Hi, I have a question regarding which concentration I should choose for my PH grad program.
My background: I have a B.A. in Public Health Policy so I am not savvy on math and science, per se. So I can definitely cross out epidemiology and environmental public health. However, I question my ability to successfully pursue a degree in Public Health Policy because of the emphasis on economics and statistics in order to properly analyze policy.
I’m really open to any suggestion on which route I should take because I am planning to take the GRE soon so I can apply to several grad programs.
To help, here are my interests: I am interested in any aspect of public health that is concerned with hospital quality assurance and helping underserved communities acquire proper healthcare. I would really love to help prevent medical malpractice and ensure quality healthcare. Aside from that, being an introvert, I do not really see myself in vastly important positions such as director or senior analyst, etc. Although it seems like the only available jobs are for those type of leader-like positions. I, on the other hand, enjoy working as a team or even alone (if I feel confident). But this all can change depending on how comfortable I am in the job I’m at.
So, do any of you have any idea what type of path I can take given my career interests?
Correct. However, I am in a full-time job which exhausts all my energy and I have no time to do a fellowship or gain experience volunteering. I was interested in volunteering at the LA County Dept. of Public Health to see if I would like working in health policy and management but I haven’t the time, nor do I have the resources to work for free…
I know it is recommended to gain work experience to become a successful grad school candidate but even with my BA in Public Health Policy I cannot, for the life of me, land any job in Public Health. It seems all the openings are for biostatisticians, environmental public health, and the like.
Some schools have a concentration in their MPH for healthcare policy and management!
If you haven’t had the time to gain work experience, then you should make sure to apply to enough match/safeties given the lack of work experience IMO.
Do you have any experience in HPM? I want to know what kind of career I can obtain with an MPH in HPM. Is it a degree worth pursuing given my interests?
I don’t know enough to comment on that, but I was just going off of the interests you were expressing in your original post about what degree to pursue.
Public health is the field I was trained in; I got my PhD at a school of public health.
Most programs in health policy and management are not going to require a lot of high-level economics and statistics. You will have to take a basic biostatistics and epidemiology course, and some programs will allow you to specialize in health economics where you can take more complex math if you want. But most HPM programs are really going to concentrate on the principles of management and policy.
Your interests sound well-aligned with HPM, so that’s the concentration I’d go for. You may also want to consider some MPA or even MBA programs that have an emphasis on healthcare administration.