Evolution of Master of Public Health Core Curriculum: Trends and Insights.

IF 3 4区医学 Q2 PUBLIC, ENVIRONMENTAL & OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH

Public Health Reports Pub Date : 2024-11-19 DOI:10.1177/00333549241296787

Cara L Pennel, Denny Fe G Agana-Norman, Leslie A Stalnaker, Dana Wiltz-Beckham, Marisol Luna

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Objectives: Revised accreditation criteria from the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH) in 2016 prompted schools and programs of public health to shift their master of public health (MPH) core curricula. Our objective was to provide data on revisions to MPH core curricula at CEPH-accredited schools and programs of public health and other descriptive statistics on the MPH core curriculum and required courses as of 2023.

Methods: We analyzed data from 67 accredited schools of public health and 130 accredited public health programs to assess changes from 2016 to 2023 in the MPH core curriculum. We examined the number of courses, the proportion of credit hours in the core curriculum, core curriculum composition, and course types.

Results: Almost half (49.2%) of schools, but only 16.9% of programs, made extensive changes to their MPH core curricula, an overall increase of 153.6% from 2020 to 2023. Approximately one-fifth of schools and programs made few to no changes to their core curricula and retained core courses in the 5 former core disciplines. On average, core curriculum credit hours comprised 37.8% of total credit hours for schools and 51.7% for programs. Half (50.0%) of all programs in the sample offered single-concentration MPH degrees. Schools and programs were more likely to continue requiring traditional biostatistics (81.7%) and epidemiology (81.2%) courses in the core curriculum compared with environmental health (69.0%), social and behavioral health (61.9%), and health policy and management (42.1%).

Conclusions: Most schools and programs modified their MPH core curricula, reflecting a departure from traditional public health courses toward innovative approaches to ensure knowledge and skill proficiency of graduates. Future research will determine if these curricular changes improve the knowledge and skill proficiency of public health graduates and the workforce.

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公共卫生硕士核心课程的演变：趋势与见解。

目标：公共卫生教育委员会（CEPH）于 2016 年修订了评审标准，促使公共卫生学校和项目转变其公共卫生硕士（MPH）核心课程。我们的目标是提供经 CEPH 认证的公共卫生学校和项目修订 MPH 核心课程的数据，以及截至 2023 年 MPH 核心课程和必修课程的其他描述性统计数据：我们分析了来自 67 所经认可的公共卫生学院和 130 个经认可的公共卫生项目的数据，以评估 MPH 核心课程从 2016 年到 2023 年的变化。我们研究了课程数量、核心课程学时比例、核心课程构成和课程类型：近一半（49.2%）的学校，但只有 16.9% 的项目，对其 MPH 核心课程进行了广泛的调整，从 2020 年到 2023 年总体增加了 153.6%。约有五分之一的学校和项目对其核心课程几乎没有做任何改动，并保留了 5 个前核心学科的核心课程。平均而言，核心课程学时占学校总学时的 37.8%，占专业总学时的 51.7%。抽样调查的所有项目中有一半（50.0%）提供单一专业的 MPH 学位。与环境健康（69.0%）、社会和行为健康（61.9%）以及健康政策和管理（42.1%）相比，学校和项目更有可能在核心课程中继续要求传统的生物统计学（81.7%）和流行病学（81.2%）课程：大多数学校和项目都修改了公共卫生硕士核心课程，这反映出公共卫生课程已从传统课程转向创新方法，以确保毕业生掌握知识和技能。未来的研究将确定这些课程改革是否能提高公共卫生专业毕业生和劳动力的知识和技能水平。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Public Health Reports 医学-公共卫生、环境卫生与职业卫生

CiteScore

5.00

自引率

6.10%

发文量

164

审稿时长

6-12 weeks

期刊介绍： Public Health Reports is the official journal of the Office of the U.S. Surgeon General and the U.S. Public Health Service and has been published since 1878. It is published bimonthly, plus supplement issues, through an official agreement with the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health. The journal is peer-reviewed and publishes original research and commentaries in the areas of public health practice and methodology, original research, public health law, and public health schools and teaching. Issues contain regular commentaries by the U.S. Surgeon General and executives of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Health. The journal focuses upon such topics as tobacco control, teenage violence, occupational disease and injury, immunization, drug policy, lead screening, health disparities, and many other key and emerging public health issues. In addition to the six regular issues, PHR produces supplemental issues approximately 2-5 times per year which focus on specific topics that are of particular interest to our readership. The journal''s contributors are on the front line of public health and they present their work in a readable and accessible format.