The MPH in Community-Oriented Public Health Practice (COPHP) supports
a robust practicum program through a formal partnership with its local health
department, Public Health—Seattle & King County, that provides students an
opportunity to integrate academic training and practice within a metropolitan health
department setting. This arrangement began in 2003, when the University of
Washington School of Public Health and Community Medicine and the Public Health
agency received a one-year Associated Schools of Public Health “academic health
department” grant. Since then, the health department has served as a teaching institution
for COPHP students and a venue to train students on-site in real-world public
health practice. COPHP student and faculty linkages provide a vehicle to enhance the
public health workforce through resource sharing and technical assistance, and have
expanded public health department staff opportunities to conduct community-based
public health research and projects with UW faculty. Nearly all first year COPHP
students are placed in practicum assignments at Public Health that complement their
coursework. COPHP pays for a part-time practicum coordinator who is a Public Health
employee and a COPHP graduate. The coordinator solicits practicum opportunities
from Public Health staff, reviews projects for feasibility and appropriateness of skills,
oversees students’ self-assessments, and works with site supervisors to initiate the
practicums. Students work closely with faculty advisers throughout the process.
Practicum projects include community assessment, health education, program planning
and evaluation, policy development, and community mobilization. The service learning
experience has been beneficial to Public Health, COPHP students, and the greater King
County community.
Keywords: Academic health department, Employment, Experience, Faculty
adviser, Learning contract, Networking, Partnership, Practicum, Project, Selfassessment,
Site supervisor.
