PHSC 598 Practicum in Population Health

The practicum is a population-level focused project conducted in a practice context. This course intends to engage the student in real-world population health activities, which enables them to demonstrate application of their population health concepts in the areas of their professional and research interests. This course requires that the student integrate and synthesize their population health knowledge and skills to develop and implement professional public health-related research, intervention, policy, or any practice activity. Each student is expected to complete a minimum of 140 hours of practicum and prior approval of the practicum from the program lead. The practicum will be supervised by the preceptor, who is qualified to evaluate the student’s professional competence and supervise the student throughout the project. The preceptor needs to be engaged in population health practice-related activities, research, intervention, or policy directly. The preceptor can be within the university or outside the university (non-profits, community-based organizations, health departments, private corporations, other academic institutions, etc.) The program lead will be informed about the student’s progress on pre-defined learning objectives. As part of the course, it requires the student to define their learning objectives following the practicum commencement competencies. It is recommended that the student links their practicum experiences to their career or professional goals. Upon completing this practicum, the student will be able to provide evidence of their applied population health knowledge and skills to potential employers.