PUBLIC HEALTH

Why Study Public Health?

You have the opportunity to study Public Health at IIE MSA. There are few opportunities for training in Public Health at Higher Education Institutions in South Africa and IIE MSA is currently the only campus in South Africa where an undergraduate degree in Public Health is offered.

Public Health is an exciting, diverse and growing field of study responding to the needs of communities and populations around the world. Public Health practitioners work on large-scale, long-term solutions and where medicine-based practice helps individuals one-to-one while they are sick. The goal of Public Health is to prevent illness and death in large numbers of populations. It is this multiplier effect that attracts many interested in health care and medicine to explore and experience the advantages of the study area.

Public Health practice is multi-disciplinary and draws from a wide range of disciplines, including epidemiologists, statisticians, sociologists, health economics, medical practitioners, dieticians, pharmacists, nurses, environmental health practitioners etc.

A Public Health qualification will enable you to produce new knowledge, create powerful ideas and collaborate with others to institute innovative and lower-cost solutions that will improve the health of a large number of people at a local, national and international level. During your studies, you will learn about data, evidence and critical thinking; biological bases of health and disease; analysing patterns of health and disease; health promotion; treatment and technologies; research methods in the health sciences; health programme planning; evaluation and monitoring; disease prevention and control; contemporary health challenges; health, law and ethics, etc.

To study Public Health you can enrol for the IIE Bachelor of Public Health degree, offered at IIE MSA.

Following completion of your three-year Bachelor degree, you can articulate into the IIE Postgraduate Diploma in Public Health, or the IIE Bachelor of Public Health (Honours) degree in Public Health, both which are offered at IIE MSA.

Public Health career opportunities include:

• Health Protection Officer
• Public Health Nurse
• Public Health Dietitian / Nutritionist
• Community Health Worker
• Public Health Programme Co-ordinator
• Public Health Physician
• Public Health Policy Analyst
• Epidemiologists
• Public Health Researchers
• Public Health Managers
• Health Promoter
• Public Health Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist

Professional recognition

IIE graduates are eligible to join the Public Health Association of South Africa (PHASA).