within an entire community rather than treatment of individuals. Preventive matters can save more lives than treatment and is cheaper to implement. Over the course of 25 years, preventive measures can save 4.5 million lives and $600 billion.
Public Health can affect every single person and can improve someone’s life on a daily basis. The changes that arise from Public Health can impact people forever and can influence generations to come.
Currently, Public Health is tackling issues of chronic disease, global health, vaccinations, tobacco, mental health, environmental health, and many more. With a degree in public health you can help combat these issues and make an everlasting difference!
What is public health?
Public health is the art and science of preventing disease and disability, and fostering health in communities and populations. Some of the ways that public health achieves these goals is by measuring and monitoring health status and the risk factors for health problems, responding to epidemics and evaluating those responses, developing prevention initiatives and public policies for health problems, and promoting healthful lifestyles through education and community engagement. Public health is practiced by interprofessional teams whose members are trained in a broad array of fields.
Why public health in North Dakota?
North Dakota is situated in the Northern Plains, and the M.P.H. Program at the University
of North Dakota School of Medicine & Health Sciences reflects and responds to our
location. There is much diversity within the Northern Plains, as North Dakota illustrates
well. There are booming towns in the oil and gas fields in the west, agricultural
communities in the rich Red River Valley, American Indian reservations in the central
plains, frontier locales, and small cities throughout the state. These areas are continually
changing in multiple ways including population size, economic basis, and culture.
The M.P.H. Program at UND emphasizes, and is enriched by, the diversity and change
within the Northern Plains.
In addition, UND provides a rich academic environment for public health studies. The
School of Medicine & Health Sciences, in which the M.P.H. Program is located, contains
the only medical school in North Dakota and is the primary site for health sciences
training in the state including the physician assistant, occupational therapy, physical
therapy, sports medicine, and medical laboratory science programs. The nationally
recognized Center for Rural Health is our partner in public health education. Further,
the School of Medicine and Health Sciences has a long-standing commitment to reducing
disparities in health and educational opportunities for American Indians through Indians
Into Medicine (INMED), the Seven Generations Center of Excellence in Native Behavioral
Health (SGCoE), and the National Indigenous Elder Justice Initiative (NIEJI). The
M.P.H. Program also partners with the UND College of Business & Public Administration
to offer our Health Management and Policy specialization and collaborates with many
departments including Geography, Earth Systems Sciences and Policy, and Kinesiology
and Public Health Education. We are taking full advantage of the plentiful resources
of UND to provide students with an exceptional public health education.
Citations
Johnson, Teddi Dineley. "Shortage of U.S. Public Health Workers Projected to Worsen:
About 250,000 New Workers Needed." Medscape. National Health, 2008.
Alliance for Health Reform. "Public health prevention efforts: saving lives, saving
money?" October 2012.