Public Health

Public health is a dynamic field of medicine that is concerned primarily with improving the health of populations rather than just the health of individuals. Winslow (1920) defined public health as;

“ the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting physical health and efficiency through organized community efforts for the sanitation of the environment, the control of community infections, the education of the individual in principles of personal hygiene, the organization of medical and nursing service for the early diagnosis and preventive treatment of disease, and the development of the social machinery which will ensure to every individual in the community, a standard of living adequate for the maintenance of health". (1)

This has been one of the most comprehensive definitions of public health forming the framework of the World Health Organisation (WHO) definition of health in 1948.(2) The challenge of maintaining the health of populations is the responsibility of health care professionals, especially public health specialists. In the United Kingdom (UK), it takes a minimum of five years to become a fully trained public health consultant registered with the Faculty of Public Health (FPH)(3). The first step to attaining this qualification begins with acquiring a Masters of Public Health (MPH) postgraduate degree from an institution of higher learning usually referred to as a ‘School of Public Health’ (SOPH).(4) This project seeks to review the process used by different SOPH in the UK for selecting candidates into the MPH programme.

Globally, significant changes have occurred in the field of public health over the last few centuries. In developed countries like the UK, the focus of health care provis...

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...isclosed as respondents feel more relaxed over the phone. There is also no evidence showing that telephone interviews produce lower quality data than face to face interviews. (22) This method is also quite useful for this project as it is easier to schedule and cheaper, considering the widespread geographical distribution of participant SOPH.

Quantitative methods will be used to supplement qualitative methods in this study, since it has been argued that the logic of qualitative thinking can be extended with qualitative methods. (20) During the interviews, course directors will be asked if they can provide any data on candidate’s background used during the selection process and performance on the MPH course. This data will be analyzed using appropriate statistical methods and the results used to supplement the qualitative evidence from course director interviews.