Public Health Master's Degree Online: Master of Public Health Degree Program

The Master of Public Health degree is a widely recognized professional credential for those seeking leadership and managerial positions in governmental, nonprofit, and private organizations in the public health industry.* Kaplan University’s Master of Public Health could help you develop the administrative, ethical, and professional skills needed to apply public health principles to health education and communication programs.

| Curriculum | Tuition and Fees

Program Highlights

Kaplan University’s Master of Public Health program is designed to help you:

Apply scientific research, epidemiological, and statistical methods in public health practice.
Develop public health policies and programs that meet the health needs of the community.
Design effective health education programs and materials for culturally diverse communities.
Assess the impact of occupational and environmental exposures on the health of individuals.

What are the Career Opportunities?

With a Master of Public Health from Kaplan University, you may be prepared to pursue a wide range of industry positions including health care consultant, epidemiologist, program coordinator, and program manager.† You may also have a solid foundation for further academic pursuits.^‡

Curriculum for the Master of Public Health

Course #	Course Title	Credits
HA 510	ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR HEALTH CARE	4 ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR HEALTH CARE This course explores organizational behavior, theory, and development as they apply to the health care industry. Topics include, but are not limited to, classic and modern theory, individual behavior and motivation, group dynamics, conflict management, decision making, culture values, and organizational dysfunction. Physician leadership development and change management are also explored.
HA 520	HEALTH CARE FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT	4 HEALTH CARE FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT This course introduces the terminology, theory, concepts, and techniques used in the finance functions in health care organizations. Students gain an understanding of the important role of finance in health care organizations and learn various techniques to develop, manage, and control finances. Students interpret financial statements, prepare analyses of financial data necessary to make decisions, describe the different third-party payment methods, experiment with cost finding and price setting, and conduct break-even analyses. The course provides students with experience in capital and operating budgets, financial forecasts, and business plan preparation. Students will be expected to expand their utilization of spreadsheet applications.
HA 565	HEALTH INFORMATION MANAGEMENT AND ASSESSMENT	4 HEALTH INFORMATION MANAGEMENT AND ASSESSMENT This course provides a comprehensive examination of the principles and practices of the management of health information. The course covers three principal areas of health information management: Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), electronic health information management (e-HIM), and informatics.
PU 505	HEALTH BEHAVIOR	4 HEALTH BEHAVIOR This course provides a conceptual grounding in theoretical approaches to health and health behavior, emphasizing the use of psychosocial theories and models of health behavior for effective public health practice and research. Students apply the theories and models of health behavior to real-world scenarios encountered in public health. The course focuses on the various factors that influence health behavior, the impact on health and disease of populations, and the implications for health programming.
PU 515	APPLIED BIOSTATISTICS FOR HEALTH PROFESSIONALS	4 APPLIED BIOSTATISTICS FOR HEALTH PROFESSIONALS This applied biostatistics course encourages students to become consumers of statistical information regarding issues surrounding health education and public health in order to make sound decisions. Research methodolo¬gies, data collection, and analysis are also explored.
PU 520	APPLIED EPIDEMIOLOGY FOR HEALTH PROFESSIONALS	4 APPLIED EPIDEMIOLOGY FOR HEALTH PROFESSIONALS This course introduces the epidemiologic methods, concepts, and issues that are critical for the assessment, analysis, and interpretation of health-related data. Students study advanced epidemiologic methods used in surveillance, outbreak investigation, screening, and epidemiologic measures, and apply these methods to diseases important to health education and public health.
PU 530	OCCUPATIONAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH	4 OCCUPATIONAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH This course presents an overview of the basic concepts of environmental health sciences. The relationships between exposure to workplace contaminants and ergonomics and health are explored. Major areas of focus include industrial hygiene, toxicology studies, environmental microbiology, and clinical occupational medicine. Applicable risk assessment and prevention methods based on monitoring chemical and biologic agents and biomarkers are reviewed and discussed. Current environmental health regulations and the efficacy of enforcement (as public health prevention) by government agencies at the local, state, national, and international levels are also discussed.
PU 535	PUBLIC HEALTH BIOLOGY	4 PUBLIC HEALTH BIOLOGY The impact of biological processes in disease, as related to the mechanisms of causation, disease transmission, host risk factors, and host vulnerabilities, is presented. The pathophysiologic mechanisms are studied in order to plan control strategies and effective interventions to improve the health of the public.
PU 540	HEALTH POLICY AND ETHICS IN PUBLIC HEALTH	4 HEALTH POLICY AND ETHICS IN PUBLIC HEALTH Fundamental ethical issues in public health research, practice, and policy are the focus of this course. Analysis of the health policy formulation process and the ethical basis of public health policies and programs are included, as well as the impact of health policies on individual and population health.
PU 545	DISASTER MANAGEMENT FOR PUBLIC HEALTH PROFESSIONALS	4 DISASTER MANAGEMENT FOR PUBLIC HEALTH PROFESSIONALS This course examines incident preparedness and response from a variety of public health dimensions including: acute and chronic health care delivery, impact on vulnerable populations, delivery of basic human services, epidemiologic response, and effective collaborations in public health preparedness planning. Students learn how to prepare for and address disruptions of public health systems arising from disasters.
PU 699	MASTER'S CAPSTONE IN PUBLIC HEALTH	4 MASTER'S CAPSTONE IN PUBLIC HEALTH The capstone course is the culminating experience for the Master of Public Health. This course builds on the concepts of all the courses students have taken within the program of study. The capstone course provides students with the opportunity to integrate and synthesize the knowledge and skills acquired throughout their coursework in an original comprehensive project, and to assess their level of mastery of the stated outcomes of their degree program in public health.

Course #	Course Title	Credits

HA 525	HEALTH LAW	4 HEALTH LAW This course provides analysis of law, the legal system, and current legal problems as they relate to the financing and delivery of health care services. This course covers interrelated legal topics pertinent to health care organizations including contracts, medical malpractice, legal and ethical obligations to provide health care, privileging, medical decision making, tax exemption, antitrust, fraud, and health information management. Students are encouraged to discuss how the law supports or hinders current efforts to improve health care delivery systems.
HA 560	COMMUNITY HEALTH ASSESSMENT	4 COMMUNITY HEALTH ASSESSMENT This course provides students with the skills needed to enhance (assess) the health of a community. Students focus on health behaviors, environmental influences, health policy, and economic and health care system issues in health promotion and disease prevention.
PU 610	PUBLIC HEALTH PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT	4 PUBLIC HEALTH PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT Students are introduced to the principles of program development and evaluation in public health. Topics include methods of design, development, implementation, and evaluation of public health programs to improve individual and community health.
PU 615	GRANT AND CONTRACT WRITING	4 GRANT AND CONTRACT WRITING This course provides a general overview of the grant-seeking process. Students study types of projects that generally receive funding, sources that can be used to identify prospective funders, and the essential components of a well-written grant. Students design a grant application using a real-life scenario needs statement, develop a project that will address that need, write clear goals and objectives for that project, develop a budget, and identify an evaluation tool that could be used to measure outcomes for the project. All phases of the contract formulation process are addressed, and students learn how to write a statement of work document for commonly used contracts in public health administration.
PU 620	HEALTH CARE SAFETY	4 HEALTH CARE SAFETY This course explains how to manage the unique safety requirements of health care organizations within the framework provided by OSHA regulations and voluntary accreditation organizations. Topics include infection control, bloodborne pathogens, patient safety, ergonomics, construction safety, respiratory protection, fire protection, and emergency response. Students apply these studies to real-life scenarios affecting a variety of health care institutions.
PU 630	HEALTH EDUCATION AND COMMUNICATION	4 HEALTH EDUCATION AND COMMUNICATION This course focuses on the role of health education and communication in the practice of health education and public health. The coursework will include the principles of successful health education, its basis in health behavioral theories, and methods of health education. The student will design a health education campaign using the modern and traditional methods of communication to deliver culturally appropriate, effective health education of public health importance.
PU 640	CULTURAL DIVERSITY IN PUBLIC HEALTH	4 CULTURAL DIVERSITY IN PUBLIC HEALTH This course provides an in-depth understanding of cultural forces that impact practice of public health. Cultural, sociopolitical, and behavioral factors that impact public health practice in culturally diverse populations are studied. In addition, students learn to evaluate the cultural competence in public health.
PU 645	DATA MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS IN EPIDEMIOLOGY	4 DATA MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS IN EPIDEMIOLOGY This course familiarizes students with basic health data management concepts, principles, and methods. Students learn how to design a simple database for research in health sciences and conduct basic descriptive epidemiological analyses using a data management and analysis program.
PU 650	INFECTIOUS DISEASE EPIDEMIOLOGY	4 INFECTIOUS DISEASE EPIDEMIOLOGY Students are introduced to the scope and practice of infectious disease epidemiology. Topics include historical aspects, definitions and nomenclature, outbreak investigations, disease surveillance, case-control studies, cohort studies, laboratory diagnosis, molecular epidemiology, dynamics of transmission, and assessment of vaccine field effectiveness. Students explore the global aspects of infectious diseases in the modern world.
PU 655	CHRONIC DISEASE EPIDEMIOLOGY	4 CHRONIC DISEASE EPIDEMIOLOGY The role of public health in selected chronic diseases and the application of various epidemiologic methods to epidemiological studies on chronic diseases are studied. This course includes an overview of the burden of chronic diseases and interventions to prevent and control their burden. Students explore the impact of various risk factors for chronic diseases, prevention strategies, and outcomes.
PU 660	INTERNATIONAL EPIDEMIOLOGY AND GLOBAL HEALTH	4 INTERNATIONAL EPIDEMIOLOGY AND GLOBAL HEALTH This course introduces students to recent trends in global health and current problems of health from an international perspective, and examines the influence of economic, population, and sociopolitical trends on health and living conditions in different countries. Students apply the basics of descriptive and analytical epidemiology to global health and key health indicators used in international epidemiology, and analyze the main transnational factors that influence the transfer of risks to health across the globe.

Total Program Requirements	60 Total Program Requirements

Core Requirements
Electives
Total Program Requirements

You Could Save Time and Money on Your Kaplan University Degree

Credit for Prior Learning

If you already earned course credits at another institution, you may qualify for transfer credit that can be applied toward your program requirements at Kaplan University. Qualifying transfer credit may reduce your total costs for graduate programs. Refer to the University Catalog for our transfer of credit policy.

Students in the Military

Kaplan University is proud to support our military and veterans in their educational pursuits by offering significantly reduced tuition. Undergraduate program tuition is reduced up to 55 percent for active-duty servicemembers and up to 38 percent for veterans. In addition, Kaplan University participates in the Yellow Ribbon program for all of our graduate programs, and both active-duty servicemembers and veterans are eligible for special tuition rates for these programs. A 10 percent tuition reduction is also available to spouses of active-duty servicemembers. For more information, call 866.583.4412 (Toll Free) to speak to a military Admissions Advisor or visit the Kaplan University military site.

Tuition and Fees

Cost per credit hour	$385.00
Total program requirements Master of Public Health	60
Total cost of tuition	$23,100.00
This program requires a $100 technology fee per term. A nonrefundable application fee, depending on your program and as described in the Tuition and Fees Supplement, may be required at the time of enrollment. We encourage you to explore the availability of financial aid and scholarships. For more information, contact an Admissions Advisor.

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*Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2010-11 Edition, Medical and Health Services Managers, on the Internet at http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos014.htm (accessed April, 2011). National long-term projections may not reflect local and/or short-term economic or job conditions, and do not guarantee actual job growth.
^†Kaplan University's programs are designed to prepare graduates to pursue employment in their field of study, or in related fields. However, the University does not guarantee that graduates will be placed in any particular job, eligible for job advancement opportunities, or employed at all. Additional training or certification may be required.
^‡While many of Kaplan University's degree programs are designed to prepare graduates to pursue continued bachelor-, graduate- or doctorate-level education, the University cannot guarantee that students will be granted admission to any programs.

Master of Public Health

School of Health Sciences