Local Public Health a Career Path for Medical Students
All health is local. Public health touches all parts of life, exemplified by the Ebola outbreak and in Baltimore with the swift response and coordination of resources to dispense life-sustaining medications in the unrest following the death of Freddie Gray. Public health is responsible for the inspections and reporting which lead to restaurant health scores, as well as the identification of food-borne illnesses such as E.coli in hamburger. Public h ealth is fundamental to the population's health no matter who you are or where you live.
A county public health officer wears many hats, working on emergency preparedness, vaccinations, tuberculosis control, rabies control and traffic safety, including child safety seats. In addition, public health officers have responsibilities to educate the community at large and county leadership about the social determinants of health and disparities.
[Explore other careers for doctors in public health.]
Place matters in terms of health and life span. The safety of the entire community is incumbent upon an active, robust and vigilant public health system. The county public health officer is on the front lines of public safety. Clean water, food safety and disease prevention are monitored, as are disease trends within the municipalities to watch for outbreaks
Lisa Hernandez, an M.D. who also has a Master of Public Health and the public health officer for Santa Cruz County in California, starts her day before leaving home by reading both the front pages of the local newspaper and The New York Times for information crucial to her community's health.
Upon arriving at work, she checks in with her staff to make sure they're on track for the day with home visits for new mothers, the needle exchange program and HIV patient care, among others.
[Learn about getting a Master of Public Health degree as a medical student.]
Even with ongoing programs, each day is different and never predictable. Throughout the day, Hernandez constantly checks her emails and calendar for new activities and changes in the community that may impact the health of the residents of Santa Cruz County.
Primary prevention, health literacy and community outreach are tenets in public health. Helping to stem the tide of preventable diseases -- kidney failure, stroke, premature birth, etc. -- begets meaningful long-term change within communities beyond health, creating the backbone for thriving, inventive and economically stable societies.
Realizing wholesale changes in health outcomes takes time, requiring an abundance of patience on the part of public health officials and their teams to yield rewards.
If you need a rapid solution to problems you face in your chosen medical field, then prevention and public health are not for you. But if you like connecting with the community and seeing the community change based on outreach, education and continual dialogue, consider public health.
Public health officers come from many backgrounds, including internal medicine, family practice, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology, epidemiology intelligence service and preventive medicine.
[Find out whether to pursue a joint M.D. degree.]
Many preventive medicine residency training programs include an MPH, a bonus for those who do not wish to incur the cost of an M.P.H. during medical school or after medical school. Check the American College of Preventive Medicine's website for the specific requirements.
"Public health truly touches everyone's lives," says Hernandez. Science, advocacy and medicine work together to keep the public healthy.
Sylvia E. Morris received her M.D. from Georgetown University School of Medicine and Master's in Public Health from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. A former assistant professor at Emory University School of Medicine, she is currently an independent health care consultant and a community health advocate. Find her on Facebook and follow her on Twitter.
