Public Health: What It Is and How It Works

Book excerpt: Using a straightforward systems approach, Public Health: What It Is and How It Works explores the inner workings of the complex, modern U.S. public health system—what it is, what it does, how it works, and why it is important. It covers the origins and development of the modern public health system; the relationship of public health to the overall health system; how the system is organized at the federal, state, and local levels; its core functions and how well these are currently being addressed; evidence-based practice and an approach to program planning and evaluation for public health interventions; public health activities such as epidemiological investigation, biomedical research, environmental assessment, policy development, and more. Transition to the New Edition! Click here to access our transition guide—and make changing your course materials from the third edition to the fourth edition as easy as possible! The Fourth Edition is a thorough revision that includes: The latest developments with public health agency accreditation, public health worker credentialing, workforce development, as well as future challenges in the field. Coverage of the new core competencies for the MPH degree recently established by the Association of Schools of Pubic Health. A new series of charts describing current health status and trends related to the content of each chapter. New Learning Objectives in each chapter. New Public Health Spotlights in chapters 1-8 which provide a focused examination of topics related to the learning objectives for that chapter. A complete package of instructor support material for both online and traditional classroom environments including course modules, sample syllabus, course resources, competency map, and detailed chapter-by-chapter PowerPoint slides.