Health Policy, MSPH

Program Overview

The Master of Science in Public Health (MSPH) in Health Policy is a professional degree program designed for individuals seeking competency-based education and training in health policy to establish or expand their careers as health policy professionals in the United States. The interdisciplinary faculty members associated with the program are recognized for excellence in policy analysis, health services research, public health practice, and teaching. The faculty is actively involved in formulating and implementing health policy at the federal, state, and municipal levels.

The program requires one academic year of full-time, accelerated coursework, followed by a second year professional employment experience.  The employment experience provides a seamless transition from graduate student to health policy professional.  Through coursework, students acquire a solid foundation in public health policy along with substantive knowledge of the U.S. public health and healthcare delivery system, as well as key health and public policy issues. The required curriculum and field placement experience provides students with a rich understanding of U.S. health/public health policy; knowledge of the process by which public policy decisions are made; training in basic quantitative and analytic methods; and the skills needed to critically assess and apply research findings to the development, implementation, and analysis of health/public health policy.

In addition to the core requirements, the program offers professional development and flexibility for students to pursue their individual interests in the health/public health policy arena. Elective courses may be selected from those offered within HPM or any other department in the Bloomberg School.

Program Administration

Program Director: Beth Resnick, DrPH, MPH
Assistant Director: David Earle, MLA
 

Bachelor's/MSPH

The Johns Hopkins University, in conjunction with the Bloomberg School, offers a combined Bachelor's degree and Master of Science in Public Health in Health Policy (MSPH) degree.  The combined degree programs have been tailored to prepare students for a career in health policy.  
JHU undergraduate students have the unique opportunity to seek early admission to the MSPH degree. The combined Bachelor's/MSPH program emphasizes a solid foundation in public health policy along with substantive knowledge of the U.S. public health and healthcare delivery system. Students in this program will receive co-advising from both schools to optimize their academic experience.

Successful applicants to the Bachelor's/MSPH are recommended to take at least one math or statistics course and at least one writing-intensive course during undergraduate study.

For more information on the Bachelor's/MSPH program, contact Assistant Director David Earle or visit our website.

MSPH Program Requirements

Course location and modality is found on the BSPH website.

Year 1 Course Requirements  

The MSPH in Health Policy program requires a minimum of 64 credits of didactic coursework to be completed in the first year of the program. Students must complete a self-assessment and a tentative course plan prior to matriculating.

Year 1 required coursework includes program core requirements and electives as outlined below. The half-term online modules (worth .5 credits) are offered multiple times throughout the year, including during the summer. Information on the half-term online courses available in the summer will be presented on the MSPH program online summer orientation site. Online courses taken in the summer will be included in first term registration.  

Core MSPH Courses

Course List

Code	Title	Credits
Summer Prerequisites
XXX.XXX	Introduction to Online Learning
PH.550.860	Academic & Research Ethics at JHSPH
Core Policy Courses
PH.300.651	Introduction to the U.S. Healthcare System	4
PH.300.712	Formulating Policy: Strategies and Systems of Policymaking in the 21st Century	3
PH.301.645	Health Advocacy	3
PH.306.650	Public Health and the Law	3
PH.312.655	Organizational Behavior and Management	2
PH.318.603	Applied Microeconomics for Policymaking	3
PH.318.623	Social Policy for Marginalized and Disenfranchised Populations in the U.S.	3
PH.308.867	MSPH Seminar in Health Policy 1	1
Core Methods Courses
PH.300.713	Research and Evaluation Methods for Health Policy	3
PH.340.721	Epidemiologic Inference in Public Health I	5
A complete series in biostatistics, either Statistical Methods or Statistical Reasoning
PH.140.621	Statistical Methods in Public Health I	4
PH.140.622	Statistical Methods in Public Health II	4
PH.140.623	Statistical Methods in Public Health III	4
OR
PH.140.611	Statistical Reasoning in Public Health I	3
PH.140.622	Statistical Methods in Public Health II	4
Required General Public Health Courses
PH.552.601	Foundational Principles of Public Health	0.5
PH.552.603	The Role of Qualitative Methods and Science in Describing and Assessing a Population's Health	0.5
PH.552.607	Essentials of Environmental Health	0.5
PH.552.608	Biologic, Genetic and Infectious Bases of Human Disease	0.5
PH.552.609	Psychological and Behavioral Factors That Affect A Population's Health	0.5
PH.552.611	Globalization and Population Health	0.5
PH.552.612	Essentials of One Health	0.5
PH.552.621	Basic Resources Management for Public Health	1
PH.552.622	Creating, Implementing and Monitoring Budgets for Projects and Programs	1
PH.552.623	Principles of Negotiation and Mediation for Public Health Professionals	0.5
PH.552.624	Applications of Negotiation and Mediation for Public Health Professionals	0.5
PH.552.626	Systems Thinking: Concepts and Methods	0.5
Elective courses added to total at least 64 credits

¹

MSPH Seminar in Health Policy must be taken every term during the first year.

Electives

In addition to the core course curriculum, MSPH in Health Policy students must take elective courses in order to meet the first year 64 credit requirement. Elective options should be discussed with the academic adviser prior to registration. Students may take the opportunity to specialize in a specific area of policy. Specialty areas include:

Advocacy	Bioethics
Child & Adolescent Health	Environmental Health Policy
Food & Nutrition Policy	Health & Aging Populations
Health Disparities & Health Inequality	Health Economics
Health Finance & Management	Health Informatics
Injury & Violence Prevention	LGBT Health
Mental Health Policy & Services	Quality Improvement & Outcomes Research
Social Policy	Women's & Reproductive Health

Year 2 Course Requirements

Each term of the second year, students must register for the course PH.308.810 Field Placement Health Policy-MSPH for 16 credits. It is the student's responsibility to maintain their field placement registration for each term.  

Students are welcome to take additional elective courses during the 2nd year if their schedule allows.

Field Placement

The second-year field placement experience and the required field placement seminar series allows students to apply their academic training in a professional health policy/public health setting, demonstrate essential health policy analyst competencies and transition seamlessly to a full-time health policy career.

Students become eligible to initiate their placement after meeting the following requirements:

• Completion of the required first year, 64 program didactic credits
• Satisfactory academic progress with a minimum overall GPA of 2.75 by the end of the 4th term of their first academic year
• Earned minimum grade of "C" in all required core courses

Students begin their field placement employment in the second year of the program. The field placement requirement can be completed at one or multiple sites domestically or internationally.

Field Placement Goals

The field placement experience provides students with the opportunity to apply their academic training in real-world settings under the guidance of at least one senior-level health policy/public health professional and the program faculty. Through the field placement experience, students will gain perspective on how public health policies affect the public's health and hone their professional health policy skills. During their employment, students are expected to accomplish the following objectives:

• Develop practical, applied public health policy skills including but not limited to problem analysis, oral and written communications to various audiences, and quantitative analysis to advance evidence-based policy decisions.
• Contribute to their field placement organization by participating in and completing all assigned work. Where appropriate, share work with field placement colleagues, and suggest additional projects in support of the organization's mission.
• Discern their own role in the organization as to how their work fits both into the mission of the organization and within the "larger health policy system."
• Explore the internal structure, function and history of the organization and its impact on the organization's mission and operations.
• Observe the preceptor's leadership and managerial approach and implications of these leadership approaches on the student's field placement experience as well as their overall career advancement and development.

Selection and Approval of Field Placement Sites

Students may choose to pursue field placements in a wide variety of settings, including governmental agencies, the legislative arena, consulting, advocacy, non-profit, research, and professional organizations in both domestic and/or international settings.

Students are responsible for securing their own field placement positions, with assistance and final approval from MSPH staff and faculty. The program will disseminate field placement opportunities to students, and they are encouraged to utilize existing MSPH partnerships with health policy/public health-related employers via alumni contacts, recruiters, and established networking contacts. Additionally, students are encouraged to identify appropriate placements on their own. Placements can be domestic or international and can be completed in single or multiple experiences. Students must submit an official field placement offer letter to the MSPH for final approval.

Field Placement Requirements

HPM faculty and staff oversee the evaluation of the field placement as a culminating experience. During the field placement, students are required to attend a monthly professional development seminar where they will chronicle their professional practice development in health policy/public health, as well as synthesize and integrate knowledge and competencies acquired in their coursework through the completion of the seminar assignments that are aligned with program competencies and degree requirements. Details and due dates for these assignments will be provided to the students at the beginning of their 2nd year.

Evaluation Of Student's Completion Of The Requirement: Preceptor

Each preceptor is asked for feedback on the student's performance through the completion of a brief evaluation form near the end of the student's placement.

MSPH Program Policies

Satisfactory Academic Progress

Satisfactory academic progress is measured by the following as they relate to one another:

• To maintain satisfactory academic performance and good academic standing, all master's and certificate students must maintain a minimum grade point average of 2.75, and all doctoral students must maintain a minimum grade point average of 3.00 and grades of A, B, or P (pass) in all courses required by the school or by the student’s department.
• Written documentation of successful completion of all Bloomberg School and departmental degree requirements within the established time limitations
• Confirmation of satisfactory performance by the student’s department and/or adviser as required. Each term, the progress of students is reviewed, and those students not making satisfactory progress in terms of the cumulative grade point average and completion of requirements within established deadlines are identified for all academic departments. Students may not graduate unless in good academic standing. Additional policies regarding continuation in a program while not in good academic standing are left to individual programs. Whether a D is considered acceptable to serve as a prerequisite will be determined by the course’s sponsoring department

IMPORTANT: Students receiving federal loans and federal work-study funding must adhere to the Federal Satisfactory Academic Progress Policy posted on the Financial Aid Office website.

Students enrolled in the MSPH program who do not achieve the minimum GPA by the end of the 4th term in the first year, or have not successfully complete all year 1 required coursework, may be prevented from initiating their 2nd year placement or residency. Program Directors, in consultation with the HPM Student Matters Committee, will determine the appropriate course of action.

Course Waivers

In rare cases, students may request a waiver or substitution of a required program course.  Any request must be submitted in writing according to the guidelines outlined below at least one week prior to the start of the academic term and be approved in writing by the student's Program Director.

Examples of when a substitution might be appropriate:

• A student has successfully completed a graduate level course with a grade of "A" or "B" that covered the same content areas as the required course. (The completed graduate-level course syllabus must be submitted with the request.)
• A course or series of courses fulfills a general area of the required curriculum, such as biostatistics or epidemiology, but the student wishes to take a different course or series that is equally or more advanced than the normal requirement and that better aligns with their overall academic and career goals.

Course substitutions must abide by the following principles:

• A strong rationale must be made for how the substitution will benefit the student's overall academic and career goals.
• The resulting curriculum meets the requirements of the learning competencies of the student's program. 

Procedure for making a substitution request:

Master's Tuition Scholarship (MTS)

The Master's Tuition Scholarship (MTS) provides eligible MSPH students with a tuition scholarship worth 75% of one year's tuition. The scholarship can be applied in one of two ways: (1) All 75% applied in Year 2; or (2) 25% applied in Year 1 and 50% applied in Year 2. Students in the program must declare which option they prefer in the summer before matriculating. Once a preference has been selected, students may not change their scholarship allocation. Upon completion of the 2nd year field placement or residency, the scholarship will be concluded. Students are not permitted to enroll in courses using the scholarship once they have completed the program.

MSPH Learning Outcomes

Program Learning Outcomes

The learning outcomes specific to the MSPH in Health Policy are met through coursework and an approved professional experience. Upon successful completion of the program, students will be able to:

• Assess the array of social determinants contributing to inequitable distribution of resources and poor health outcomes among vulnerable populations in the U.S.
• Appraise the range of policy mechanisms that can be used to influence health and social outcomes among populations.
• Critique existing U.S. social policy approaches in a range of areas including healthcare, housing, and disability policy.
• Apply core concepts in how the law and the courts deal with public health issues.
• Evaluate how specific policy proposals will likely affect access to care and healthcare spending.

CEPH-Defined Foundational Competencies for Professional Programs

According to the requirements of the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH), all BSPH degree students must be grounded in foundational public health knowledge. Please view the list of specific CEPH requirements by degree type.