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.
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SPH PH 858: Cases in Public Health Management
This course will focus on developing tools for and perspectives on decision- making in senior public health positions through analysis of a series of case studies. Students will adopt different roles in preparing the cases, sometimes singly and sometimes in groups. The cases will address challenges faced by senior leadership including human resources, facilities design, quality control, organizational change and integration of policy and program planning. Students will be assessed on: (1) memos prepared for their roles in individual classes; (2) the quality of their participation in class discussions of the cases; and (3) their response to a case that will be distributed as a final examination. -
SPH PH 866: Doctor of Public Health Leadership Seminar
The leadership seminar will provide a place for combining and applying knowledge from previous courses and field experience to address crosscutting issues that may not be covered in any single Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) core or departmental course. The exact subject matter will change annually but continually address challenges encountered in public health leadership. The seminar will also provide an opportunity to interact with senior Pubic Health practitioners. DrPH students will take this course in fall and spring of their first year of coursework. -
SPH PH 970: Public Health Practicum
This course allows students the opportunity to integrate and apply classroom learning in a public health work environment through an approved, planned and supervised practicum. For students matriculating in Fall 2009 and after, course components include: 1. placement in an agency or organization with a scope of work which develops and applies learned public health skills. 2. minimum of 112 practicum work hours 3.approved learning contract 4.faculty and agency oversight 5.midpoint review 6.written abstract 7. poster presentation and integration seminar 8.evaluations 9. attendance of 2 skill-based professional development seminars. For students matriculating prior to Fall 2009, see the Practice Office for requirements. Practicum course is graded pass/fail. -
SPH PH 971: Public Health Practicum
This course presents an opportunity for students to use his/her second year SSW field placement to fulfill the MPH practicum requirement. Course components include one, 2-hour seminar and an individualized learning experience (choice of seminars or reflective essay, focusing on social work and/or public health practices). Students must also attend two skill-based professional development seminars. Practicum is graded Pass/fail. -
SPH PH 975: Public Health Practicum
This course allows students the opportunity to integrate and apply classroom learning in a public health work environment through an approved, planned and supervised practicum. Students may register for 1, 2, 3, or 4 credits. For students matriculating in Fall 2009 and after, course components include: 1. placement in an agency or organization with a scope of work which develops and applies learned public health skills. 2. minimum of 112 practicum work hours 3.approved learning contract 4.faculty and agency oversight 5.midpoint review 6.written abstract 7. poster presentation and integration seminar 8.evaluations 9. attendance of 2 skill-based professional development seminars. For students matriculating prior to Fall 2009 who do a 2 or 4 credit practicum, see the Practice Office for requirements. Students matriculating prior to Fall 2009 who select a 1 or 3 credit practicum in Fall 2009 or thereafter must follow the new requirements. Practicum course is graded pass/fail. -
SPH PH 984: Public Health Practicum
This 4-credit directed practicum option and is available for the student who will produce an enhanced academic product suitable for publication or for presentation upon completion of the practicum. In order to choose this option, the student must also identify a BUSPH faculty member with whom to work. Expectations and guidelines for the academic product must be discussed with the faculty preceptor at the onset of the practicum. The student must demonstrate the capacity to complete such a project. The faculty member should commit to such a project only if he/she is willing to co-author with the student on the practicum product. The faculty member must also commit to meeting with the student several times during the course of the practicum semester. For students matriculating in Fall 2009 and after, course components include: 1. placement in an agency or organization with a scope of work which develops and applies learned public health skills. 2. minimum of 112 practicum work hours 3.approved learning contract 4.faculty and agency oversight 5.midpoint review 6.written abstract 7. poster presentation and integration seminar 8.evaluations 9. attendance of 2 skill-based professional development seminars.10. submission of enhanced academic product. For students matriculating prior to Fall 2009, see the Practice Office for requirements. Practicum is graded. -
SPH PH 986: DrPH Practicum
Required practicum for DrPH students. Students must submit paperwork to Sebastian Bach in the DrPH Program Office for approval prior to registration. Course is pass/fail. -
SPH PH 990: Continuing Study in DrPH Program
Must be DrPH student working on dissertation. Doctoral students who have completed all academic course requirements, must register for Continuing Study Fee every Fall and Spring semester until they have successfully defended their dissertation and graduated from SPH. Students are certified full time, charged for student health insurance, and pay the equivalent of two credits of tuition. -
SPH PM 702: Introduction to Health Policy & Management
Close to 90 percent of the $2.5 trillion spent on health care in this nation in 2009 is being used to provide medical services to individuals. High costs, declining coverage, stresses on many caregivers, tradeoffs among quality and cost and access, and growing political tensions afflict U.S. health care. These problems affect all of us who work in public health. This course analyzes these problems, their causes, and ways to solve them. Specifically, how can our vast human and financial resources be marshaled and managed to improve health care delivery for all Americans? To answer this question, the course examines how people are covered, how care is organized and delivered, how caregivers are paid, management, politics, ethics, and more. It considers hospitals, physicians and other caregivers, long-term care, prescription drugs, and mental health. NOTE: This course meets the health policy and management MPH core requirement. It is the prerequisite for most others in the department. International, nonresident students who are not Health Policy and Management concentrators and all International Health concentrators may substitute IH704. -
SPH PM 715: The Impact of Insurance on Health Care
This course examines the efforts of employers, as purchasers of health care, to shape the delivery, cost, and quality of health care. It describes the origins of job-based health insurance in the United States, how is insurance linked to American culture and tradition (is it an accident or natural to our political/economic ethos), how insurance works in health care, the ways in which health care realities can conflict with the requirements of traditional insurance, the employer-sponsored “consumer-driven” health plans that reduce first-dollar coverage and thereby attempt to make patients more cost conscious in their health care use, and efforts by employers to induce hospitals, doctors, and other caregivers to improve quality and safety while containing costs. -
SPH PM 721: Organizational Behavior and Health Management
This course provides a framework for understanding, diagnosing, and taking actions to improve individual, group, and system-wide effectiveness in health services organizations. The conceptual framework is derived from the organizational behavior literature and applied to health services organizations. Some of the topics this course addresses and integrates are leadership, motivation, corporate culture, teams, organization design and coordination, and organization change. Case studies, brief lectures, student presentations, and experiential exercises are used throughout this course. -
SPH PM 733: Health Program Management
This course introduces practical management in health care settings with real-world business knowledge and skills. It aims to better equip present and future health care managers to plan effectively, anticipate challenges and marshal resources. Students will gain an appreciation for the complexities of implementation in challenging health care settings. Concepts will be discussed briefly with the greater emphasis on concrete skills necessary for success. Concepts and skills will be tied to practice by examples, case studies, problem-solving, experimental exercises, and reflection. Topics include differentiating leadership from management, negotiating techniques, budgeting, and patient and process flow. PM733 is a summer-long course. -
SPH PM 734: Principles of Non-Profit Accounting
This course combines didactic and case study approaches to the fundamentals of nonprofit accounting, with emphasis on health care institutions. Topics covered include accrual accounting, fund accounting, budgeting, and cost concepts. Analysis and interpretation of financial statements for decision making by the nonfinancial manager are stressed. -
SPH PM 735: Health Care Finance
This course describes how money works in health care, presents a variety of useful analytic techniques, and explores methods of using money to shape more accessible, affordable, and effective health care. We examine current financial crises and managerial problems in health care and their proposed solutions. No financial or accounting background is assumed. -
SPH PM 736: Human Resource Management in Public Health
This course provides students with a skills-based orientation to human resource management, especially in a public health or human services setting. Core concepts such as workplace assessment, motivators, human resource planning and recruitment, decentralization, criteria-based position descriptions and performance appraisals, and union management issues are presented via case studies that amplify a systems-oriented public health approach. Using case examples that illustrate basic principles, students develop strategies to improve retention, manage and coordinate human resource problems with the organizational culture in many public health and human service organizations. Workplace enhancers affecting retention, innovative management models, current regulatory and service issues that affect reimbursement, wage and practice in multiple settings are introduced in lecture, discussion, group, and case analysis. -
SPH PM 741: Consultation Techniques
This course prepares the student to be a consultant with a health policy and management perspective. The course covers key concepts in how to identify and market your expertise to a potential consulting client, evaluate client demands and needs so as to develop a winning proposal, select and apply appropriate tools to successfully address a range of common types of consulting engagements. The course offers guidance for avoidance of common pitfalls of client relationship management as well as how to maximize the benefits of these relationships. Further, it provides an overview of the healthcare management consulting industry today. The course will provide guidance on writing your resume to fit what consulting firms are seeking, as well as identifying and evaluating consulting firm employment options, and developing your own consulting practice. Evaluation of case examples of proposals, reports and ethical dilemmas as well as development of a MS PowerPoint marketing proposal are a part of class assignments. This course assists students in determining whether consulting may be a suitable personal pursuit and how to effectively select and direct consultants as a healthcare manager. -
SPH PM 742: Introduction to Pharmaceutical Assessment, Management, and Policy
This course provides an introduction and overview of the pharmaceutical sector in a public health context. It is a required course for students who enroll in the Pharmaceutical Assessment, Management, and Policy (PAMP) program. This course will attempt to synthesize and integrate key areas of study from health policy and management, epidemiology, biostatistics and international health. The course will use a case study approach designed to apply the knowledge base from prior course work targeted to real world decision making problems related to pharmaceuticals. -
SPH PM 744: Introduction to Health Facility Planning & Design
This course explores the factors that drive the planning, design and construction of healthcare facilities. Key concepts, such as converting market demand to workloads, workloads to space programs and programs into functional designs - while considering quality, cost, and schedule aspects - will be discussed. By understanding the processes that planning and design professionals use to translate ideas into “bricks and mortar,” students will learn how “educated” owners develop successful healthcare facilities. -
SPH PM 755: The Shape of Health Care Delivery
What types of hospitals, doctors, nurses, long-term care, mental health, and other caregivers are available in the United States? How are they organized? Are they in the right places? Is the supply of caregivers appropriate? To what extent does the shape of care delivery address the needs of patients and of caregivers themselves? How did these patterns of care delivery evolve over time, and what market, regulatory, political, and other forces shape the delivery of care today? What are the main strengths and weaknesses of health care delivery in the United States? What problems in care delivery and organization have been identified and what are their causes? What remedies have been proposed, and how well have they worked so far? What are the possible roles of physicians, patients, managers, businesspeople, and regulators in improving the overall supply and types of caregivers, their locations, and how they are organized? In what way could coordination among physicians, hospital, long-term care, mental health services, and other types of care be improved? In what ways is care delivery influenced by methods of payment, and by efforts to improve coverage, control cost, and raise the appropriateness and quality of care? And reciprocally, in what ways does the shape of care delivery influence payment methods and efforts to improve health care? -
SPH PM 758: Introduction to Mental Health Services
The purpose of this course is to develop a basic understanding of the mental health service delivery system and its relationship to public health and to the health care delivery system. Topics include a description of mental health services, epidemiology of mental health disorders, the current delivery system, mental health managed care, innovations in mental health services, and mental health policy, financing, and standards of treatment. Other issues such as parity, consumer and family advocacy movements, and issues relevant to children and adolescents are also discussed.
Note that this information may change at any time.
