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Download the Internship Guidelines and the Internship Orientation PowerPoint
Download the Preceptor Orientation PowerPoint and the Internship Guidelines
For a listing of current internship opportunities, please visit our Internship Opportunities page.
The internship is intended to broaden students' public health perspectives and provide experience in applying information learned in courses. This course is designed to integrate practical experience in the field of public health with theory and content learned in didactic courses. The student is expected to write a report demonstrating the integration of classroom experience with the on-site internship (proposal form enclosed). This requirement is utilized to assist the student in developing a broader perspective on the work s/he is doing. In addition, the preceptor and the student should both have a sense that the internship activities are contributing to the preceptor’s work.
Our program recommends that MPH students contact a state or county health department or some other health agency to arrange the internship experience. Many of our students have been closely involved with epidemiologists in a variety of settings and have undertaken the analysis of diverse datasets under the guidance of those mentors/preceptors. Internship sites are listed at
http://www.ohsu.edu/public-health/education/mph/intern_sites.doc
Preceptors should provide close supervision and maintain frequent contact with the student. There should be a focus on how a team and the preceptor work and the rewards of doing that work. This is an opportunity for students to explore potential career paths in public health.
Student projects could involve a wide range of tasks, from developing information regarding available services to determining the effectiveness of protocols, therapies, or a consulting service. They could be involved in coding, sorting records, observing, describing projects, analyzing data, and preparing case reports. Students may assist with outbreak investigations or be involved in developing health policy through local or state agencies.
All students participating in this experience will have completed at least Epidemiology I and Biostatistics 1. The faculty strongly recommends taking Epidemiology II and Biostatistics 2 as well before participating in the internship.
Before registering for the internship placement, the student will complete an internship proposal form that is to be signed by the internship preceptor, the student's advisor, and the Epidemiology and Biostatistics Track Director.
At the end of the experience, the student will submit a project report to the preceptor describing the experience and what the student has gained from it. The preceptor evaluates the paper and, based upon the student's performance during the field experience and the report, the preceptor will assign an internship grade of Pass/Fail. The preceptor will send a copy of the internship grade and the report to the Epidemiology and Biostatistics Track Director. This recommendation can be sent via email.
Depending upon the student and the nature of the placement, the student may be interested in doing further work at the placement site that might develop into a thesis project.
The time to credit ratio is 33.3 hours of internship experience earns one course credit (for example, 100 hours/10 week term = 10 hrs per week = 3 credits).
MPH students need a minimum of 3 but can take a maximum of 6 internship credits.
If the student is located at DHS, the student must comply with the following expectations (students are already in compliance with #2):
If problems or issues arise that are barriers to achieving your learning objectives for the internship/organizational experience, discuss them with preceptor first. Then, if problems or issues cannot be resolved, discuss them with faculty advisor. Address problems early.
Requests for waivers can be made in writing and sent to the Epidemiology and Biostatistics Track Director. Given the goal to increase student skills and develop new insights into public health, the internship requirement is rarely waived. Students with extensive public health experience, such as in a state or county health department, are expected to seek an alternate type of challenge in another area, such as health policy, health care systems research, etc. A student with substantial research experience in an academic setting will be strongly encouraged to seek field experience in a health department or other agency that will broaden the student's horizons in public health.
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