Population Health Exchange (PHX) in the Office of Lifelong Learning is modifying and re-launching its mini-Master of Public Health for both physicians and nurses, offering six continuing education credits for participants upon successful completion.

The new course expands upon the original mini-MPH that debuted in early 2020 as the world’s health needs shifted with the emergence of the novel coronavirus. To ensure access to education, the free, online MPH examines key concepts and core principles around pressing public health issues.

More than 13,000 people have completed the original mini-MPH since its initial launch, with a number of participants being working healthcare professionals. “Nurses and physicians from a range of specialties told us they were exposed to topics presented in the mini-MPH that they hadn’t otherwise learned in their training,” says Leslie Tellalian, assistant dean for lifelong learning. “We received a lot of great feedback on the program and quickly had an overwhelming number of requests for Continuing Medical Education (CME) and Continuing Nursing Education (CNE) credits.”

The new mini-MPH courses will offer six CME and CNE credits for participants and will have a $150 registration fee. The original mini-MPH is still being offered for free but is only eligible for five Certified Health Education Specialist/Master of Certified Health Education Specialist credits.

Through just 7.5 hours of content taught by expert SPH faculty, the new asynchronous programs provide foundational knowledge for physicians and nurses hoping to enhance their public health skills and enrich their clinical expertise.

Similar to the original mini-MPH program, participants will learn about the foundations of public health with Dean Sandro Galea; quantitative methods for public health with Lisa Sullivan, associate dean for education and professor of biostatistics; leadership and management for public health with Harold Cox, associate professor of community health sciences; health systems, law, and policy with David Rosenbloom, professor of health law, policy & management; and individual, community, and population health with Sophie Godley, clinical assistant professor of community health sciences.

Participants in the Mini-MPH for Physicians will now also learn about the intersection of public health and medicine with Wayne Lamorte, professor of epidemiology, and participants in the Mini-MPH for Nurses will now learn about how public health and nursing interact with Monica Onyango, clinical associate professor of global health.

While the medical field tends to center its focus on diagnoses and effective treatments, Lamorte says that good medical practice has always included prevention—a critical pillar of public health. “We know that physicians’ recommendations regarding things like smoking cessation, weight reduction, and vaccination are perhaps the most important way to encourage people to take important steps that will keep them healthy,” he says. “Responsible physicians recognize the importance of including prevention in their practice, and I hope that through this course, physicians will gain a strong appreciation for their critical role in keeping their patients healthy.”

Similarly, Onyango hopes that nurses who participate in the program leave with a better understanding of their role in supporting population health on a global scale. “Nurses are essential to our healthcare system,” she says. “In any health care setting, nurses make up over half of all health professionals and are often the first, or even the only, health professional a patient will see, making the quality of their initial assessment and care vital for strong health outcomes.”

Through programs like the mini-MPH, Tellalian says PHX is able to provide accessible public health resources to both health and non-health related professionals. “Being able to act quickly and nimbly to provide these resources is in great part because of our dedicated faculty who are passionate about helping people continue to learn about the field of public health and the critical impact it has on all aspects of our lives and well-being,” she says.

PHX is a resource hub and continuing education experience for health, providing opportunities to engage with field experts online and in the classroom and developing new perspectives and advanced skill sets for enhancing the health of populations. Their lifelong learning resources provide affordable opportunities to grow professionally and keep up with emerging population health trends.

The Mini-MPH for Physicians and the Mini-MPH for Nurses launch on Monday, July 12. Registration is now open.