Practicum Course Offerings

YSPH’s practicum courses provide opportunities to work on real world problems and projects with community partners. These courses not only provide students with hands-on practice experience but also help them jumpstart their careers in public health. (See Yale Course Search for prerequisites and full course descriptions.)

While courses are subject to changing and can be viewed here, below are descriptions of practicum courses that may be used to fulfill the APE if your internship does not:

This is an experiential learning course focused on domestic and transnational health justice work. Health justice work focuses on health equity and is committed to addressing the fundamental social causes of disease. It also emphases power-building and political economy, instead of viewing health as a technocratic field where issues are resolved through application of expertise alone. Students work on projects supervised by faculty and in collaboration with outside partners. Projects change according to the needs of our partners and are generally determined at the beginning of each term. Credits vary according to the time commitment required by the projects. The course is designed for public health and law students, but other students may enroll where appropriate given project needs.

Yale Course Catalog information about the Health Justice Practicum >

The Health Policy provides students with experience in either a hospital management/administration or policy. This course allows students to work on current state and/or local health policy issues while placed with state and/or local legislative or executive agency policy makers, or with senior staff at a nonprofit health policy or advocacy group.

Yale Course Catalog information about the Health Policy Practicum >

This course is designed for students who wish to deepen their practice-based learning in health policy and develop additional research, communication, and advocacy skills through continuing work in a particular practicum placement and/or on a particular health policy topic. Students are placed with state and/or local legislative or executive agency policy makers, or with senior staff at nonprofit health policy or advocacy groups. Completion of the HPM 555 is a prerequisite.

Yale Course Catalog information about the Advanced Health Policy Practicum >

The Health Care Management Practicum enables students to apply their academic and practical knowledge of business and healthcare to challenges and opportunities facing a hospital or other health provider organization under the guidance of a preceptor. This is a project-based learning experience in which students each week work between 7-8 hours.

Yale Course Catalog information about the Health Care Management Practicum >

The focus of this course is to provide students with advanced public health practice skills through both on-site experience and classroom skill development. Students choose field placements in settings that afford the opportunity to apply public health concepts and competencies relevant to the students’ areas of specialization. Emphasis is placed on placements with community-based organizations and other public health service settings such as local or state health departments, where students work on actual public health problems and issues.

Open to second-year MPH students, Advanced Professional MPH students, and Accelerated MBA/MPH students. Not open to auditors.

Yale Course Catalog information about the Public Health Practicum >

This practicum experience addresses the objectives of the concentration and is conducted in partnership with a public health or other community organization. Prior to the practicum, students complete a work plan and project description that will be reviewed by a faculty adviser and their preceptor at the partner organization. Possible projects may include evaluation, needs assessment, advocacy, public health communication, and/or service provision. Projects should be focused on understanding and ameliorating social or structural determinants of health inequality. During the practicum, students participate in biweekly group reflection meetings with concentration faculty and other concentration students. Upon completion of the practicum, students produce a minimum of two tangible work products or deliverables. These projects and deliverables must be distinct from the students’ thesis work or work completed in other independent study courses. Open only to students in the U.S. Health Justice Concentration.

Yale Course Catalog information about the U.S. Health Justice Concentration Practicum >

In the course, interdisciplinary student teams carry out applied projects at the intersection of climate justice, law and public policy, and public health. Each team works with a partner organization (e.g., state agency, community organization, other nongovernmental organization) to study, design, and implement a project, typically through community-based participatory research practices. The course affords the opportunity to have a real-world impact by applying concepts and competencies learned in the classroom. This course should be of interest to graduate and professional students across the University and is open to Yale College juniors and seniors. In addition, this course is one of the options available to students to fulfill the practice requirement for the MPH degree at YSPH and the capstone requirement for the MEM degree at YSE. Students who plan to enroll must complete an application, which will be used to match each student with a clinic project.

Yale Course Catalog information about the Clinic in Climate Justice and Public Health >