Meharry's MHS vs MSPH Program

[ContinuingToStrive]

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[panluegg]

you are looking to increase your chances of acceptance into their medical or dental school, its not a good idea

 

[PointEstimate]

I am still confused why you passed up something that was approximately 85% successful at what you wanted to do (get into dental school) for something that was 0% successful. Of course Schools of Public Health are resentful that their degree is used as a stepping stone/practice guy or girl before you find the one to marry (in this analogy, med or dental school). People have this grand idea that learning public health means being a holistic doctor, but that's a bunch of hogwash. Getting a degree in public health isn't about practice management or about developing clinical skills that make you a "better doctor"; it's learning the skills to evaluate communities, assess their needs, designing programs to meet those needs.

 

[I want to go to there]

I am still confused why you passed up something that was approximately 85% successful at what you wanted to do (get into dental school) for something that was 0% successful. Of course Schools of Public Health are resentful that their degree is used as a stepping stone/practice guy or girl before you find the one to marry (in this analogy, med or dental school). People have this grand idea that learning public health means being a holistic doctor, but that's a bunch of hogwash. Getting a degree in public health isn't about practice management or about developing clinical skills that make you a "better doctor"; it's learning the skills to evaluate communities, assess their needs, designing programs to meet those needs.

He didn't know that at the time and probably thought that both programs have similar chance of success.

 

[ContinuingToStrive]

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[ContinuingToStrive]

I am still confused why you passed up something that was approximately 85% successful at what you wanted to do (get into dental school) for something that was 0% successful. Of course Schools of Public Health are resentful that their degree is used as a stepping stone/practice guy or girl before you find the one to marry (in this analogy, med or dental school). People have this grand idea that learning public health means being a holistic doctor, but that's a bunch of hogwash. Getting a degree in public health isn't about practice management or about developing clinical skills that make you a "better doctor"; it's learning the skills to evaluate communities, assess their needs, designing programs to meet those needs.

I did not say success rate. I said acceptance rate. Those are two totally different things. Of course those rates would not be made available to the public, but its a question I should have asked before applying. And you should research public health more in depth. Public Health deals with understanding health disparities and figuring out approaches to reducing these diseases and preventing new cases. That is why many times you will hear public health and preventative medicine used in the same conversation. Hogwash? Any doctor that goes into a practice looking to solely treat the disease of one individual without a bigger plan of community prevention is missing the big picture . That is why Public Health is one of nine dental specialties. Meharry is a medical school with a general public health program. This is not a terminal degree, so yes it has to be used as a "stepping stone" for another degree, may it be in epidemopology, biostats, or dentistry. Just as your high school degree was used as a stepping stone for undergrad degree, and your bachelors a stepping stone for professional school. So, how dare someone associate a general public health PROGRAM, being offered at a medical COLLEGE with one another right?

Mr. PointEstimate, you should not be so condescending. Whats common sense to you may no be so common for others.

 

[ContinuingToStrive]

I am still confused why you passed up something that was approximately 85% successful at what you wanted to do (get into dental school) for something that was 0% successful. Of course Schools of Public Health are resentful that their degree is used as a stepping stone/practice guy or girl before you find the one to marry (in this analogy, med or dental school). People have this grand idea that learning public health means being a holistic doctor, but that's a bunch of hogwash. Getting a degree in public health isn't about practice management or about developing clinical skills that make you a "better doctor"; it's learning the skills to evaluate communities, assess their needs, designing programs to meet those needs.

I did not say success rate. I said acceptance rate. Those are two totally different things. Of course those rates would not be made available to the public, but its a question I should have asked before applying. And you should research public health more in depth. Public Health deals with understanding health disparities and figuring out approaches to reducing these diseases and preventing new cases. That is why many times you will hear public health and preventative medicine used in the same conversation. Hogwash? Any doctor that goes into a practice looking to solely treat the disease of one individual without a bigger plan of community prevention is missing the big picture . That is why Public Health is one of nine dental specialties. Meharry is a medical school with a general public health program. This is not a terminal degree, so yes it has to be used as a "stepping stone" for another degree, may it be in epidemopology, biostats, or dentistry. Just as your high school degree was used as a stepping stone for undergrad degree, and your bachelors a stepping stone for professional school. So, how dare someone associate a general public health PROGRAM, being offered at a medical COLLEGE with one another right?

Mr. PointEstimate, you should not be so condescending. Whats common sense to you may no be so common for others.

 

[PointEstimate]

Dude, an MPH/MSPH is a terminal degree. An MPH means that you have some predetermined level of mastery of epidemiology and biostatistics; it doesn't mean that you get your MPH/MSPH then step into the further training in epidemiology and biostatistics (unless, of course, you want to get a PhD in that). It's pretty common for schools that don't have free standing schools of public health to be a department within a medical school. And while some people who earn MPH/MSPHs end up going to medical or dental school if they don't have those credentials already, the vast majority of them go pro in some capacity that fully utilizes the training in that public health stuff aformentioned. Meharry, in granting the MSPH, expects that their graduates thrive as members of the of the public health workforce in the capacity as health educators, health managers, epidemiologists, and biostatisticians.
https://www.mmc.edu/education/sogsr/academicprograms/msph/
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/the-public-health-degrees-mph-ms-ph-drph-phd-scd.644314/

And the ADA doesn't consider dental public health to be a clinical speciality, so not really sure if you think all other dentists are missing the big picture.
Dental public health, as defined by the ADA"a non-clinical specialty of dentistry involved in the assessment of dental health needs and improving the dental health of populations rather than individuals."
http://www.ada.org/en/member-center/oral-health-topics/dental-public-health

So dental public health means things like getting cities to put fluoride in the water because we went to dental school and know how this works, why this is good, and why the good it provides is better than not doing it. The DDS/DMD gives you the street cred to say stuff like that and that's how dental public health practitioners have the bigger plan for community prevention. Dental clinicians without that kind of training in public health reinforce that message as the frontline soldiers. So while both are iterating towards preventing caries (in this example), one gets the big time programs going and the other is handling the patients on the one-on-one (top-down vs bottom-up, if you will). If that's what you want to do, then that's really noble and great and more people should step up in that role; however, the public health background doesn't all of a sudden give you that holistic-perspective because the focus is different.

The point that I am trying to make is that while it sounds intuitive, the appreciation of a "bigger picture" and being a "clinician" aren't as simple as learning the two skill sets disjointedly. Both of those skills are complementary not mutually exclusive. Of course non-public health clinicians aren't just thinking about the patient currently sitting in the chair and not thinking about the community. I doubt there's a dentist who curses the fact that fluoride is in the water. Just trying to do what you set out to do in the first post, which is inform the public. And you are right that it isn't made glaringly obvious to people, so here I am on this tiny soap box. Sorry for getting you worked up about the word "hogwash."

I'll also concede the point that I was sloppy with my use of acceptance/success rate to mean getting you to where you want to be, which is presumably dental school. Apologies.