Syllabus

Schedule

Course Schedule:

Each week opens on Wednesday at 12:01 AM Eastern Time. Each week closes on Wednesday at 11:59 pm ET, with the exception of Week 16, which ends on Sunday. 

• Week 01: Aug 29 – Sept 5
• Week 02: Sept 5 – Sept 12
• Week 03: Sept 12 – Sept 19
• Week 04: Sept 19 –  Sept 26
• Week 05: Sept 26 –  Oct 3
• Week 06: Oct 3 – Oct 10
• Week 07: Oct 10 –  Oct 17
• Week 08: Oct 17 –  Oct 24
• Week 09: Oct 24 – Oct 31
• Week 10: Oct 31 –  Nov 7
• Week 11: Nov 7 – Nov 14
• Week 12: Nov 14 –  Nov 21
• Week 13: Nov 21 – Nov 28
• Week 14: Nov 28 –  Dec 5
• Week 15: Dec 5 – Dec 12
• Week 16: Dec 12 –  Dec 16

Week 1

Learning Outcomes

• Familiarize with the different faces of public health.
• Define the role of the applied practice experience site and how it fulfills public health goals and essential services.

Discussion: Introduction and Photo

Introduce yourself. Tell us about your professional background, why you chose to get an MPH degree and any fun facts about you. Then submit a photo for Blackboard:

Assignment 1: Essential Services

Using the 10 essential services of public health as a guide, write a one-page essay describing the difference between public health and medicine. Cite your sources using AMA style.
https://www.cdc.gov/stltpublichealth/publichealthservices/essentialhealthservices.html

Weeks 2-4

Learning Outcomes

• Familiarize with the different faces of public health.
• Define the role of the applied practice experience site and how it fulfills public health goals and essential services.
• Identify the strengths of different personality types and how they can be engaged in the context of public health.

Discussion Week 2: Practice experience site description

Describe your practicum site. What do they do, and what tasks will you be undertaking at their site? What products will you be creating? List the essential public health services that your practice experience site provides.

Discussion Week 4: Personality types

Are you familiar with Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®)? Knowing your own personality type and being aware of what other personality types exist can help you enhance your communication skills.

Assignment 2, Week 4: Interprofessional Practice Paper

Using the example from the public health interdisciplinary case competition, how can different disciplines come together to address public health? What are the different educational backgrounds of the people who work at the site? What impact do you think interprofessional practice can have on public health work that your site does?

Weeks 5-7

Learning Outcomes

• The development of professional skills.

Discussion Week 7: Elevator Pitch

An “elevator pitch” or the ability to convey who you are, what you do or want to do in the time that it takes to ride get up a few floors in the elevator (~30 seconds), can be very helpful as you meet new people in your professional network. 

Assignment 3, Week 7: Systems Thinking

Systems thinking is another important skill for public health professionals. Read the attached journal article, and write a one-page reflection paper on how systems thinking is applied at your site. What do you understand by the term ‘systems thinking’? What role does systems thinking have in public health? How could systems thinking be incorporated into your applied practice experience?

Weeks 8-11

Weekly Outcomes

• Navigate the work environment to complete objectives

Progress Report, Week 9

Midway through the practice experience, students share their progress towards completing their project goals through the submission of Progress Reports.

Discussion Week 11: What Classes will you Take?

What courses were most useful in preparing you for your field work? Based on what you have learnt in the field so far, what electives do you plan to take?

Assignment 4, Week 11: Reflection on Communication

Write a one-page reflection paper on your communication experience at your site. How well does your preceptor communicate with you, and how well do you communicate with others at the site? What is working, and what isn’t? Explain the importance of teamwork and communication for public health professionals. Use the readings for this week as a guide.

Weeks 12-15

Learning Outcome

• Reflect on how the APE enabled learning and application of professional skills for public health.

Assignment 5, Week 12: Final Report and Evaluation Complete Draft

Submit complete Final Report and evaluation draft. For any sections of your final report and evaluation that are not complete, include an explanation for why they are not complete and how you plan to complete them by the time the revised final is due in Week 15.

Assignment 6, Week 13: Leadership Reflection

Read the attached journal articles, and write a one-page reflection paper on the leadership experience at your site. Using one of the definitions of leadership in the paper, describe the leadership experience at your site – this could be positive or negative. 

Assignment 7, Week 14: Plan for ILE

In your final semester in the program, you will write a paper as part of the Integrative Learning Experience (ILE). This paper can be based on the work you completed for your APE, or on any other topic of interest to you. 

Discussion Week 15: Reflection

You are almost done with the course! Reflect on your applied practice experience work. What did you learn about public health, your passion, interests and style of work?
Respond to each question, and then respond to 3 classmates.

Assignment 8, Week 15: Synopsis

Design a creative one-page synopsis of your practice experience. Each person’s page will feature in an online magazine of applied practice experiences. This document will be shared with faculty, students and staff of the public health program.

Assignment 9: Final Report

Submit final report and evaluation.

Preceptor Evaluation

Submit with final report.

Student Resources

Policies