Schools prefer applicants with experience in public health. Are they looking for something specific? I have worked as a medical assistant--does that count?
What counts as public health experience?
- Thread starter mkat
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What did you exactly do as a medical assistant?
Direct examples of experience include internships with health departments, public health research positions etc. Things you would expect a public health professional to perform.
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Depends on the kind of public health you're going into.
For example, I'm interested in doing community development on a global scale, so I did a couple non-paid internships in poor Latin American countries.
But if you want to do health administration, your "related" experience might well be very different.
You can't go wrong with CDC or NIH internships though, especially if you can relate it to your concentration (and you want to attend school in the States).
For example, I'm interested in doing community development on a global scale, so I did a couple non-paid internships in poor Latin American countries.
But if you want to do health administration, your "related" experience might well be very different.
You can't go wrong with CDC or NIH internships though, especially if you can relate it to your concentration (and you want to attend school in the States).
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Anything that has a health related outcome for some group is public health. For example, some types of social work, health education, economic development, etc., etc. is public health experience, in addition to things mentioned above, such as research and pure public health practice.
Medical assisting, while related, is usually more focused at the disease state of, and medical treatment of, the individual.
Medical assisting, while related, is usually more focused at the disease state of, and medical treatment of, the individual.
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Yeah, there's a difference between clinical and methodology training. MPH/MSPH/Ph.D. deal with the study of the theory and methods of how best to provide health care whereas medical assisting is the actual practice of health care.
How did you find the internships in Latin America? I am looking to do global public health and have been trying to find experiences.
Look here: http://karengrepin.com/2012/03/finding-a-summer-internship-in-global-health.html
Basically, you research which organizations you want to work with, what type of work they're doing, etc. After that, you do your best to find the email addresses of the people you want to work with. Then send them a carefully worded, short email.
The key here is that even if the organization is not offering an 'official' internship (like posting it on a website), they will still be open to people asking if they can do work with them. If you go this route, it is unlikely you will get a paid internship, but if you can afford the money, the unpaid internship might be worth it because of the experience you get and connections you make.
Thank you! This was very helpful. May I ask with which organizations you volunteered with? Did you have to pay to volunteer?
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While medical assisting may not constitute direct public health work, you can definitely swing it in that direction with a well-worded SoP.
I once interned with the WHO, which was a fun experience. The UN/WHO doesn't pay its interns though (its budget is already pretty strained, and people are so desperate for these internships that they don't have to offer money). I was lucky in that I had some scholarships from my graduate school pay for my living expenses; otherwise, almost everyone there just paid out of pocket.
