r/publichealth • u/Short-Worldliness297 • 9d ago

DISCUSSION Is Public Health a good path ?

If there anyone who is currently doing there bsc or mph in public health or a proffessional, please kindly share your insights and experiences.They'll be really worth for me.

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u/dec92010 MPH Community Health Sciences, MCHES 9d ago

public health might not exist in like 2 years

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u/MrChrisRedfield67 9d ago

America isn't the only country with Public Health programs. American's public sector for Public Health is obviously going through a rough time right now but non-US based public health will still exist. A LOT of our interventions are based off of piloted programs in other countries like Safe Injection Sites.

Also, non-profits are also public health based. They might be inefficient at times but a lot of public health research wouldn't exist without funding from non-profits like the American Heart Association etc.

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u/dec92010 MPH Community Health Sciences, MCHES 9d ago

True but OP was interested in the USA, according to their posts

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u/MrChrisRedfield67 8d ago

Public health will still exist in the United States because diseases don't magically go away by not believing in them.

American Heart Association, American Cancer Society, MS Society, March Dimes, etc. all fund public health based research conducted at research hospitals and employ public health related staff. Pharmaceuticals companies have a lot of MPHs or PHDs as epidemiologists and biostatisticians. Infection Controls staff that work at hospitals and long-term care facilities are a mixture of MPHs and nurses. A lot of non-profits around maternal health, harm reduction, HIV care, LGBTQ+ based care and other organizations that have been here 20+ years through multiple administrations providing services that health departments can't like needle exchange services.

I agree that it isn't the best time to get into the field but I think people fail to realize how big the field actually is. The field goes beyond health departments and the CDC.