Public Health Practice Program - Development of Your Practicum
The following steps summarize the steps suggested for development of a practicum topic if
you do not already have one:
1) Determine the public health content area or issue that interests you,
2) Narrow your focus to a specific problem you wish to address and that is do-able in the
timeframe of one semester,
3) Specify the methods you will use to address this question or problem,
4) Consider how this practicum experience will contribute to meeting your personal and
professional goals by specifying five out of fifteen PHP competencies as goals for your
practicum,
(The 15 PHP Competencies appear on page two of this document.)
5) Select the practicum site for conducting your practicum work,
6) Select and invite a professional in the organization to serve as your site supervisor, guide
and mentor. Secure the individual’s signature on the Supervisor’s Agreement form,
7) Finalize the “Scope of Work” form, which is the first “deliverable” in the Practicum course
and is due in Week 1 of the Practicum and,
8) Finalize the “Practicum Proposal,” which is due in Week 2.
If you wish to pursue your practicum at your current work setting, it is wise to identify early
on an experienced colleague to serve as your site supervisor and discuss your practicum
idea with that individual. The reasons for conducting the practicum you choose are as
varied as the topics; the practicum allows you to:
1) Explore a public health area of interest to you, perhaps something that is far afield from
the work you currently do. For example, a clinical endocrinologist might have a strong
interest in school-based interventions to prevent childhood obesity and diabetes. For the
practicum the student could work with a local school district’s health educators to develop
or create and teach an educational curriculum,
2) Work within your work setting, but on a project outside your assigned role. For example,
a clinical nursing director might seek IRB approval to collect and analyze clinical data that
the hospital or service collects but which has not been examined for the associations of
interest to the student,
3) Engage in scholarship to study a public health issue in depth and develop a research
design --primary data collection and quantitative analysis, focus group or other qualitative
research, or a behavioral intervention, for example --culminating in writing a grant for
funding from a governmental agency or private foundation, or
4) Explore a pressing public health issue by developing a project of your own design or by
participating in an existing project in an area of interest --whether working collaboratively
on a team or working independently-- while receiving supervision and feedback from
experienced practitioners.
Examples of previous PHP practicum topics have included: developing a smoking cessation
and wellness program at the student’s workplace, designing a comic book to inform
children about the hazards of capturing and handling bats, implementing an emergency
preparedness plan, and assessing outcomes of interventions for individuals with COPD in a
pulmonary rehabilitation setting.
The Scope of Work Form - Selecting Public Health Practice Competencies as Goals
Once you have determined your practicum topic, site and site supervisor, you are ready to
fill out the Scope of Work form, which is due to the “Assignments” window on the
Practicum’s online Blackboard course site on or before the first day of class. (Online access
opens the week before classes begin.) If you need assistance or have questions before that
time, email Practicum Director Kathryn Tracy at ktracy@umass.edu.
The Scope of Work form calls for you to specify goals for your practicum from the list of
fifteen Public Health Practice Competencies. (You may, of course, have additional goals as
well.) PHP Competencies are derived from learning objectives that integrate the skills
public health practitioners need with those of the five courses of the Public Health Core:
Introduction to Biostatistics, Environmental Health Practices, Social and Behavioral Health,
Introduction to the US Health Care System, and Principles of Epidemiology. On the Scope of
Work form, select at least five (5) of these competencies from the list of fifteen (15). At the
end of the semester, evaluation of your practicum work is based in part on evidence that
you have attained the five (5) competencies you selected.
Public Health Practice Competencies are used to ensure that graduates with the MPH in
PHP are proficient in key public health practice content areas, and have the ability to:
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Describe the origins of current public health and health care dilemmas
Examine and evaluate current health policies and propose recommendations for
change
Create a work team to develop, pilot-test, or implement a policy/practice change
Design a planning or evaluation process to monitor and improve an area of concern
Understand best practices in community and population health behavioral change
Research and propose an innovative new approach to health promotion
Create a work team to develop, pilot-test, or implement a health behavioral
intervention
Apply epidemiological methods to data to answer a public health question
Interpret study findings from research literature and apply that knowledge to a
public health or health care problem
Design a study or develop a research protocol to address a public health problem
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Employ appropriate quantitative or qualitative methods to analyze data on a public
health or health care issue
Evaluate outcomes of current practice, programs, research, policies, or procedures
Explain the influence of environmental factors on the public’s health
Participate in a work teams to address problems in public health and health care
Summarize regulations and laws in public health
Practicum Proposal Format
By the end of the first week of class, students submit the two-page Practicum Proposal to
be reviewed and approved by PHP Practicum Director Kathryn Tracy, using the following
format:
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Aims and Rationale
o Describe the public health or health care problem/issue you address in this
practicum and why it is important
o What are the objectives you seek to accomplish?
Approach and Methods
o Explain the approach(es) you plan to use to meet these objectives
o Describe the specific actions you will take and methods you will to employ
Timeline
o Develop a weekly timeline for meeting each objective, including your
projected hours/week.
Contact Information
If you have additional questions about the PHP program, contact Lori Peterson, Academic
Director for Continuing Education Programs at lorijean@schoolph.umass.edu and 413 5454530 or contact Dr. Tracy at ktracy@umass.edu.