Public Health

Public Health aims to improve and protect the health of groups of people rather than treating individual patients. Public health Officers are graduated to take action to promote healthy lifestyles, prevent disease, protect and improve general health, and improve healthcare services. The ‘population’ they work for could be a rural community, an entire city, or the global population, but the principles remain the same. 

From an educational perspective, studying public health has enormous intellectual value in that:

The study of public health involves critical thinking and critical decision-making;

It gives students a methodology for understanding populations;

Population-scale thinking relies on multiple disciplines, thus exposing students to current health care and policy issues.

Public health Officers strive to realize ways of making our communities and environments healthier and more capable of providing us with what we need for optimal health.

The graduated students must understand all the factors contributing to health, the structure of healthcare systems and services, and current government policy, and effectively interpret available data. They have to evaluate evidence to devise and implement strategies to improve and protect health and to improve health services.  

After graduation, the graduated students will become experts in a specific area of public health, while others will find that their job incorporates a cross-section of public health activities and research. However, their work usually falls within one or all three domains: improving health, protecting health, or improving health services