Courses

The course descriptions below are correct to the best of our knowledge as of June 2010. Instructors reserve the right to update and/or otherwise alter course descriptions as necessary after publication. The listing of a course description here does not guarantee a course’s being offered in a particular semester. The Course Rotation Guide lists the expected semester a course will be taught. Paper copies are also available in the BUSPH Registrar’s office. Please refer to the published schedule of classes for confirmation a class is actually being taught and for specific course meeting dates and times.

• SPH PM 850: Organizing for Health System Change
  This course examines the role of consumer organizing and advocacy in the reforming U.S. health system. It provides students with a basic understanding of the strategies consumers have employed to expand access to care, shape the delivery system, and improve the quality of care. Students have the opportunity to develop analytical skills related to policy, politics, and organizing, including media relations and legislative lobbying. Topics include state and national efforts to create a system of universal coverage and strategies to reduce the cost and expand access to prescription drugs. Class is held in a seminar format.
• SPH PM 855: Cost Effectiveness Analysis and Decision Analysis
  This course offers an introduction to the uses and conduct of cost-effectiveness analyses (CEAs) as decision making aids in the health and medical fields. It provides students with an understanding of the roles and limitations of CEAs and criteria for evaluating these studies. Important theoretical and practical issues encountered in measuring costs and effectiveness, evaluating outcomes, discounting, and dealing with uncertainty are discussed. Discussions on framing and reporting of CEAs focus on the purpose of the analysis and the effective communication of its findings. Case studies demonstrate the use of CEAs in the areas of prevention, drug treatment, and new technologies. Students who take PM855 should not enroll in PM807.
• SPH PM 871: Advanced Topics in Health Policy & Management
  Description varies by semester; see published semester schedule and descriptions on School of Public Health web site for details.
• SPH PM 931: Directed Studies in HPM
  Directed Studies provide the opportunity for students to explore a special topic of interest under the direction of a full-time SPH faculty member. Students may register for a 1, 2, 3, or 4-credit directed study by submitting a paper registration form and a signed directed study proposal form. Directed studies with a non-SPH faculty member or an adjunct faculty member must be approved by and assigned to the department chair. Students are placed in a section by the SPH Registrar's Office according to the faculty member with whom they are working. Students may take no more than eight credits of directed study, directed research, or practica courses during their MPH education.
• SPH PM 932: Directed Research in HPM
  Directed Research provide the opportunity for students to explore a special topic of interest under the direction of a full-time SPH faculty member. Students may register for 1, 2, 3, or 4 credits. To register, students must submit a paper registration form and signed directed research proposal form. Students are placed in a section by the SPH Registrar's Office according to the faculty member with whom they are working. Students may take no more than eight credits of directed study, directed research, or practica courses during their MPH education.
• SPH PM 980: Continuing Study in Health Services Research
  M.S. and Ph.D. students in Health Services Research who have completed all academic course requirements, must register for Continuing Study every Fall and Spring semester until they have successfully defended their thesis or dissertation and graduated from SPH. Students are charged the equivalent of two credits of tuition plus student health insurance and are certified as full time students.
• SPH SB 710: Nutrition and Public Health
  This course examines the principles of public health nutrition and explores the nutritional status of individuals throughout their life cycle. Faculty focus on nutrition assessment, the development of nutrition policy, the role of diet in obesity and chronic diseases of an affluent society, nutrition program planning, and national and local nutrition surveillance. In addition, the course reviews the components of administering nutrition services on a local, national, and international level. The impact of overall socioeconomic development on nutrition and health status, infectious disease, and public health policy is considered. No previous coursework in nutrition is required; a basic introduction to nutrition is provided.
• SPH SB 715: Teaching Public Health
  This classroom based, web-enhanced course is designed for students planning to teach or train in structured or informal settings as part of their professional career. Surveying learning theory, educational principles and techniques, the participants develop a short course in an area of interest, based on a systematic approach to educational design. After specifying the performance expected of course graduates, students develop behavioral objectives, an evaluation plan and a student centered course syllabus. Along with the design and development of instruction, students have an opportunity to practice "up front" teaching skills with feedback from the participants.
• SPH SB 721: Social and Behavioral Sciences for Public Health
  This survey course introduces MPH students to social and behavioral sciences within the context of public health scholarship, research, and practice. The basic aim of the course is to teach students the social and behavioral science fundamentals (principles, theories, research, and techniques) that can and should be used to inform the identification, definition, assessment, and resolution of public health problems. The course focuses on providing a framework for considering the important questions in a thoughtful and evidence-based manner such that students will be able to critically analyze public health problems and determine the appropriate social and behavioral sciences principles, theories, and research that will be most effective and useful in intervening to address that particular public health problem. The course considers alternative paradigms for understanding and intervening to resolve public health problems in a critical way, drawing heavily upon the public health literature in which these various perspectives have been vigorously debated and discussed.
• SPH SB 730: Stress as a Public Health Problem
  Research on the impact of excessive psychological stress indicates that it plays a significant role in physical and psychological health, in rising incidence of substance use and violence in communities, in increased absenteeism and decreased productivity in the work place, and increased medical costs. This course examines the impact of psychological, biological, environmental and social stressors on health, illness, health-risking behavior and its economic and public health consequences. Education and intervention strategies and programs involving community awareness and participation are evaluated. Through literature review, lecture and discussion, students examine the field and explore its application to health care and public health.
• SPH SB 732: Nutrition, Aging, and the Elder Population
  This course explores the nutritional needs of elderly adults and describes the various physiological, psychological, and social changes that occur with aging that affect dietary and nutritional status. The techniques of nutritional assessment of elders in both the community and clinical settings are discussed. The nutritional needs of older adults are linked with recommendations designed to maintain optimal health into older age. Students learn about the major federal and state nutrition programs that target elders and are able to identify strengths, weaknesses, and gaps in services. Preparation of a brief policy memo on a topic of current interest and/or controversy related to elderly nutrition is required.
• SPH SB 733: Mass Communication and Public Health
  This course explores the use of mass communication as a tool for health promotion. It begins by examining the structure and function of the mass media and the role of mass media in shaping the social and cultural environment regarding health issues and behaviors. The course then presents the theory and basic elements of the range of mass media approaches available to the public health practitioner (public service announcements, public communication campaigns, integration of mass media into community-based health promotion strategies, advertising, entertainment programming, social marketing, and media advocacy). Students discuss the strengths and limitations of each approach and gain experience in applying principles to specific public health problems. Students also develop basic skills necessary to be able to collaborate with health communication and media specialists in public health organizations and agencies. Students work in groups on a final project in which they develop and present a proposal for a plan for a health promotion initiative that uses mass media.
• SPH SB 750: Preventing Intimate Partner Violence
  This course provides an introduction to the topic of intimate partner violence with a focus on how public health practitioners can contribute to its prevention. Lectures will cover teen dating violence, child witnesses to violence, batterer intervention, the domestic violence shelter movement, elder abuse, the intersectionality of oppressions framework and partner violence prevention, and the overlap between child abuse and partner violence. Students will receive information about current laws and controversies related to partner violence prevention. This course is primarily focused on partner violence in the U.S.. The major assignment for this course is a one-hour presentation prepared and delivered to the class; therefore, students should be prepared for public speaking. Students who complete the course will be prepared to undertake research assistant, health department, or community-based work in the area of partner violence prevention and advocacy. Teaching methods include lectures, small group discussion, case analyses, the use of multimedia, and interviews with providers. National and state experts in the field of partner violence prevention present guest lectures.
• SPH SB 751: Sexual Violence: Public Health Perspectives in Intervention and Prevention
  This course provides an introduction to the topic of sexual violence with a focus on how public health practitioners can contribute to its prevention. Students will have the opportunity to interact with a victim of sexual violence, learn about approaches to sex offender treatment, and receive information about current laws and controversies related to sexual violence prevention. This course is primarily focused on sexual violence in the U.S., although one or two lectures on topics such as women trafficking and sexual violence as a weapon of war may be presented. The major assignment for this course is a one-hour presentation prepared and delivered to the class; therefore, students should be prepared for public speaking. Students who complete the course will be prepared to undertake research assistant, health department, or community-based work in the area of sexual violence prevention and advocacy. Teaching methods include lectures, small group discussion, case analyses, the use of multimedia, and interviews with providers. National and state experts in the field of sexual violence prevention present guest lectures. NOTE: Students with an interest in this course need to consider their own capacity to focus intensively on the difficult subtopics that will be covered in detail, including child sexual abuse.
• SPH SB 771: Topics in Social and Behavioral Sciences in Public Health
  Topics in Social and Behavioral Sciences vary each semester. Consult with the registration packet and course descriptions packet for the specific semester.
• SPH SB 805: Race, Ethnicity, and Health
  This course examines conceptual and measurement issues related to race/ethnicity in health, public health research and practice, as well as the role of socioeconomic status and other contextual factors in health status and access to health care. The major objectives of this course are to increase students' understanding of: major health problems and utilization of health care among various racial/ethnic populations; the conceptual and measurement issues related to race/ethnicity; and social and political factors that shape health status and access to, and quality of, health care.
• SPH SB 806: Communications Strategies for Public Health
  This core course focuses on the development and execution of a planned communications strategy for a public health organization that is responsible for a community-based intervention. The course also features a review of basic theory and research that can inform the health communications process. Working through a sequence of written assignments, students outline an intervention plan and then prepare several materials to execute a communications strategy, including a pitch letter, press release, commentary/editorial, letter to the editor, and a scheduled press event. Writing workshops in class are designed to give students ideas for their projects and interim feedback on their written assignments.
• SPH SB 807: The Health of LGBT Populations
  This course explores the current knowledge about the health of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) populations. Students will develop an understanding of the historical milestones in identifying LGBT populations and how social science disciplines went about understanding these populations’ health. The course emphasizes methodological strategies, analytical thinking, the barriers to obtaining adequate information on LGBT populations, and current gaps in knowledge of health disparities due to sexual orientation, differences within LGBT populations, and will formulate new research ideas that have potential of moving the field of LGBT health forward.
• SPH SB 808: Merging Clinical & Population-Based Perspectives in Public Health Practice: Tension & Resolution
  Clinicians and public health professionals rarely share common definitions of health or illness, and they often have competing interests, conflicting agendas, and different strategic approaches to health care problems. This course explores contradictions and tensions between two perspectives that limit the effectiveness of both personal medical care and public health activities. Students observe population-based programs within an emergency department setting and explore the policy implications of collaborative, integrated models.
• SPH SB 809: Intervention design and development to reduce health disparities
  This course will review current knowledge on the design and implementation of interventions to reduce health disparities and will provide students with plans and tools for creating and evaluating their own interventions to reduce or eliminate disparities. First, we will define health disparities from a broad variety of settings. Then we will review a model for intervention design applied to health disparity settings. We will work through the steps of the intervention process, focusing on both the evidence needed at analysis of the literature on intervention design and development. Finally, students will design their own intervention and evaluation plan to target the health disparity of their choice.

Note that this information may change at any time.

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