Hello everyone. My name is Greg Loeben, PhD, MPH, and I am an Associate Professor and Practicum Director for the MPH Program. I can provide support to you in all stages of the practicum. In particular, I can offer guidance as you attempt to understand the structure and requirements of the course, find a practicum site and preceptor, develop a project, and move through the course.
Once you are enrolled in PUBH7800 (or PUBH7850), the course in Canvas will provide you with the information and documents that you will need. However, for those interested in learning more about the course in advance and, perhaps, doing some preliminary work to set up a site and project, we have created this informational resource. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me by phone or email. I am happy to help.
Here are links to four informational videos that provide a useful overview of the elements of the course. Watching these videos is the best place to start learning about the details of the Practicum course (PUBH7800).
Students have two academic blocks to complete all of the requirements for PUBH7800, which is a total of 21 weeks (two 10 week blocks, plus the week between). All the course requirements must be completed within that time frame. This means that you will need to find a site to complete the practice experience portion of the course fairly quickly once the course starts. Finding a site is the key to the entire course. Once you have a site, everything else follows from that.
It is important to watch the informational videos provided above. After that, if you are interested in beginning your search for a practice site prior to the start of your enrollment in PUBH7800, you are more than welcome (and even encouraged) to do so. Feel free to contact Dr. Loeben (the Practicum Director) for guidance.
Keep in mind that an essential component of a public health organization is that it is primarily focused on community or population health rather than individual clinical encounters. This often entails aiming at prevention rather than treatment after one is sick or injured (though even this distinction has limits).
Clinical sites that qualify as Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), Health Center Look-Alikes, Rural Health Clinics, or Community Health Centers, as well as sites that provide in designated Health Professional Shortage Areas, and sometimes those that primarily provide for underserved populations are also acceptable public health sites as long as your project is public health-focused.
Dual-degree students are allowed to complete the APE portion of the Practicum course at a current or previous rotation site for their primary program as long as it qualifies as a public health site. It is possible for students to complete the APE project simultaneously while completing a clinical rotation for their primary program.
Once you are enrolled in the course, all of these documents are available within Canvas. If you are not yet enrolled, you can view them here to help you get started thinking about the requirements and steps necessary in the process, as well as doing some preliminary work setting up a site and project if you wish.
You cannot begin work on your actual, approved APE project before you enroll in the Practicum course and the academic block starts. However, you are welcome to do some work finding and setting up a site and project in advance. If you want to begin getting site approval ahead of your enrollment in the course, please review the course materials in this resource and then contact the Practicum Director Dr. Greg Loeben with any questions.
Applied Practice Experience (APE) Documents:
Integrated Learning Experience (ILE) Documents:
IMPORTANT information for ASDOH - MOSDOH students:
Any time that you spend away from the clinic - including the use of your summer rotation between your D3 and D4 years - MUST BE CLEARED through your Comprehensive Care Unit (CCU) director, especially if you require more than the 4 weeks. You obtain that clearance by submitting an "Absence Request" form that you can find over at your CCU. Once you get it signed, you then submit the form to the appropriate administrator in your program. While you may not be able to fill out the form and get it signed until you have firm dates and commitments from everyone else, you should let your CCU director know early in the process what you are planning to set up and when. By keeping your CCU director in the loop, you can avoid running into any bad surprises at the last minute.
You have two (2) academic blocks to complete BOTH parts of your Practicum (the APE and the ILE). The clock starts ticking on the first day of the block (quarter) in which you are enrolled in the Practicum.