What is Public Health?
- Public Health is defined as “the art and science of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts of society” (Acheson, 1988; WHO).
What is the role of a Public Health Professional?
As a public health professional, you will be trained to perform one or more of the following tasks:
- Monitor, diagnose and investigate the health status of a community to identify potential problems.
- Inform, educate, and empower people about health issues.
- Mobilize community partnerships to identify and solve health problems.
- Develop policies and plans that support individual and community health efforts.
- Enforce laws and regulations that protect health and ensure safety.
- Promote equitable access to health services.
- Evaluate effectiveness, accessibility, and quality of personal and population-based health services.
- Research new insights and innovative solutions to health problems.
Where you can work with a MPH Degree?
As a broad field, public health opens the door to a number of career opportunities and settings such as:
- State and local health departments or agencies,
- Nonprofits and community organizations,
- Health care organizations and hospitals,
- Private sector companies, such as health insurances and pharmaceutical companies,
- Colleges and universitie
Vision
The vision of the program is to transform in a positive way the health and education of Puerto Rico communities.
Mission
The mission is to provide a high-quality education with a multidisciplinary curriculum focused on service and research to prepare future public health professionals with the necessary competencies to address public health issues in Puerto Rico.
Goals of the MPH Program
- Education: Provide a multidisciplinary education to develop professionals with the competencies to address public health issues.
- Research: Conduct research to contribute to advance knowledge in the public health field.
- Service: Promote underserved communities’ health through public health initiatives.
Values
The following core values enlighten the institutional environment and guide us in the fulfillment of our mission and goals:
- Professionalism: we foster the development of public health professionals with the necessary competencies to serve the community with enthusiasm, respect, integrity, responsibility, and commitment.
- Diversity: we foster to develop health professionals ready to serve diverse populations.
- Educational Quality: we are committed to offering an outstanding education with a multidisciplinary integrative learning experience.
- Evidence-based Approach: we are committed to scientific rigor, critical analysis, and sound reasoning in public health and practice.
- Community Engagement: we are committed to participating and developing healthy communities.
SJBSM MPH Program Highlights:
- Licensed by the Puerto Rico Board of Post-Secondary Institutions.
- Accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE).
- Evening program that offers distance education and face to face teaching methodologies.
- Guided by the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH) competencies and the introductory public health learning objectives.
- Highlights the Epidemiology and Biostatistics disciplines through the curriculum.
- Facilities with computers focused on statistical software and data management solutions.
- Approved, planned, and supervised practice experience in a community-based setting.
- Research project to produce a scientific manuscript for publication in a peer review journal.
- Engage students, faculty and staff in activities that promotes the wellbeing of underserved populations.
- Community partnership to support students' learning experiences.
- Diverse and highly qualified faculty from different health fields, such as medicine, public health, law, education, administration, psychology, and natural sciences.
