National Public Health Week (NPHW) was from April 6 to 12 this year. It is organized by the American Public Health Association. So it’s basically a week to celebrate the field of public health. I went to the APHA website to try to learn what the week was all about. I couldn’t quite figure it out. My take home is that it’s an excuse to encourage people to thank public health workers…
[tl;dr aka Too long; didn’t read: Scroll to the end of this post to see my vision for public health. The rest of this post summarizes my disenchantment and disappointment with the field as well as background on why I got my public health degree and what I’d hoped to get from it.]
I realized that I am struggling to define what public health even means. Have I mentioned that I have a master’s in public health? It’s kind of sad when somebody can get a master’s degree in a field and struggle to define what that field means. I attended a summit on public health in January and we have a small online community of attendees. The organizer of the event asked people what they wanted to do for NPHW, and I responded that I’d love to have a brainstorming session where we try to figure out what exactly public health means to us. In a time when a lot of public health has lost funding and misinformation abounds leading to distrust of the entire public health infrastructure, I’m no longer clear what my field is or does.
A friend forwarded me a newsletter written by an epidemiologist. It listed a few examples of public health in action:
- A teenager in crisis is still alive because their parents put a lock on that gun.
- A mom mixed baby formula with safe drinking water and did not have to think twice about it.
- An asthmatic kid did not have to go to the ED, because an air quality alert went out after a wildfire.
- A toddler walked away from a crash because of a properly installed car seat.
So I suppose I can infer what the field of public health means from the examples.
According to Wikipedia:
Public health is “the science of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_health
Making things more confusing, people can get an MPH in one of a myriad of concentrations. Examples from when I got my MPH include: Epidemiology, Biostatistics, Maternal and Child Health, Nutrition, Environmental Health, Health Policy and Management, and Health Behavior and Health Education.
When I looked at my graduate school just now the list of concentrations is quite different. In less than 20 years what constituted an MPH changed.
In addition to those areas, we also seem to consider public health to comprise health services delivered by local health departments. So you might have a public health nurse who administers childhood vaccinations or who delivers healthcare to pregnant mothers. You could even have physicians or nurse practitioners who provide medical care at a health department. So in this case you’re viewing public health as publicly-funded health. In that case is all of Medicaid and Medicare public health?
Yes I know this post simply confuses matters and I’m not helping any of you understand the field of public health. Unfortunately for you, my goal here is to convey my intense confusion! And point out that if someone who has a master’s degree in this field can’t figure out what public health is, how in the world can we expect people in the general public to understand what it is, value it, have trust in it, and fund it?
From APHA:
https://www.apha.org/initiatives/national-public-health-week/themes-and-facts
“Ready. Set. Action! is this year’s theme. As we celebrate, take a moment to recognize how public health has improved our daily lives, safeguarded our families, expanded our life spans, and strengthened our communities. This week is also a chance to honor the public health workers who show up for us every day — and to advocate for policies and practices that promote good health for all.
National Public Health Week 2026 will launch a bold, highly visible, public-facing advertising and engagement campaign centered on a simple truth: Good Health Doesn’t Just Happen.”
I have to break it to you APHA, I visited your website this week and I couldn’t find any handouts for this year. I found information about last year. I didn’t find any sample social media posts. I didn’t find any graphics. I didn’t find any action alerts or advocacy calls to action.
My take home is that I’m not sure the professional association that represents my field is doing that much. Funding has been decimated in this country. Trust in public health has been eroded. And the theme is the inscrutable, “Ready. Set. Action!”
I’ll be curious to see what they put on their website next week as their accomplishments for this year’s week. My impression is that it seems like a one week appreciation event. Kind of like we have teacher appreciation days or administrative assistant days. Just a week to show your appreciation to the people working in public health.
Now that I’ve gotten out of my system the confusing mess that Public Health presents itself to be, or more accurately does not, I’ll spend a little while telling you what I think it is, or could be.
But first, some history!
I was inspired to go into public health in part because I had a part-time job, starting towards the end of my undergraduate time and going on for a few years, typing up restaurant health inspections performed by the local environmental health division at the county health department where I lived. I enjoyed meeting the inspectors who worked there, and the director of the health department was awesome. So when I was considering whether to go back to grad school after working for a few years, I decided on public health.
These restaurant inspectors noted in great detail every violation of their rules that could potentially put the public’s health at risk. Their job was to prevent disease outbreaks due to unsafe food handling and food storage practices. They noted things like where food was stored and whether raw uncooked meat was stored above ready-to-eat food in the coolers. They observed whether there were adequate hand washing stations and appropriate signage about the necessity of washing hands. They did things like observe if there were any rodent droppings in the facility. If a restaurant had egregious enough violations, they even had the authority to close down the restaurant, although that was extremely rare. What was more common was that if a restaurant had some violations, they would give them time to fix those violations and come back and do a reinspection. They would also give the restaurant a score that was then posted publicly. Yes, when you go to a restaurant and see that numerical score on a little sign somewhere, that score is brought to you by your local environmental health inspectors!! They are doing their jobs to make sure that your health is protected when you go out to eat at a restaurant!!
I actually interviewed for a job in that department but the role involved working with pest control. Specifically looking at rat infestations and at times poisoning rats to get rid of them. The health director kindly interviewed me. And gently inquired whether this was truly a job where I would be happy. By this point she had known me for a year or two and she definitely knew that it was a terrible fit for me. But I was very appreciative that she at least granted me the interview.
I had also been very interested in education. So when I discovered that there was a public health degree in an area called health education, I decided that would do nicely.
Spoiler alert: the department where I got my degree was initially called “Health Behavior and Health Education.” While I was there, I observed that we only learned about health behavior, and not education. I found this extremely frustrating and it was not what I had signed up for. A year or two after I got my MPH, my department sent out a survey to all alumni saying that they were going to rename the department and asking people to vote on a new name. I voted for the more appropriate name of “Health Behavior.” And that is precisely what my old department is now called. So I had a solid bait and switch situation where I wanted to learn health education and instead learned all about why people do what they do and all the psychological theories, yet nothing about how to actually change that behavior.
What was I hoping to do with my degree? What was I hoping to learn? What was my area of interest?
My primary area of interest going into grad school was violence prevention through a public health lens. Violence is primarily viewed as a criminal justice matter, and to a lesser extent as a psychological matter. I saw it as a public health matter. This was more than 20 years ago. While there were a few other people who also saw it that way, I felt very alone and isolated in my interest. So much so that I had to spend an extra year getting my master’s degree because I couldn’t find faculty support of my master’s paper research topic. My master’s paper was on the bystander response to relationship violence. I designed my study on my own and was mostly on my own for all of it. My academic adviser, whose career focus was arthritis, kindly agreed to be my advisor for my paper. But she couldn’t provide me with any content advice. So for my second reader, I got an adjunct faculty member (who had a master’s degree and not a PhD) to give me some insight into the content. But mostly I was on my own. So I was paying money to train myself. I’m glad that I took the time and did work in an area that interested me, but that entire master’s was a huge waste of money. So now I have some letters after my name. And that does make me feel special. Who doesn’t want some extra letters after their name?! But they’re not very useful letters. And they certainly have not led to me doing anything with my life connected to my original interests.
The things I’m most proud of are things that I did as a volunteer. And I certainly didn’t need a master’s or tens of thousands of dollars in debt to have done those things.
So to me public health represents a loss of money and a bait and switch.
What do I think public health should do?
Stand out as a shining beacon in the fight against racism and white supremacy.
Speak out loudly against rape culture and misogyny throughout all of our society.
Speak out against income inequality.
Speak out against the erosion of our democracy and our descent into an oligarchy where extremely wealthy people control our political system.
Speak out against the outsourcing of our independent thinking to technology, and especially generative AI.
Speak out against all wars and armed conflicts.
Speak up for universal health care, universal basic income, universal access to safe and affordable housing.
Speak up for human rights regardless of borders, race, ethnicity, national origin, gender, sexuality, disability, income, age, etc.
Basically EVERY human deserves care, compassion, and love.
National Public Health Week is almost done and I was determined to do this post while the week was still in effect. I am sure I can brainstorm more things that I wish public health would do, but this post is already very long and my list is an excellent start.
What do you wish public health would do?
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