does mph concentration matter for international health career?

[InEssence]

I would like to work internationally or with an internationally-focused organization in the area of maternal and child health. Hence I applied to Emory's global health program and Tulane's global maternal and child health program (have been accepted for both). I also applied to UNC's maternal & child health program and have an interview with them. My question is: given my career interests, is it more valuable to get an mph in global health or is it better to get it in maternal health, or does it really matter? For instance, let's say I apply to work overseas for UNICEF, would they care more that I got my mph in global health or in mch? Please give your inputs. Also, if you are familiar with or have attended the schools/programs I'm considering, I would appreciate your perspective. Cost will be a factor in my final decision, but the quality of academics & adequacy in career preparation matters more. Thanks!

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[dreamsofspring]

My experience with the global health stream (at a different university) is that they teach you a lot of intro development stuff and less practical skills. Which is exactly what some people are looking for (can't do the practice until you've got the theory), but not so helpful if you've already worked in development and are choosing to do an MPH so you've got hard skills to offer an organization.

I'm not familiar with these specific programs, though, so I'd say go wherever teaches you the most skills. I found the courses on program design and evaluation were the most useful (and biostats the least), but I'm working in Canadian community development now. You'll have to decide what skills are most needed where you want to go.

 

[InEssence]

Makes sense. Thanks.

...I see that my post got posted twice on this board. I'm not sure what happened. Does anyone know how I can delete the other one?

 

[johnnyquest2009]

If you want to work in International Health then I would recommend studying that field, and not maternity/child health. While I do agree that in maternity/child health you will get more in depth on the subject, but I believe it is just as important to study development, sustainability, etc etc. In my experience in Mongolia, I saw many individuals with a strong health background but no clue about sustainability, and making sure that your message is culturally relevant, etc etc. Therefore their work was in my mind not successful. Especially if you’re from a developed nation you need to be realistic at what type of jobs you will get. From my experience, an American has a better chance to get more supervisor style position, and not a programmer position that requires a Stronger expertise in a certain health field. More and more so, INGOs, NGOs, CBOs are hiring local staff to oversee more of the technical.

 

[para]

My experience with the global health stream (at a different university) is that they teach you a lot of intro development stuff and less practical skills. Which is exactly what some people are looking for (can't do the practice until you've got the theory), but not so helpful if you've already worked in development and are choosing to do an MPH so you've got hard skills to offer an organization.

I'm not familiar with these specific programs, though, so I'd say go wherever teaches you the most skills. I found the courses on program design and evaluation were the most useful (and biostats the least), but I'm working in Canadian community development now. You'll have to decide what skills are most needed where you want to go.

hey dreamofspring, thanx for your input, I have already taken few classes on dev. in undergrad yrs so your point makes lot of sense. I wouldn't want to repeat courses, what do u mean pick the skills? I guess like which area of public health we would want to specialize in? I would think the beh.sci. or Env. would be really good right?

 

[dreamsofspring]

Johnnyquest, you're totally right, people should have a solid grasp of community organizing and anti-racism and all sorts of other basics for working in international health, and if a person isn't there yet (and you don't get those things just because you've been overseas once or twice!) then they should look at a MPH that will help them get there. For me, I'd done an undergrad in international development, and while I (and ever other development professional) need to keep working at understanding what it means to be in this field, I found the classes in the global health MPH were material I'd already covered. Your point about realizing you might end up in management is well taken, and totally true.

Para, I found the management skills classes the most helpful. I learned to do a LogFrame analysis (that might only be useful for Canadians -- CIDA requires it for grants), basic program evaluation, and grant-writing, among other things, and have used them all at my current job. Some things I didn't take but wish I could have are how to present health info to the public, qualitative data analysis, effective leadership (like how to be a supervisor). I'm not saying the courses on infectious diseases or whatever weren't good background knowledge, and you can't do the practice without the theory, but they're not what I use every day. That's just at my job, though -- you should tailor what you take to what you want to do. If you don't know what skills you'll need, a good place to look might be relief web (http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/res.nsf/doc212?OpenForm). You can search for health-related jobs and see what skills they require.

 

[johnnyquest2009]

Well your one of the few then. Because a majority of the individuals I have seen in Thailand, Laos, China, Mongolia dont have a grasp on what development means.