Public Health Courses

PH 101 - Introduction to Public Health

3-0-3
Credit Hours: 3

This course introduces students to the discipline of public health and its philosophies, approaches, and activities. The course reviews the core functions, essential services, and five disciplines of public health. Students learn about the science of disease prevention, health promotion, and the historical development of social constructs that lead to health disparities in many communities. The course will teach students to identify and analyze health disparities in large populations and causal factors such as racism, sexism, and classism. 

PH 102 - Community Health Education and Promotion

3-0-3
Credit Hours: 3

This course is designed to provide students with the basic processes and skills for understanding human behavior and the application of these processes to improve the health of communities. Next in the sequence after PH 101, this course provides an in-depth look at community health, one of the disciplines of public health. Students will learn and practice public health methods such as health communication, health promotion, and other program planning methods used to educate and design efforts to prevent disease, injury and improve health and wellbeing. Health programming will focus on communities, instead of individual health. Students will read and analyze public health literature, exploring scholarly and scientific approaches to community health promotion and education. 

Prerequisite:

PH 101

PH 222 - Health Care Policy and Administration

3-0-3
Credit Hours: 3

In this course, students will learn what constitutes health policy and how it is developed and implemented by state, local, and federal governments. The course will focus on the major policy issues of access, quality and cost of healthcare. Students will analyze various health care policies and the impacts on identified stakeholders to learn how to influence policy and be an advocate as a healthcare professional. This course also reviews the basic components of the healthcare system and policy such as public and private insurance, hospitals, reform, innovation, and primary care. Disparities in health and health care access will also be addressed through study of structural factors that influence health and the healthcare system.

Prerequisite:

AH 204 with a grade of "C" or better.

PH 226 - Foundations in Public Health Research

3-0-3
Credit Hours: 3

This course provides students with a foundation in public health research methods, including quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods. Students will be introduced to epidemiology and how research is conducted to determine health problems and issues in affected communities. Students will learn the influence of social constructs and environments on health problems and diseases through evidence-based research used to understand and improve the health of various populations. Students will analyze the effect of environments on specific social groups, considering race, ethnicity, and gender.

Prerequisite:

PH 102, SOC 231 or SOC 233, FNMT 118 or MATH 251