July 2016

What Do Public Health Professionals Do?

Public health is a broad field covering diverse professions that include public health specific professionals such as epidemiologists to professionals that can focus on public health, such as a public health registered nurses, community health workers, health educators, and biostatisticians. To access specific public health professionals, click on any of the following links:

Biostatistician

Environmental Health Workers

Epidemiologists

Health Educators

Health Policy Analysts

Occupational Health and Safety Specialists

Public health professionals address the needs of the community or population (rather than health care treatment to the individual) through disease education and prevention, data collection and analysis, disease surveillance, health emergency preparedness, environmental and occupational safety, and health policy development. Specific public health activities include assuring a safe environment through testing or assessing of restaurants; public water supplies; and public pools; responding to and documenting disease outbreaks; collecting data on communicable diseases such as rabies, West Nile Virus, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), and other infectious diseases, as well as working with the community to prepare for and respond to natural disasters and emergencies.

Where Do Public Health Professionals Work?

Public Health professionals work mostly for federal, state, and local governments and in the traditional office setting. Some public health professions work in the community performing evaluations and/or collecting data.

How Much Do Public Health Professionals Earn?

The income for public health professionals varies by occupation and by setting. Since many public health professionals work in government settings, the salary is determined by civil service law. Please see specific public health professions for accurate salary averages.

Supply and Demand

The supply and demand for public health professionals varies by occupation. See specific public health professions for accurate incomes by occupation.

Educational Requirements

Public health profession educational requirements range from associate to post-doctoral degrees, depending on the public health profession. There are also a number of educational programs that confer a second degree in conjunction with the public health degree such as medicine, law, business administration, and public administration.

New York Licensure Requirements

Licensure requirements vary by the public health profession. For professionals such as registered nurses and nutritionists/dieticians, state licensure requirements are pertinent. Other public health professionals such as biostatisticians or epidemiologists do not need licensure in New York.

There are options for certification in public health, though most organizations do not require it as a condition of employment. The two certifications in public health include:

• Certified in Public Health by the National Board of Public Health Examiners at https://www.nbphe.org/
• Certification offered by the Public Health Practitioner Certification Board, Inc.  Professions for public health administrators and emergency response coordinators at http://phpcb.org/

Education Programs in New York (Subject to Change)

Programs in Public Health

Additional Web Links

American Public Health Association at https://www.apha.org/what-is-public-health

Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health at http://www.aspph.org/

What is Public Health at http://www.cdcfoundation.org/content/what-public-health