If you are looking to gain an advanced degree in a health field that may be outside of the typical medical or clinical field, but still offers opportunities to work with patients and healthcare organizations, an MPH degree may be just what you’re looking for. Earning your master’s degree in public health rewards you with an unusual and exciting selection of positions and stimulating work environments. Below are eight interesting and unique careers you can pursue after earning your MPH.
1
Health Content Curator
Health content curators amass existing sources of health-related issues to create patient education material or health campaigns. In the private sector you could create online health campaigns for major health insurance agencies to help engage their member patients. In the public sector, you may create health content to deliver messages designed, directly or indirectly, to influence health behaviors through county health departments. Nowadays, health content curation may be digital and communicated through social media and text message campaigns.
2
Public Relations Specialist
Public Relations doesn’t just have to mean work related to journalism, news agencies, or major business corporations. As a PR specialist with an MPH degree, you can utilize your skills in health communication to reach a wide audience. Health communication can involve informing the public about specific diseases or illnesses, framing health issues for policy change, and influencing large-scale health decisions.
3
Food and Agriculture Scientist
Working in food and agriculture goes beyond farming when you hold an MPH degree. Here you can study crops and livestock, work with government agencies to improve nutrition, or find efficient ways to create new food products for companies. Overall, this field aims to improve the safety and efficiency of food and agriculture. Additionally, many MPH programs may offer a specialization in nutrition education. Public health jobs in this area can involve working directly with communities and schools to improve nutrition in school lunches and reduce food deserts in low-income neighborhoods.
4
Health Informatics Specialist
Health informatics utilizes “Big Data” to improve patient outcomes and help large-scale agencies make informed healthcare decisions. According to Michigan Tech University, “[health informatics] deals with the resources, devices, and methods required to optimize the acquisition, storage, retrieval, and use of information in health and biomedicine.” This is a great opportunity if you have a background in engineering, coding, and using IT tools to protect patient-sensitive data and safeguard hospital computer systems.
5
Health Economist
A job in health economics applies economic theory to understand and study the behaviors and decisions of consumers, government organizations, and healthcare providers. You would work to promote healthy outcomes by using health economic principles to address global health issues. As a health economist, you may find useful work in the government sector, for example working for a local, state, or federal health agency, to help influence efficiency in healthcare.
6
Substance Abuse Counselor
Counseling jobs related to substance abuse, or behavioral health issues are not just for those with a PhD. This work requires creating a treatment plan to advise and aid in behaviors to help with recovery. However, it should be noted that different states have different requirements and working as a counselor in private practice usually requires licensure. In addition to issues around alcohol and drugs, as a substance abuse counselor, you can also focus on eating disorders and other addiction issues, like gambling. Counseling can give you a broad clientele, but also allows for specialization, such as focused work with women or military veterans.
7
Healthcare Consultant
As a healthcare consultant, you will be expected to analyze finances to find strengths and weaknesses in a company or organization’s economic strategies. From there, you will propose solutions to help the company budget efficiently, while improving patient outcomes. Healthcare consulting is a great option if you are detail-oriented and enjoy working in a business environment.
8
Health and Medical Freelance Writer
With an MPH degree, you don’t have to be limited to an office job. Because there is so much variety in public health, there is variety in the kind of work you can do with it, including freelance writing. This can include research, writing promotion literature, content for health websites, as well as news articles. Your role as a health and medical writer is to take scientific research and make it presentable to other scientists and the general public. To succeed, you should enjoy writing for a wide audience and be comfortable with the possibility of a less predictable workload.
Where do you go from here?
