what kind of jobs does an MPH open?

[dk00]

I have tried to look for this but can't seem to find a straight forward answer. Is hospital administrator one of the jobs that an MPH can get or are they MD's? If anyone can give me a few examples of what can be done with an MPH I would greatly appreciate it.

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[Stories]

You can absolutely become a hospital admin with a master's degree. The more applicable one would probably be a MHA or a MPH with a health management focus.

 

[dk00]

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[364462]

Thank you, Are there any other career paths aside from administration types?
Thanks

You are asking quite a complex question. The MPH is a foundational degree. Expertise in a particular area or field of public health comes with time, not the degree. So while an administrative career may be an outcome of someone who pursued an MPH (particularly with a concentration in health management), the line between the degree and the career is not a straight one. The MPH is (typically) divided into several concentrations, such as epidemiology, biostatistics, social/behavior (including child/maternal health and community health), health policy and management, environment, global/international health, and others. Within these concentrations are a variety of tracks, such as cancer epidemiology, health policy in developing nations, environmental issues in urban health, etc. A degree in epidemiology, for example, can open doors in several areas (e.g., communicable versus non-communicable disease) in several sectors (e.g., local, state, federal, international, private, public, NGO, multilateral) and in several positions (e.g., regional, headquarters, field, administrative, clinical, research, teaching). You can be a hospital administrator with an MPH, but so can someone with an MD, MPA, MPP, PhD, etc. Again, the question is too broad. I suggest going to the website of the American Public Health Association, as a "primer" for the field. Also, you can look more broadly at health institutions (e.g., the CDC, WHO) and at private and public hospitals (e.g., Mass General, St. Joseph's, VA Healthcare system, Kaiser) and look at the profiles of people who work there. More often than not, they will show some biosketch (including their educational background) of the people who hold specific positions. For example, the top directors and officials at the WHO almost always have an MD as well as a MPH, but it is an unfair comparison to expect the same of an administrator, clinician, professor, etc., who works more regionally or locally.

Good luck!

 

[daisies2]

Maybe a good starting point is to develop some idea of what you would like to do and what kind of a career you would find fulfilling...and then find out which degree would help you.

 

[dk00]

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[atlantisflygirl]

I perticularly like epedimiology, any idea if most of them are MD's or can I become one with an mph and how is the career outlook ?

I'm going to be starting at Boston University's SPH as an epi concentrator in FA13, but I've already taken through intro to epi at the school. First of all, an MPH degree opens a huge variety of careers to you. You can work with local, state, or federal public health programs or you can work with pharmaceutical companies, NGOs, or other organizations. I encourage you to look at the websites of the schools you're interested in and check out their alumni section. Most schools are eager to show off their graduates and, if you're like me and find pretty much everything awesome and fascinating, you'll be able to start drilling down into what your interests really are by looking at what the graduates are doing. When you finally have a little bit of an idea, email schools you're interested in and ask them to hook you up with a person who had similar interests. Do not be shy! Are you interested in this one thing in biostats, this other thing in environmental health and finally one more thing in international health? Great and fine! I was so nervous when I went to an accepted student's day at BU because I didn't have a crystal clear idea of what I wanted to do. What I discovered, though, is that most students coming into an MPH have some idea of what they want to do, but as they hear about all the research being done, they're like a squirrel in a garden of shiny things - everything seems amazing! Give yourself permission to experiment and explore.

All that being said, you eventually have to decide on what you want to do... in school at least. An MPH is an MPH. Your particular skills will depend on where you decide to concentrate your efforts. If you concentrate in health policy and management, your skill set is going to prepare you for an administrative career. If you concentrate in epi or biostats you're better prepared for a career crunching data, etc. But, depending on your school, you can put together a degree that really prepares you for a pluralistic world. As user porkbunsrule said, the degree is just the degree. You can make it whatever you want. Try to determine what you want to do and try to gain experience in that field as you complete your MPH. Any MPH, aside from basic quantitative skills, will be what you make it. You can go anywhere with an MPH degree as long as you lay the foundations while you're *in* your MPH program. As to your question about MDs, there are some programs, like Harvard, that only accept MDs and similar degrees, but most MPH degrees, regardless of concentration, don't base acceptance on whether you have an MD or not. In short, no, you don't have to be an MD to be useful with an MPH degree.

I'm afraid that was a little long and rambling, but I hope it helps!