Master's Degree in Public Health

Master in Public Health is an internationally consolidated name that identifies postgraduate training oriented to the training of professionals with academic undergraduate training, coming from a wide variety of disciplines that include from the health sciences in the strict sense to the social sciences. The duration of this Master is 60 ECTS and can be completed in 1, 2 or 3 years, maximum. However, before formalizing enrollment, students are sent from the Secretariat to the Master's Coordination Unit for personalized guidance on the study plan and class schedule.

To give effect to the right to reconcile studies with work and family life, set out in the Student Statute, it is recommended that students who are working take the Master part-time, with a duration of 2 years. The teaching is fundamentally face-to-face, and is oriented towards training for professional practice and / or research.

Master in Public Health is an internationally consolidated name that identifies postgraduate training oriented to the training of professionals with academic undergraduate training, coming from a wide variety of disciplines that include from the health sciences in the strict sense to the social sciences. The duration of the Master of Public Health is the equivalent of 60 ECTS that can be completed in 1 or 2 years. The teaching is fundamentally face-to-face, and oriented to training for professional practice and / or research.

The Master is an Official University Training that is at the service of advanced training of professionals for professional, research or teaching activities in order to contribute to promoting and improving health, as well as promoting equity and efficiency in health systems. It therefore allows access to the Doctorate program at the University and is carried out in close collaboration with the General Directorate of Public Health of the Ministry of Health of the Region of Murcia, including with teaching support. In addition to these professionals, the teaching staff of the master is made up of various Departments of the Universidad de Murcia , with other Spanish Universities, and with the National Health School of the Carlos III Health Institute.

Three itineraries are established that correspond to three well-defined professional and research orientation and training profiles:

• Professional Itinerary: aimed at practicing public health professionals or who wish to carry out a professional activity (practicing public health doctors, nursing professionals, pharmacy, veterinary, and other public health professionals).
• Research Itinerary: in public health, aimed at professionals who wish to carry out an eminently research activity in public health applying the epidemiological method or qualitative research to carry out the doctoral thesis.
• Itinerary for Resident Doctors of Preventive Medicine and Public Health: (regulated by RD. 127/84) who need to complete a Master of Public Health in their first year of Residency.

Master's file

Justification

The main objective is to seek to provide the participant with the fundamental knowledge, attitudes and skills necessary to be able to carry out a professional activity in the public health administration or start a research activity leading to a doctoral thesis and / or a research project.

The general objectives are the following:

• Acquire an understanding of the health = disease continuum and the factors that influence it as determinants of health.
• Train to understand and interpret the legal framework in which the activity of the specialist in Preventive Medicine and Public Health will be developed.
• Delimit the Health System as a whole and the contribution of its various components for the elaboration and development of health policies.
• Acquire the necessary knowledge and skills in all those basic sciences that facilitate and prepare the training of the specialist in Preventive Medicine and Public Health.
• Know and apply the epidemiological method in the fields of surveillance, research and evaluation.
• Train to analyze health problems and risk factors for getting sick, both from the aspects of disease prevention, as well as those of protection and health promotion.
• Acquire knowledge of planning, directing, managing and evaluating health services and their resources.

Competencies

Basic skills

• Possess and understand knowledge that provides a basis or opportunity to be original in the development and / or application of ideas, often in a research context.
• That students know how to apply the knowledge acquired and their ability to solve problems in new or unfamiliar environments within broader (or multidisciplinary) contexts related to their area of ​​study.
• That students are able to integrate knowledge and face the complexity of making judgments based on information that, being incomplete or limited, includes reflections on social and ethical responsibilities linked to the application of their knowledge and judgments.
• That students know how to communicate their conclusions and the knowledge and ultimate reasons that support them to specialized and non-specialized audiences in a clear and unambiguous way.
• That students have the learning skills that allow them to continue studying in a way that will be largely self-directed or autonomous.

General Competences

• Consider ethics and intellectual integrity as essential values of professional practice.
• Being able to project the knowledge, abilities and skills acquired to promote a society based on the values of freedom, justice, equality and pluralism.
• Ability to work as a team and to interact with other people from the same or different professional fields.
• Being able to acquire social and ethical commitments.
• Being able to maintain an attitude of respect towards people and groups regardless of their origin, sex or beliefs.
• Know how to assume leadership, coordination and representation tasks.

Transversal Competences

No data

Specific Competences

Knowledge and understanding (E1-E6)

• Know the history of public health and the relationship between the current situation and historical background.
• Know the theoretical foundations and terminology of work in public health, health promotion and prevention.
• Know the process of scientific research in public health and the main methods of research and analysis of the health of populations, their applications and limitations, both in qualitative and quantitative techniques.
• Know the main strategies to address the main causes of morbidity and mortality and risk factors in the population and the usefulness and limitations of their effectiveness to improve the health of populations.
• Know the health information systems for health management and policy, their foundations, scope and limitations.
• Know the origins, characteristics and specific problems of the main health services management systems.

Skills and abilities (E7-E20)

• Being able to quantify and value the health needs of a population.
• Being able to identify and describe in specific contexts the historical and current characteristics and peculiarities that underlie the health problems of populations.
• Be able to use the epidemiological method to analyze health problems and risk factors for falling ill in populations.
• Being able to propose population-based interventions appropriate to the health needs and problems detected in a population for both individual disease prevention and health protection and promotion, differentiating between individual and population prevention strategies.
• Be able to identify the necessary elements to guarantee the development and sustainability of the proposed public health interventions.
• Design and develop programs to manage and evaluate the quality of health services and to carry out health inspections and audits following guidelines and protocols.
• Know how to apply the knowledge acquired to identify, clarify and / or solve problems of social inequality in health.
• Be able to use group work dynamics.
• Handle with rigor and efficiency the various sources of information: bibliographic, electronic and others.
• Be able to develop working hypotheses based on prior knowledge, and design and develop experimental and observational research in public health.
• Identify the most appropriate type of statistical analysis for the most common public health situations, perform statistical analyzes, interpret and describe the results of the analyzes.
• Clearly and rigorously evaluate the results of descriptive and analytical studies on the health of the population and identify risk factors.
• Being able to express with conciseness and rigor the conclusions that emanate from the results of analysis of the health of populations, distinguishing between assumptions and proven facts, and to elaborate and present results in scientific seminars using effective scientific communication.
• Design, manage, evaluate and / or advise on intervention plans that promote the health of the population in the different fields of professional and / or research development.

Values and attitudes (E21-E29)

• Know, accept and behave professionally according to the values and social norms that favor the health of groups and minorities, and the democratic coexistence and ethical principles regarding the interpersonal relationship.
• Promote the defense of health in intersectoral policies.
• Appreciate, recognize and respect the autonomy and independence of judgment, respecting the differences, opinions and actions of people, as well as cultural diversity.
• Being able to assume social and ethical commitments in relation to the health of the population.
• Promote social participation and control of citizens over their own health.
• Understand the culture of public and private companies and public and private research.
• Work in a dynamic and effective team in all fields of action of the Public Health specialist.
• Recognize and value the right to equity and social justice in health and healthcare as a fundamental human right.
• Recognize and respect individual and collective decisions in community work.

Graduation profile

The graduation profile constitutes the referential element, it is expressed in competencies that describe what the graduate will be able to do at the end of this postgraduate program and that will enable him or her for their professional activity. This Master's main objective is to provide the knowledge, attitudes and skills necessary to be able to carry out a professional or research activity in public health in the Health System, private entities, professionals or researchers, and academic institutions. This degree provides professional skills for the performance of jobs with functions of management, execution and inspection in the field of public health, including all those related to primary prevention, promotion and protection of health. Public health training is internationally recognized and regulated training that trains professionals, healthcare or otherwise, to tackle and defend the health problems of the population.