Real World Application of Public Health Skills and Training
When you enroll at the Yale School of Public Health, you'll hear a lot about the internship and applied practice experience practicum requirements. These immersive experiences are carefully planned, supported and evaluated by our practice and career management staff. Both experiences provide robust opportunities for the real-world application of public health knowledge and skills and support your career goals. Many students report inspiring, life changing experiences from their time around the world and in local settings. Your internship may fulfill the applied practice experience requirement, but if not, there are multiple practicum courses from which you can choose that will provide the hands-on public health practice training required for your MPH degree.
Applied Practice Experience and the Internship
Sample practicum projects
- Strategize and advocate with the CT Oral Health Initiative for the inclusion of dental health in the Connecticut Health Information Exchange through identifying key barriers while increasing access to advocacy materials.
- Conduct a cost Effectiveness Analysis of the Essential Package of Health Services for the Malawi Ministry of Health. Information gathered is also used in the micro-planning and costing for the Ministry of Health’s Emergency and Critical Care services.
- Develop workplace safety protocols for COVID-19 while supporting a needs assessment to monitor the impact of COVID-19 on All Our Kin. The information gathered is being used to address ongoing equity issues, as well those issues that have become apparent due to the impact of COVID-19.
Recent internships
- URU The Right to Be, Inc: Our Humanity, Building Bridges & COVID 19 Learning Hubs
- Beirut, Lebanon/American University of Beirut: Mapping Stakeholders to Assess Cancer Care Policy Landscape in Lebanon
- United Health Group Contact Tracer (NYDHMH): COVID-19 Contact Monitor for NYC
- Yale Global Health Leadership Initiative: The Expanded Program on Immunization Leadership and Management Programme
- Maryland Department of Health: DSMES & Maryland Medicaid (Preparing evidence to have Diabetes Self-Management Education and Supports covered by Maryland Medicaid)
rev. 8.10.2021
Student Research and the Capstone Project
Opportunities for research abound at Yale. Many students work as research assistants at the Yale School of Public Health, Yale School of Medicine, Yale New Haven Hospital or the VA. Many of these projects culminate in peer review publications.
In addition, HCM students complete the capstone course, ‘Managing Health Care in Complex Systems’ (HPM 688), in the spring of their final year. The capstone, which culminates in an individual (7-10 page written report) and team (oral presentation) strategy brief, will ask students to:
- Define a problem in health care
- Set an objective and describe root causes
- Advocate for a selected strategy
- Provide guidance on implementation
- Offer key indicators for evaluation of the strategy’s success
This capstone experience is designed to prepare students for the transition from the academic environment focused on mastery of expertise and skills, to the ‘real world’ of health care.
Recent Capstone Projects
- Hospital PPE Management during Pandemic Circumstances
- Easing Caregiver’s Administrative Burdens
- Value-Based Drug Pricing for Specialty Therapeutics
- Hypertension-Related Emergency Department Visits in New Haven
- Language Access Services for Limited-English Proficient Patients: A Brief for the Joint Commission