The field of public health encompasses a variety of different sciences, including biostatistics and epidemiology, to examine patterns of disease across a community, city, or country. Public health measures also include educating communities about vaccination, family planning, and other health issues.
Health Program Director: These individuals are responsible for all aspects of planning special public health projects. Their duties may include preparing budgets, developing policies, carrying out preliminary research, designing public health initiatives, and working with community agencies, among other things. They often coordinate with a wide range of health care workers as well as government, private, and public organizations.
Government Health Analyst: Within government public health agencies, health analysts examine current health policy and other aspects of current health and ensure they are working to produce the desired results. Part of their job is to suggest modifications to public health policy when they are needed. The reports they create are used by policy-makers to update and modify public health policies.
Public Health Communications Expert: These public health workers focus on deciding how public health information should be communicated to the public. In making these types of decisions they must consider not only the nature of the information, but also the target audience of the information.
Health Educator: Health educators are the people who work within the community, both with health care workers and the public, to disseminate health information. Often this is an information exchange rather than a one-way street, as health educators also gather data from the community, which is then used by other public health workers to ensure health policies and programs are up-to-date.
Public health workers require different skill sets depending on where they work, but in general, excellent communication skills and interpersonal skills are extremely important. Good organizational and time management skills and the ability to see the big picture of a project as well as the smaller details are also crucial. Public health workers should be able to organize, analyze, and interpret data, and have a strong commitment to and interest in public health and safety.
A career in public health requires a Bachelor’s degree at the minimum, and a post graduate degree is needed if a managerial career is desired. Candidates should major in public health or a related field.