Public Health, Minor
Liberal Arts (Code 488-401)
Advisors: C. Pierce (Public Health and Environmental Studies), B. Rockler (Public Health and Environmental Studies), L. Suppes (Public Health and Environmental Studies).
Public health is an interdisciplinary field that takes a population-based approach to improving the health and well-being of people and communities by preventing disease, disability and death across populations. This field draws on the natural, quantitative, social, and behavioral sciences to study the distribution and determinants of human health and disease, and to develop interventions to preserve and promote health and well-being.
Because public health is such a broad interdisciplinary field it has wide appeal and utility. The public health minor is a natural complement to any of the health profession majors (athletic training, behavior analysis, communication sciences and disorders, environmental public health, health care administration, kinesiology, nursing, and social work). The minor augments the pre-professional curriculum of students preparing for post-baccalaureate health professions programs in chiropractic care, dentistry, medicine, occupational therapy, optometry, pharmacy, physical therapy, and veterinary medicine. In addition, the public health minor benefits those wishing to incorporate a better understanding of health in their chosen field, including majors not thought of as traditional health sciences. These majors include, but are not limited to, communication, economics, geography, journalism, management, mathematics (statistics and actuarial sciences), philosophy, political science, psychology, religious studies, and sociology.
The required core courses will expose students to the essential elements of public health. The elective courses will allow students either to align their public health minor to their major or to explore and investigate potential new areas of interest within public health.
| Code | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum of 24 credits required as follows: | ||
| Required core courses (9 credits): | ||
| PH 115 | Global Health | 3 |
| ENPH 150 | Disease Detectives: Epidemics and Data | 3 |
| or PH 450 | Epidemiology | |
*PH 450 may count in either the core or elective category, but not both. | ||
| PH/NRSG 225 | Introduction to Public Health | 3 |
| Elective courses (15 credits): | 15 | |
No more than six credits from any one prefix. At least nine elective credits must be at the 300-level or above. | ||
| Administration/Policy | ||
| Sustainable Cities | ||
| Waste & Society: Energy, Food, and Efficiency | ||
| U.S. Environmental and Sustainability Policy | ||
| International Environmental Problems and Policy | ||
| Overview of the U.S. Health Care System | ||
| Leadership and Management Practices in Health Services | ||
| Navigating Health Care | ||
| State and Local Politics | ||
| Public Administration | ||
| Introduction to Social Welfare | ||
| Aging/Gerontology | ||
| Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Aging | ||
| Psychology of Adulthood and Aging | ||
| Social Gerontology | ||
| Aging and the Aged | ||
| Death and Bereavement | ||
| Biomedical/Health Sciences | ||
| Microbiology | ||
| Infectious Disease Biology | ||
| Medical Mycology | ||
| Survey of Biochemistry | ||
| Exploring Mind/Body Connections | ||
or NRSG 213 | Body, Mind, Spirit Wellness | |
| Introduction to School Health Education and Current Health Issues | ||
| Applied Nutrition in Kinesiology | ||
| Integrating Knowledge for Improving Health | ||
| Wellness: Food for Fitness | ||
| Men's Health Issues | ||
| Communications | ||
| Introduction to Interpersonal Communication | ||
| Fundamentals of Human Communication | ||
| Health Communication | ||
| Science Writing | ||
| Cultural Rhetorics | ||
| Grant Proposal Writing | ||
| The Language of Health Care | ||
| Environmental/Occupational Health | ||
| Chemistry and Climate | ||
| Introduction to Environmental Health | ||
| Occupational Safety Management | ||
| Water and Wastewater | ||
| Microbial Safety of Food | ||
| Hazardous and Solid Waste Management | ||
| Vector-Borne Disease Control | ||
| Environmental Toxicology and Risk Assessment | ||
| Water Problems, Water Solutions | ||
| Planet Earth: Conservation of the Environment | ||
| Environmental Hazards | ||
| Public Health and Climate Change | ||
| Environmental Sociology | ||
| Quantitative/Research Methods | ||
| Biostatistics | ||
| Quantitative Analysis | ||
| Econometrics | ||
| Geographic Information Systems I | ||
| Geographic Information Systems II | ||
| Quantitative Methods in Geography | ||
| Elementary Statistics | ||
| Introduction to Probability and Mathematical Statistics | ||
| Introduction to Probability | ||
| Mathematical Statistics | ||
| Survey Sampling | ||
| Nonparametric Statistics | ||
| Field Epidemiology: Outbreak Investigations | ||
| Statistical Methods in Psychology I | ||
| Methods of Research in Psychology | ||
| Sociological Data Analysis | ||
| Methods of Social Work Research | ||
| Social Sciences/Humanities | ||
| Introduction to Cultural Anthropology | ||
| Environmental Economics | ||
| Health Economics | ||
| Behavioral Economics | ||
| Planet Earth: Human Geography | ||
| Geography of Food | ||
| Cross Cultural Health | ||
| Epidemiology (if not taken as a core course) | ||
| Ethical Reasoning | ||
| Ethics of Health Care | ||
| Environmental Ethics | ||
| Rural Public Health | ||
| Health Psychology | ||
| Sacred Earth: Religion and Nature | ||
| Principles of Demography | ||
| In addition, with the advisor's consent, other courses may be allowed to count as an elective when the topic is appropriate. | ||
Program Learning Outcomes
Students completing this program will be expected to meet the following learning outcomes:
- Explain and analyze the role of socio-cultural, economic/political, physical and behavioral factors contributing to health disparities.
- Apply quantitative and epidemiologic methods to address public health issues.
- Appreciate the role of team- and community-based collaboration in promoting population health.