Online MPH programs

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hello,

I am new to this site as of five minuets ago, however i have been reading posts and surfing this site for a couple of months now. I graduated a year ago with a degree in public relations, and although everyone says get a job in your field and go to school later i instead want to go ahead and get everything done. My overall goal is get my master's in public health and then get an associates degree in nursing. As far as my master's degree is concerned i have a daughter in kindergarten who is hearing impaired and due to the fact that i have been in school since the time she was born i have been struggling to spend enough time with her like i want to.i feel that i have been a bad mother and not as involved with getting through her disability as i should. ( Oh i am also a single mother). So i guess my question is would it be better to go to a college in my city or just get my master's online, and then go to school for nursing. That way i will have more time to commit to my daughter. I am interested in working in the non-profit organization arena or in public health departments. If anyone can give me some advice i would truely appreciate it. I've heard about capella university but a lot of people have not, has anyone attended that school? or has done a mph program online? if so how is it and what schools are accrediated? Also what would be the best way to accomplish my goals in an reasonable amount of time?

for full admission, requirements are a 3.0 gpa, resume, 3 recommendation letters, and a letter of intent (optional). the gre is not required. i don't think the program is hard to get into. from my experience there weren't a lot of papers or group projects, which i like. i don't care for programs that rely too heavily on group work. for one, it can be very difficult, but not impossible, to do group work in an online program. i don't like classes that count group projects as a major percentage of your grade. these are some of the reasons why i left my msn program to do an mph program instead. the instructors i had were fairly reasonable in their expectations except for maybe the one i had for biostatistics, but from what i see they aren't teaching it anymore. i've been doing the program part-time since 2007, and only started going full-time this year. there is a 300 hour internship that's required. i'm doing mine now. you must have at least 30 credit hours completed and all core courses completed before beginning the internship. it's 45 total credits to graduate. it's best to start planning the internship early because the negotiation process can be long depending on your selected agency. if you have at least 3 years of prior public health experience then you can petition to do a master's research project or master's thesis instead. you also have the option of completing a graduate certificate for specialization purposes. i'm also pursuing a graduate certificate in health promotion and disease prevention. the credits are also used as electives for my mph. the mph itself is a generalist degree. i hope i've answered some of your questions. if not, feel free to ask anything else.

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thank you so much i will apply and see where it will take me

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Specializes in ER, ICU, anticoagulation mgmt.

Tmarie75,

Do you have any plans on what you would like to do with your career/MPH?

Thanks!

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JeanneRN83,

I plan to continue working in public health. With my MPH and MSN degree (I've decided to finish my MSN also and will be starting the program in 2 weeks) I hope to work as a public health nurse administrator.

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Specializes in ER, ICU, anticoagulation mgmt.

Tmarie,

Thank you so much for all the info on FIU. It looks like a good program but hearing from someone who is in the program always helps.

I am curious re: the internship. How did you coordinate the internship with your regular job? Did you have to cut back on the number of hours you work at your regular job in order to do the internship? How many hours a week did you put towards the internship?

Thank you,

Jeanne

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jeannern83,

i'm happy to provide any information that may be helpful. initially, when i started the program in 2007, i was working full-time. almost a year ago, i decided to take a part-time position in public health since i knew i needed to be flexible to complete the internship hours and i didn't want to not work. the internship requires 300 hours, so i do my internship hours twice a week on my days off from 9 am to 5 pm. basically, i do 16 hours a week for my internship so i can continue to work and go to school. i am stretching my internship over 2 semesters (at no additional cost). right now, i am on semester break and have stopped my field experience. i will resume the internship at the end of the month. i am more than halfway done with my hours, so i will finish the rest of my hours in the fall and graduate this december with the mph degree. for the msn program i am about to start i will have to do 180 internship hours for that, so i will continue to work part-time until i finish that program. i hope to graduate from the msn program in december 2010. after graduating with the msn, i will seek full-time employment again. are you considering an mph program? or even an msn program with a public health concentration? do you currently work in public health or is it something you're interested in getting into?

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Specializes in ER, ICU, anticoagulation mgmt.

tmarie,

thank you so much for your info!

no, i don't work in ph. but i have always had an interest in epidemiology and biostatistics. i've done icu, ed in the past as well as a research nurse (cooridinating research studies, not my own research!):wink2:

i am just starting to look at online programs. i thought i wanted a combined msn/mph program or a msn program with a concentration in ph. however, it looks like those programs are really for nurses who want to specialize in ph nursing. do you have any input on this? so i think that i want a mph with a focus on epidemiology and biostatistics. i'm still researching all the roles that nurses with a mph can do. i found a really good description of roles on the unc website: http://www.sph.unc.edu/student_affairs/careers_in_public_health_324_7817.html.

i will post the website in a different thread on this forum for those thinking about a mph. so i am not positive as to what i want to do with a mph. i really like math which attracts me to the epidemiolgy but i really like working with people and i am not sure how to combine those two aspects.

so far, there are two degree programs that i like. one is fiu and the other is unc mph in leadership.

i know you said that fiu is more reasonably priced than others. were you able to get any scholarships from fiu?

now there is one problem with doing an online course: my cat! she can't stand it when i am on the computer - and it's not like she doesn't get attention! well, i guess i can manage that one somehow.:)

well, thanks again, tmarie. i'm sure i will be back with more questions!

jeanne

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jeanne,

as far as msn vs. mph, i think it depends on what you want to do. if you say your focus is more epidemiology/biostats and not necessarily phn, then i would opt for the mph instead. i think the msn could limit you to only phn jobs, whereas the mph would provide more flexibility and versatility within all of those areas. you could specialize in epidemiology or biostatistics with the mph degree. a combined msn/mph could also be a good way to go. if i could have found a combined program that was accredited, affordable, and accessible to me, i would have gone this route myself.

advancing healthy populations: the pfizer guide to careers in public health and public health: career choices that make a difference by bernard j. turnock are useful references regarding public health career options also.

at the graduate level, financial support is harder to obtain. unless you plan to attend the actual campus, then you can't get graduate assistantships or things of that nature. i don't want to become debt-ridden with loans, so i pay for school by continuing to work.

good luck!

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Specializes in ER, ICU, anticoagulation mgmt.

tmarie,

thank you so much for the advice. i think that's what i was missing is phn vs. ph career. two very different things. i think i am just going to go with a mph.

and i really appreciate the book references. the books will be a big help in defining more clearly what i want for my career.

i'm sure i will be getting in touch with you to ask some more questions as i move along this path.

thanks,

jeanne

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I just started at San Jose State University. So, even though it's an online course, it is backed by a bricks and mortar university. The MPH program focuses on health eduction. The course is intense - 24 months of study nonstop, but the faculty is very supportive. Every week with have live classroom sessions via the internet, which is great. The rest of the reading etc. is posted on another site called blackboard. I think this online course is the closest one can get to a campus based course, because there is so much interaction between students and faculty via the internet.

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Specializes in Adult Med/Surg, NICU,.

Not sure if you still check this thread; but TMarie could you have taken more classes and graduated sooner than 2 years? I am interested in pursuing my MPH degree as I will be the lactation consultant for my hospital and I am in several advocacy organizations. Not sure if I should get a degree or a certificate. I definitely don't want to be in school for an additional 2 more years. I am completing my BSN now. Thanks

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not sure if you still check this thread; but tmarie could you have taken more classes and graduated sooner than 2 years? i am interested in pursuing my mph degree as i will be the lactation consultant for my hospital and i am in several advocacy organizations. not sure if i should get a degree or a certificate. i definitely don't want to be in school for an additional 2 more years. i am completing my bsn now. thanks

it is possible to take more credits, but i don't think it would have made that much difference. the average time of completion for the program is about 2 years. another thing to consider is the current economic climate, which means that many of the classes are not offered as often as they used to be in the past. some are only offered certain times a year. this will surely dictate how fast one can complete the program. the mph degree requires a lot of credits for completion (45 credit hours) plus at my school you had to successfully complete either a supervised field experience, a master's thesis, or a master's research project to graduate. i finally finished my mph and graduated december 2009.

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