MPH-PHP Practicum Handbook

Welcome to PULHLTH 698P: PHP Practicum. This handbook will provide you with the necessary information you need to know regarding your practicum course. To begin and before you can enroll in the practicum you must complete the 5 “Core” courses of the MPH degree. These core courses include:

  1. PUBHLTH 540-Introduction to Biostatistics:

Application of statistical methods to problems in public health and medical research. Topics include: descriptive statistics, sampling distributions, confidence interval estimation, hypothesis testing, contingency table analysis, and linear regression analysis. Statistical software packages used extensively. Upon enrollment in the course you will receive instructions on how to obtain and use the software.

  1. PUBHLTH 565-Environmental Health Practices:

Concepts of control methods used by environmental health and engineering practitioners. Topics include water, wastewater, solid wastes, food sanitation, vector control, housing, and accident control measures.

  1. PUBHLTH 601-Application of Social and Behavioral theories in Public Health Interventions:

Survey of socio-behavioral theories commonly used in public health education interventions at the individual, group, and community levels.

  1. PUBHLTH 620-Introduction to the US Health Care System:

Introduction to the philosophy, nature, and scope of health organizations; administration and organization of governmental health programs, economic and political forces and their effects on health services.

  1. PUBHLTH 630-Principles of Epidemiology:

An epidemiological perspective on health. General approaches for describing patterns of disease in groups of people, and elucidating various processes involved in creating differing levels of health in human groups.

Once you complete these core courses, you are ready to enroll

for PUBHLTH 698P PHP. It is your choice to complete your practicum now or to pursue your practicum course after most of your other coursework is completed.

As you may or may not know, the practicum course is graded as pass/fail.

The minimum time for a practice experience is 200 hours. However, since you have already indicated that you have 3 years of experience and are currently employed fulltime in a public health or health care setting practice, you will be given 80 hours credit toward the practicum. This credit will reduce the minimum practice requirement to 120 hours.

The following guidelines will provide you with more information regarding your practicum.

Site Selection and Site Supervisor:

As an on-line student, your practicum may be completed at your place of work as long

as the following guidelines are followed:

  • A practicum at an organization where you are already employed usually means you will implement a public health project within this organization. You can do this by working on a public health project that already exists or design your own small project and implement it. The major learning theme for the practicum is to receive practical work experience in public health and utilize your classroom knowledge.
  • The practicum cannot be part of your job description at present. It has to be something new that will help you achieve the goals you identified.
  • It can be accomplished during your normal working hours but again it has to be something new.
  • You will need to find someone in the organization to supervise (or more likely) advise you.

For those of you planning to conduct a practicum outside your place of work, the following practicum site criteria should be met.

  • The Practicum site is an organization, agency, or community that provides planning or services relevant to public health.
  • The Practicum site enables you to further develop and apply specific skills or competencies learned in your PHP OnLine program.
  • The Practicum site provides a Practicum Site Supervisor as described above.
  • The Practicum site exhibits a willingness to provide support, including a workspace, if appropriate for your practicum needs.

The Practicum Site Supervisor should have:

  • Substantial experience with the organization
  • A working knowledge and practical experience in the project areas assigned to you
  • An interest in and commitment to helping you
  • Demonstrates professional work habits and attitudes

In addition, the Practicum Site Supervisor, assists you in designing and achieving your practicum goals, monitors your activities, provides feedback and offers you the chance to learn new skills and/or enhance current skills.

If you are conducting your practicum outside your place of work, the site supervisorintegrates you with the regular staff, explains the structure and function of the agency and introduces you to other community agencies/stakeholders as appropriate.

At either location, the site supervisor invites you to professional meetings and encourages presentations at those meetings when appropriate. The site supervisor is also responsible for evaluating your performance by completing the Site Supervisor Evaluation for Public Health Practice Form at the conclusion of your practicum and providing the UMass School of Public Health and Health Sciences with suggestions for improving and/or changing its practicum process.

Please be advised that some organizations will require acontract betweenthe specified organization and our department and/or the University of Massachusetts. As of this time, our department does not have any protocol in place to accommodate such contracts. Thus,you are encouraged to find organizations which do not require such formal agreements or negotiate with the organization to volunteer without a contract. Some students have been successful with this approach by making a statement such as “Are you willing to let me volunteer/work without the contract? Are there other options we could consider?”

Practicum Topics:

Once you have identified your site and your site supervisor, you need to choose a topic for your practicum. It's important to choose one that is of interest to you and will be valuable to your organization. Some examples of previous practicum topics include: developing asmoking cessation program and/or wellness program at the place of work, designing a comic book to inform children about the hazards of handling bats or the swine flu, implementing an emergency preparedness plan, assessing interventions in pulmonary rehabilitation for COPD patients, etc. As you can see, it's a diverse and interesting list and virtually limitless in what can be achieved.

Word of Caution:

For those of you choosing practicums which may involve surveying and/or interviewing people, analyzing data or possibly, publishing and presenting the results, you may need to obtain Human Subjects approval from your organization as well as from UMass. Contact your organization directly regarding its human subjects procedures. For more information regarding the IRB(Internal Review Board) procedures through the School of Public Health and Health Sciences at UMass, review the link below:

Please expect the review process to take 2-4 weeks.

Next Steps:

Once you have identified your site, practicum project and site supervisor, your next step is to complete the PHP PracticumScope of Work form. This form asks about your areas of interest, your goals for the practicum and the competency areas you hope to address with this practicum. Your practicum should allow for as many of the following concentration-specific competencies learned in the academic program to be applied to your public health setting. These include:

  • Describe the origins of current health care dilemmas
  • Implement best practices in community approaches to health promotion
  • Apply epidemiological methods
  • Explain the influence of environmental factors on the public’s health\
  • Design planning and evaluation procedures

Once the instructor reviews and approves this form, you can begin working on your practicum and at the same time, provide the instructor with your supervisor’s name, title and email address. The instructor will contact your supervisor and explain what is expected of him/her during your practicum assignment. You will be copied in on this correspondence.

Through the course of the semester, you will be asked to submit progress reports on your practicum. These reports should be about 2 to 3 paragraphs long, provide information on what has been achieved on your goals to date and be submitted

by the due dates specified by the instructor.

At the conclusion of your practicum, your supervisor will be expected to complete the Site Supervisor Evaluation for Public Health Practice formas noted previously. This form gives your supervisor an opportunity to rate your professional and personal performance on the practicum as well as your ability to achieve the goals and competencies stated in your Scope of Work form. The completed form can be emailed or faxed to the instructor.

Your next step is to complete the Student Evaluation of the Practicum Formwhere you will have an opportunity to rate your practicum experience and explain how you achieved the competencies outlined in the Scope of Work form. Additionally, you need to submit a well written, 10-page paper summarizing your practicum experience along with 15 power point slides further describing your practicum.

The paper/written report should follow Standard English guidelines, include numbered pages and providea reference list that follows either APA or AMA formats. The report is limited to 10 double-spaced pages, preferably uses10 to 12 font and 1” margins.

Finally, the paper should follow the outline given below. The questions are given to assist you in writing your paper. While you do not have to answer each and every question, they are provided to generate ideas about the site and your experiences.

  • Introduction:
  • Describe the background illustrating the importance of your project and its context. How did you decide on your practicum project?
  • Methods:
  • What were the goals and objectives of your practicum?
  • Results Outcome:
  • What did you do? Who were the people that you interacted with during your experience? What were their roles? Describe the best thing that happened during the experience-something you or someone else said or did, a feeling, insight gained, or goal accomplished.
  • Lessons Learned:
  • What surprised you? What were your positive and negative experiences during the practicum? What did you learn that will enhance your on-line learning experiences? In what ways has this experience changed how you think about public health practice? What insights did you gain that might assist you in your career? What did the experience teach you about public health issues? What specific suggestions do you have that would have improved the project you worked on, the site itself or the experience?

As you know, this course is graded as pass/fail (SAT/UNSAT). Inorder to receive a passing grade, you needto:

  • Complete the PHP Practicum Scope of Work form and the Student Evaluation of the Practicum form; have your supervisor complete the Site Supervisor Evaluation for Public Health Practice form
  • Submit your progress reports
  • Submit a 10 page paper and 15 power point slides.
  • Submit the forms, paper and the power point slides to the instructor on the due dates identified at the beginning of each semester.

All submitted work must adhere to the University's Policy on Academic Honesty which is as follows:

“Since the integrity of the academic enterprise of any institution of higher education requires honesty in scholarship and research, academic honesty is required of all students at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Academic dishonesty is prohibited in all programs of the University. Academic dishonesty includes but is not limited to: cheating, fabrication, plagiarism, and facilitating dishonesty. [Examples of behavior that constitutes academic dishonesty can be found at: Appropriate sanctions may be imposed on any student who has committed an act of academic dishonesty. Any person who has reason to believe that a student has committed academic dishonesty should bring such information to the attention of the appropriate course instructor as soon as possible. Instances of academic dishonesty not related to a specific course should be brought to the attention of the appropriate department Head or Chair. The procedures that are intended to provide an efficient and orderly process by which action may be taken if it appears that academic dishonesty has occurred and by which students may appeal such actions are described in the Dean of Students Code of Student Conduct, available at:
Since students are expected to be familiar with this policy and the commonly accepted standards of academic integrity, ignorance of such standards is not normally sufficient evidence of lack of intent. “

Combining PUBHLTH 698P PHP Practicum and PUBHLTH 691S Capstone Experience:

Normally students will take the PUBHLTH 698P PHP Practicum before they take PUBHLTH 691S Capstone Experience. Many times students find their idea for their capstone project from their practicum. Occasionally, with special permission from the practicum instructor and the capstone course instructor, a student will be allowed to take both courses together (PUBHLTH 698P PHP Practicum and PUBHLTH 691S Capstone Experience), designing and/or implementing the capstone project within the practicum organization. To do so, you must have completed the pre-requisites for both courses, including the 120 hours required for the practicum, andmust significantly expand upon the research and reportyou did for the practicum in order to use the same topic for the capstone (i.e., you have to take what you did for the practicum further in order to use it for the capstone)

If you have any questions or comments regarding the practicum and its requirements, please direct them to the instructor for the course (PUBHLTH 698P), Shirley Mietlicki-Floyd at . Please note that all correspondence regarding this practicum course will be via your UMass email address and not through the Blackboard system; if you prefer a different email address, please notify the instructor at the beginning of the semester.

Revised July 23, 2013