Courses and Trainings
Empowering Communities
The Empowering Communities Project has provided numerous trainings on community-requested topics, technical assistance, and tools such as a website and resource sheets to support evidence-based community/public health practice in NH. The trainings cover various community health topics from social marketing to use of evidence-based practices. For a complete list of training topics, visit our Empowering Communities archived training presentations page.
Prove It! Let the Data Tell the Story
Prove It! Let the Data Tell the Story is a hands-on course focusing on the use of data and basic statistics commonly used in
public health. NH community leaders expressed the need for training about using data to support their efforts to improve the health of their
communities, and Prove It! was conceptualized by the Empowering Communities project to meet that need. Prove It! provides a basic understanding
of why we use data and how to use data in community health assessment and monitoring, using the specific focus on writing grant applications
as the example.
Prove It Curriculum [.pdf]
Masters in Public Health (MPH) Continuing Education Program
This project entails coordinating the Continuing Education Program for the University of New Hampshire’s Masters in Public Health Program. Project activities include:
- Coordinating the new Certificate in Public Health (CPH) Degree Program:
This one-year Certificate provides community and public health practitioners with no formal academic background in public health the opportunity to pursue a year-long course of study about core public health concepts and skills. Those successfully completing the Certificate program can apply and if accepted transfer these credits into the MPH degree program. Information about the Certificate program will be available at the below website in early May 2006.
Website: www.shhs.unh.edu/hmp/hmp_cert_pub_health.html . - Organizing the annual public health grand rounds lecture series:
Jointly sponsored by the UNH MPH Program and the NH Public Health Association, this annual lecture series canvases pertinent NH public health issues. The Grand Round lecture series serves as a vehicle to: provide timely information to and encourage networking within NH’s public health community as well as build relationships between the NH’s public health community and UNH. To view lectures from 2005-2006 and/or sign up to receive announcement of future lectures, see the below website.
Website: www.shhs.unh.edu/hmp/hmp_cont_ed.html .
Coordinating Trainings for the NH Public Health Network
As part of a sub-contract with the Community Health Institute, this project entails coordinating bi-monthly trainings for the NH Public Health Network (NHPHN). These trainings support NHPHN coordinators in facilitating emergency preparedness planning and response activities with communities located in their Network areas.
Courses Taught by Institute Staff
Social and Behavioral Health, PHP904 Graduate
This required core MPH course provides grounding in the fundamental concepts of the social and behavioral sciences as they illuminate public health. Predominant models of health behavior change at the individual, interpersonal, and community levels are introduced. The focus is on understanding the strengths and limitations of various theories, and building a skill and knowledge base that allows practical application of theories in intervention design. An ecological view of the interaction between health and society as related to human behavior is explored.
Evaluation in Public Health, PHP926 Graduate
This elective course provides an introduction to program evaluation as it relates to public health practice and research, primarily in the United States. Public health-specific examples will be presented throughout the course. Striking a balance between scientific rigor and the practicalities often faced by program evaluators is discussed.
Policy and Practice of Community Health Assessment, PHP Graduate
This is an elective course within the UNH Masters in Public Health Program. The purposes of this course were to: 1) introduce the theory and history behind population health-based planning, 2) teach students how to apply population health measurement principles & techniques, and 3) enhance student skills related to the use of technology for accessing and using information.
Biostatistics, PHP 903 Graduate
This course introduces students to the principles of biostatistics. Students will learn through classroom instruction, lab instruction and exercises, a variety of statistical methods in public health. Students will review measures of central tendency, rates and standardization, probability, sampling, hypothesis testing, comparisons, and simple, multiple and logistic regression techniques.
Survey Research in Public Health, PHP 985A Graduate
This course introduces students to the principles in the design and use of health surveys. Students will learn methods in survey construction and analysis through classroom instruction, exercises, and projects. Students will review aspects of survey research and survey types, question formulation, validity of measures, sampling, response rates, confidentiality, data weighting, hypothesis testing, comparisons, and other analysis techniques.
US Health Care Systems, HMP 401 Undergraduate
This course describes and analyzes the nature and functions of health care services and health care professionals. It further examines the impact of a wide range of environmental influences including social values, politics, economics, as well as ethical, professional, legal and technological forces on them and the system they compromise
Health Systems Research I, HMP 711 Undergraduate
This course introduces students to decision science and applied decision making techniques in the areas of health care management and policy analysis. There will be a lab section for this course where students will learn and use computer based software to generate, calculate, analyze and present data for decision making.
Health Systems Research II: Quantitative Methods in Health Services Research HMP 712 Undergraduate
This course introduces students to intermediate techniques for data manipulation and analysis. Students will learn how to conceptualize the purposes for collecting and analyzing data using a variety of techniques. The course also introduces methods for survey research as well as an understanding of data applicability and validity. There will be a lab section that utilizes the SPSS statistical software package where students will perform tasks from large data sets.
Health Policy, HMP 746 Undergraduate
Analysis of the public policy process, the development of health policy in the United States, and a discussion of specific health policy issues. This course begins with an analytical framework for analyzing the American political system and process. It is followed by a general introduction to health policy in the United States with examples of specific policies and programs. Students will be asked to examine in depth a specific policy area.
Health Policy Analysis, HMP 748 Undergraduate
Analysis of the public policy outputs from the perspectives of effectiveness, efficiency, and equity by applying analytical tools to public policies in the United States. This course begins by examining the major methods used to examine health policy outputs. The perspectives of effectiveness, efficiency and equity are used as a framework for the course. Students read and critique articles from health services research literature that use previously learned methodologies. Students are then required to be part of a team to analyze an existing policy or policy proposal.
Managed Care, HMP 730 Undergraduate
This course describes and analyzes in detail the conventions, operations, and utility of managed care techniques and managed care as a health care delivery vehicle. It further examines the history of managed care from its inception through its current place within the U.S. health care system to better allow students to understand how managed care has integrated within the U.S. health care delivery system and what place managed care might hold in the future.