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[deathnomiko]

Out of curiosity, do any of you guys come from a medical background and got a MPH? If so, what doors has it opened and what type of job are you in now?

I'm an RN, but I've been playing with the idea of getting my MPH.

Comments

[2morrows]

In general, it broadens your knowledge base on public health as a whole (you already have the clinical experience that many PH practitioners lack). You can have higher roles within health management (hospitals, clinics, health departments), you can do surveillance (if you want to be more involved with epi and if you get the background you need in your MPH program), etc. Essentially, you can kind of "carve" out your own niche a little better depending on what you want to do, but I think it would help to have a clearer idea of what you WANT to do/WHERE you want to go, rather than just "get an MPH" (since everyone seems to be doing that nowadays). Does that make sense?

[deathnomiko]

thanks for your reply!

I'm in the process of really trying to figure that out. I know I don't want to do bedside nursing my entire career, and do have an interest in public health education like on communicable diseases and HIV/AIDS.

Epi would be really interesting to study too. But as you can see, I don't have a clear picture in my head yet.

[2morrows]

If the one thing you DO know is that you DON'T want to do bedside nursing for the rest of your life, then I really don't think you can go wrong with getting your MPH. It complements your bedside experience nicely, but it's not OMG-career-changing at the same time (which can be rather scary if you don't have a clear idea of what you want to do)! Anyway, best of luck! :)