Elsevier

Public Health

Volume 140, November 2016, Pages 265-267
Public Health

Short Communication
Improving public health competencies through required practice experience

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2016.07.001Get rights and content

Highlights

  • The internship experience improves MPH core competencies.

  • The internship experience improves MPH concentration-specific competencies.

  • The internship is an important part of a competency-based public health education.

Section snippets

Self-reported response

Nineteen students completed internships for SLU CPHSJ in fall 2015. Eighteen (95%) reported responses for internship type (full/part time), setting (local/international), pay (paid/unpaid), and concentration. These responses were reported through the initial required internship agreement form. The majority of students completed part time internships (57.9%), were unpaid (73.7%), and worked locally (78.9%). Concentrations varied, but the majority of students were epidemiology concentrators

Self-reported competency improvement

Self-reported competency change showed 49.5% improvement rate overall with a mean improvement of 0.53 ± 0.69. Core MPH competencies improved at a rate of 64.8% with mean improvement of 0.71 ± 0.65, compared to non-core competencies which showed a 47.1% improvement rate with a mean improvement of 0.50 ± 0.69. Concentration competencies showed a 61.0% improvement rate with mean improvements of 0.63 ± 0.66, compared to non-concentration competencies which had an improvements rate of 48.2% and mean

Covariate analysis

Multiple regression analysis was performed on the three available covariates (type, setting, pay) to test any possible correlation with competency improvements. Students' individual competency improvement rates were regressed against internship type, setting, and pay. Regression analysis showed no significant correlation between competency improvement and any of the covariates. Respectively, internship type, setting, and pay had P-values of 0.906, 0.884, and 0.156.

This study attempted to

Ethical approval

The research project was found to be exempt by Saint Louis University IRB.

Funding

The project was not funded by any grants.

Competing interests

The authors disclose that they are either employed by or otherwise affiliated with the College for Public Health & Social Justice of Saint Louis University.

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There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

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