For Faculty – DrPH Practicum

The DrPH is the highest professional degree in public health. It is designed to advance an individual’s skills and competencies. The practicum is a field experience which bridges professional academic preparation and advanced public health practice. Advanced knowledge and skills, based on the DrPH competencies and learned in the DrPH courses, are applied in an agency setting under the direction and guidance of an experienced supervisor/mentor. The practicum for DrPH students must incorporate higher level skills (policy development, epidemiologic analyses, etc.) compared to the MPH internship experiences, although the settings may be similar. These higher level skills are expected to reinforce the competencies attained in pursuing the DrPH degree.

THE FACULTY PRACTICUM ADVISOR AGREES TO:

A.   Assist the student in arranging a practicum.
B.   Before the practicum begins, aid the student in outlining the objectives, activities, and product(s) of the practicum.
C.   Assure that these objectives and activities meet CEPH requirements
D.   Advise the student if IRB approval is necessary
E.   Provide advice and guidance to the student through telephone contact or email and in response to reports.
F.   Call the student for a conference whenever a potential problem appears to have arisen.
G.   Provide academic resources as needed.
H.   Remove the student if the advisor deems that either the student or the setting is inappropriate.
I.   Assist the host agency and its employees in any way possible to enhance the total educational effort.

Students should be graded on a pass/no pass basis based on the information in the Practicum Description and Agreement form, the student’s Monthly Reflections, the student’s Final Evaluation of Practicum, the student’s written products, the student’s final presentation, and the preceptor’s Midpoint and Final Evaluation of Student Performance. All of these form and documents can be found in InternTrack. DrPH degree students are required to complete a minimum of six credit hours (or approximately 360 contact hours) in practicum experience.