Grant: Dr. James Rossiter MPH Practicum Awards Program

The Masters in Public Health (MPH) program at the University of Manitoba was developed to educate and train graduate level students with a background in training and/or experience in health/health care to better prepare for work as public health practitioners. The primary intent is to increase the number of competent public health practitioners in Canada. Our program attempts to balance public health theory and practice, preparing our graduates to work at many levels in the public health system, including decision-making, policy advice, program development, implementation and evaluation. The MPH program has been designed with a balance of didactic courses - some of which are mandatory (e.g. biostatistics and epidemiology) and some elective (e.g. economic evaluation, program evaluation) - and practical experience and training. Unlike our Masters of Community Health Sciences which requires the completion of a master-level thesis and is intended for researchers, the MPH program requires the completion of a three month (full-time equivalent) practicum. This practicum is located off site from the university in a public health practice setting (e.g. regional health authority public health unit, provincial government program unit) and is jointly overseen by a local supervisor and a University faculty member. These practicums are taken after all courses have been completed. It is anticipated that there will be between five and ten practicums per year, based on the current number of students that have applied and been accepted, with anticipated future growth. With no stipends for students, the program and these practicums can be a significant financial burden for the students, especially if there are additional expenses (e.g. equipment, travel). Vouchers to support these practicums would be very helpful to our mission to attract the best MPH students and provide them with a very useful and practical training to strengthen public health practice in Canada.