The student will be able to:

1. Define important fundamental concepts in community and public health.
2. Distinguish the difference between personal and public health.
3. Identify different public health disciplines, professions, and organizations, and explain how each contributes to the field of public health.
4. Describe the historical achievements in public health and their impact today.
5. Demonstrate the use of basic epidemiological methods, such as the analysis of rates, and the definition of cases, population at risk, risk factors, incidence, prevalence, natality, morbidity, and mortality.
6. Outline strategies for prevention, detection, and control of infectious conditions and chronic disease.
7. Identify the components of the Whole School, Whole Child, Whole Community (WSCC) model designed to improve learning and health in our nation's schools.
8. Outline the process of community organizing and health promotion programming.
9. Analyze current public health issues and describe how they affect the health status of specific populations of age, gender, race and ethnicity, minority, education level, and socioeconomic status.
10. Describe the Dual Diagnosis/Co-Occurring Disorders approach to treating people who suffer from both an addiction and a psychiatric disorder.
11. Describe the interplay between the social determinants of health, including gestational endowment, social circumstances, environmental conditions, behavioral choices, and access to medical care, in determining individual and community health status, and local, state, national, and global health organization and policy.
12. Analyze the organization, financing, and delivery of various medical and population-based services in the United States healthcare system.
13. Distinguish how preventative health differs from the traditional Western medicine approach to treating disease and illness.
14. Describe the inter-relationship between human beings and their environment and public health initiatives and policies to protect the planet.
15. Identify common practices that contribute to intentional and unintentional workplace injuries and public health policies that would reduce their occurrences.
16. Communicate orally and in writing in the scientific language of the discipline.
17. Identify, interpret, and evaluate public health and medical information from general and subject-specific library and credible internet sources.

1. Public health discipline
   1. Personal versus public health
   2. Public health disciplines, professions, and organizations
   3. Core functions
2. Historical achievements
   1. Current impact
3. Analytical methods of public health
   1. Epidemiology
   2. Rates
   3. Cases
   4. Population at risk
   5. Risk factors
   6. Incidence
   7. Prevalence
   8. Natality
   9. Morbidity
   10. Mortality
4. Biomedical basis of public health
   1. Infectious conditions
   2. Chronic disease
   3. Risk factors
      1. Genetics
   4. Prevention, detection, and control
5. Whole School, Whole Child, Whole Community (WSCC) school health promotion model
   1. Health education
   2. Physical education and physical activity
   3. Nutrition environment and services
   4. Health services
   5. Counseling, psychological, and social services
   6. Social and emotional climate
   7. Physical environment
   8. Employee wellness
   9. Family engagement
   10. Community involvement
6. Community organizing and health promotion programming
   1. Assessing needs
   2. Setting goals and objectives
   3. Developing interventions
   4. Implementing interventions
   5. Interpreting and evaluating results
7. Social, cultural, and behavioral factors in public health
   1. Health inequities
   2. Demographics
      1. Maternal and infant
      2. Child
      3. Adolescent
      4. Adulthood
      5. Senior
   3. Racial, ethnic, and minority groups
   4. Education and socioeconomic status
   5. Community concerns (not limited to)
      1. Dual diagnosis/co-occurring disorders
         1. Addiction, substance abuse disorder
         2. Mental disorders
      2. Obesity
      3. Violence
8. Social determinants of health
   1. Gestational endowment
   2. Social circumstances
   3. Environmental conditions
   4. Behavioral choices
   5. Access to medical care
   6. Individual and community health status
   7. Local, state, national, and global health organization and policy
9. Healthcare system
   1. Public health versus Western medicine
   2. Population-based services
10. Environmental issues in public health (not limited to)
    1. Clean air
    2. Clean water
    3. Garbage and hazardous waste
    4. Food and drug safety
    5. Population control
    6. Emergency preparedness
       1. Natural disasters
       2. Violence
11. Workplace safety
    1. Intentional injuries
    2. Unintentional injuries
    3. Prevention
       1. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations
12. Public health information
    1. Evaluating credible information sources

Not applicable.

Exams
Quizzes
Scenario and case study analysis projects
Written assignments that evaluate understanding of course objectives and content

Lecture
Discussion
Cases and discussion questions
Electronic discussions/chat
Practice activities to gauge understanding of content
Review of comprehension of key concepts
Quiz knowledge of key terms

Riegelman, Richard, and Brenda Kirkwood. Public Health 101: Improving Community Health. 2025.

1. Assigned reading from textbook, completion of quizzes and exams at the end of each section of the course.
2. Practice activities to gauge understanding of content.
3. Review comprehension of key concepts.
4. Quiz knowledge of key terms.
5. Viewing online lectures.
6. Research into an area linked to the key objectives of the course, which culminates into a paper that summarizes, investigates, analyzes, and explores a key topic in public health.