Tufts University MPH Program Competency Domains, Core Competencies, & Learning Objectives
The Tufts MPH Program uses a set of competency domains derived from those used by the ASPH MPH Core Competency Project. Within each domain category are listed (in bold), a set of competencies that describe in conceptual terms what a Tufts MPH graduate can do. Most competencies have listed below them a set of learning objectives which describe in greater detail what a Tufts MPH student is taught. Each learning objective has at least one place in the Tufts MPH curriculum where it is taught and evaluated.
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Competency Domains
Core Subject Competencies Epidemiology and Biostatistics 1 - 2 Health Policy 3 Health Organization and Systems Management 4
Social & Behavioral Sciences 5 Environmentaland Occupational Health Sciences and Policy 6 Biology 7
Cross-cutting Competencies Planning and Evaluation 8 Professionalism and Ethics 10 Public Health Practice 11 Communication 12 Diversity 12 Leadership and Advocacy 14
Epidemiology and Biostatistics
Describe and present population health problems using available data and appropriate epidemiologic and biostatistical concepts.
Calculate, interpret, and understand appropriate measures of disease occurrence and association
Use appropriate epidemiologic measures to characterize the health status of a population or community
1 Identify potential sources of bias and confounding, and the role of chance in measurement of association.
Understand and critique public health literature.
Describe basic features, strengths and weaknesses of study designs.
Articulate the potential roles of bias, confounding and chance as possible explanations for findings.
Recognize the category of data under scrutiny and identify the appropriate statistical tests for analysis of such data
Know appropriate applications and limitations of common statistical tests
Make appropriate inferences from available data.
Extract the important contextual information that is contained in a data set.
Accurately assess risk as demonstrated by data
Accurately assess the degree and extent to which causality may or may not be inferred based on available studies and data.
Propose and frame a research question related to population health.
Identify appropriate methods and study designs for answering a specific research question.
Identify appropriate methods and study designs for answering a specific research question.
Identify methods that can be used to answer a research question, articulating strengths and weaknesses of alternatives.
Minimize the potential roles of bias and confounding in a study design
Incorporate needs for proper data collection, storage, and dissemination processes in study design
Use accepted models of protocol design for research, quality improvement and other public health activities
Apply concepts of validity and reliability to assessing and developing variables and instruments for use in research.
2 3 Health Policy
Describe and analyze population health systems, including their stakeholders, components, and attributes.
Understand the role of various stakeholders in the health services and public health system
Analyze the features of a health system, including the roles of cost, quality, access, equity and their interplay, in contributing to the health status of a population
Identify and describe the components of the public health and health services infrastructures in the United States and in other countries.
Understand the role of markets and government in allocating health care resources from an efficiency and equity perspective.
Understand the role of societal sectors external to formal health care and public health structures, in contributing to health and the potential for healthy public policy.
Understand the role of societal structures, including culture, economic systems, race, ethnicity and class, in the distribution of health and health inequities.
Identify, propose and analyze policy interventions to improve population health in a variety of societal levels and sectors
Understand the legal and regulatory structures of the federal, state and local government as they affect public health.
Differentiate among law, policy, rules and regulations; and among different levels at which policy can operate, including federal, state, local, municipal, and organizational levels.
Write a policy brief, articulating a rationale for a policy and describing intended and potential unintended consequences.
Identify ways in which a health system is not working and leverage points in that system to create change.
Conduct comparative analyses across nations and use such analysis to consider improvements within specific systems.
Apply basic financial and economic principles to the analysis of health policy and systems
4 Health Organization and Systems Management
Describe the internal and external environment and issues that affect organizational behavior.
Use tools developed for strategic and operational planning
Use organizational mission, structure, policies and actions to identify appropriate and effective means of working in or with an organization to accomplish public health goals.
Apply quality improvement principles and tools to evaluate organizational processes and outputs.
Analyze and use basic financial tools used in organizational and program management.
Develop a project budget and justification.
Prepare and interpret an organizational budget and variances.
Interpret basic financial statements about an organization, including revenue and expense statements, balance sheets, statements of cash flow.
5 Social and Behavioral Sciences
Apply the socio-ecological model to understand and improve public health
Propose and critique interventions designed to address health problems at all levels of the social ecological model
Understand the determinants of health and health behaviors from a social-ecological perspective including how individual and contextual factors impact health communications and interventions, including:
o Literacy o Gender o History o Poverty o Culture o Community o Race o Structural factors
Apply theoretical models of health behavior and health communication to understand and evaluate public health problems, and to design, implement and evaluate public health interventions.
Identify known and potential determinants of health status and health-related behaviors, both generally and for specific diseases of public health import
Demonstrate basic skills required to respond to an RFP, including: o Problem analysis/literature review o Writing goals and objectives o Program planning drawing on theory o Logic models o Evaluation (formative, process, outcome) o Budgeting
Describe and discuss several of the basic health behavior theories and models and explain how they can be used to explain behavior and inform intervention and communication strategies. Theories include: o Health Belief Model o Theory of Reasoned Action/Planned Behavior o Transtheoretical Model o Social Learning Theory o Diffusion of Innovation
Develop and describe communication strategies, messages, and vehicles appropriate for diverse audiences, ranging from individuals to policymakers
Conduct formative research to inform program design.
6 7 Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences and Policy
Describe environmental and occupational influences on public health.
Identify how the environmental quality of air, water, and land contributes to population health in both developed and developing nations
Analyze how both natural and built environments impact health.
Understand how occupational environments and job design contribute to health problems.
Identify occupational and environmental hazards, including chemical, physical, biological, and psychosocial hazards.
Apply a critical thinking and systems approach to the analysis of environmental and occupational determinants of disease and injury.
Understand and identify the ideologic and conceptual frameworks implicit in research and policy agendas related to environmental and occupational health.
Analyze how environmental factors impact lifestyles, biology, attitudes, perceptions, behaviors and choices that ultimately impact health.
Apply concepts of sustainability and ecological systems to address public health issues.
Design, critique, and evaluate interventions directed at environmental and occupational disease and injury
Identify the contributions of technical, political, and policy frameworks for addressing environmental and occupational illness and injury.
Describe and critique regulatory frameworks for protection of human health in the environment and in occupational settings.
Describe social, political and economic obstacles to the amelioration of workplace and environmentally mediated illness and injury and strategies to overcome them
Recognize agents of injury and use the host-environment-agent framework to assess risks and risk reduction strategies
Use a systems approach to identify opportunities for change.
8 Biology
Demonstrate ability to acquire and understand the critical biological factors that influence public health efforts related to any disease.
Identify credible resources on biological science.
Comprehend basic biological materials on topics ranging from the cellular to the population levels relevant to public health.
Analyze and synthesize biological information to generate and strengthen the rationale for public health ideas and interventions.
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Planning and Evaluation
Use data to improve population health interventions.
Judge the quality and appropriateness of data for use in decision-making related to public health activity
Understand the limits of various research methods and the need to balance rigor and practical limitations in public health field work.
Conduct formative research and use information gained from such research to design or improve public health work
Conceive, design, implement, monitor, and evaluate public health actions taken to improve the health of a population.
Describe a population health problem from a public health perspective
Identify a specific problem and model for how that problem will be addressed by a proposed project.
Conduct a literature review, identifying relevant literature and articulating what is and what is not known in relationship to a public health problem and a proposed intervention
Incorporate all stakeholder perspectives and values, including those of the population or community to be served, in the conception and design of public health actions.
Explicate a proposed public health intervention using a logic model.
Write a well designed plan for a public health intervention, using the framework of goals, objectives, activities, and evaluation.
Articulate a systematic approach for collecting, managing, analyzing and reporting information
Conduct project work in accordance with a plan.
Accurately evaluate project accomplishments and limitations.
Bring a project to closure, giving stakeholders clear understanding of what was accomplished and what work remains.
Revise or adapt an intervention proposal and plan in response to changing circumstances.
Conduct formative evaluation of a project
10 Identify and implement changes or corrections in a project plan and communicate such changes and rationale for them in an interim report
11 Professionalism and Ethics
Work effectively in a professional organization by adapting the content and process of one’s work to the organization’s mission, culture, organizational chart, and mechanisms for decision making.
Assess the internal environment of an organization, with attention to the organization’s mission, culture, organizational chart, and mechanisms for decision making.
Assess the external environment in which an organization functions, with attention to the strategic opportunities and threats presenting to the organization
Adapt work in response to the organizational context in which it is done.
Give and receive constructive feedback with all stakeholders.
Demonstrate efforts to use feedback for professional improvement.
Listen so others with speak; and speak so others will listen.
Be accountable and take responsibility for all actions and behaviors taken with respect to professional work.
Respect deadlines, demonstrate timeliness, follow directions, and display appropriate dress and manners
Communicate as needed and as requested by others with whom one works.
Honor commitments made
Exercise sound judgment and common sense in day to day matters related to professional work.
Utilize appropriate ethical, legal and administrative frameworks in safeguarding human subjects and community needs and concerns associated with project work.
Articulate the potential ethical problems associated with the collection of information related to human subjects
Articulate the difference between research and data collection for other purposes, and identify and pursue the appropriate process for institutional review of a defined set of activities
12 Public Health Practice
Find and negotiate public health work appropriate to one’s skills and strengths.
Contact, communicate and negotiate effectively with other professionals.
Describe the stakeholders of a public health issue in a local, regional, national or global level, and identify opportunities among those stakeholders for public health action.
Work effectively with multiple professional and non-professional stakeholders in a community setting.
Understand and respond constructively to various stakeholder perspectives.
Develop awareness of community history and dynamics.
Cooperate and coordinate with existing community partners.
Cultivate trust and establish mutually agreed to processes among various stakeholders.
13 Communication
Listen to, learn about, and understand differing perspectives on a public health issue from diverse populations and stakeholders.
Demonstrate respect for others and for differing perspectives in team and coalition activities.
Articulate how differing perspectives can create opportunity for constructive problem solving in addressing public health problems.
Use theory, evidence, and stakeholder input to communicate appropriately with diverse populations and stakeholders.
Develop messages for use in a public health action appropriate to diverse target audiences.
Select messaging strategies and appropriate tactics for delivering messages as part of a public health action.
Communicate effectively in writing and orally with professional and lay audiences.
Use a layperson’s terminology and clear language to explain terms and concepts in appropriate settings.
Write clearly and accurately in order to convey both technical and conceptual materials to intended audiences.
Demonstrate the ability to communicate one’s work in writing in a professional style and format.
Use epidemiologic and biostatistical terminology correctly in written and spoken presentations.
Present quantitative data in tables and graphs using the clearly understandable and generally accepted formats.
Demonstrate the ability to give a clear and compelling presentation, in a style suitable for presentation at a scientific meeting, with attention to the quality of the verbal, vocal, and non-verbal aspects of presentation.
Use audio-visual aids to enhance communication and presentation effectiveness.
14 Diversity
Understand how class, culture, race, ethnicity, socio-economic status, gender, sexual orientation and other aspects of identity and diversity affect health and health-related behaviors and attitudes.
Define health inequities and delineate how characteristics of identity and diversity, including but not limited to class, culture, race, ethnicity, socio-economic status, gender, and sexual orientation; increase risk of poorer health outcomes.
Articulate how formative research with diverse target audiences allows for more effective public health action.
Incorporate understanding of cultures, histories, beliefs and practices in designing and implementing public health actions.
In preparation for work with a community or population, conduct research and literature review to develop an understanding of that group’s cultures, beliefs, history and practices.
Use formative research about specific target audiences, including stakeholder analysis, and key informant input to inform the design and conduct of a public health action.
Work effectively with diverse populations and within diverse communities.
Conduct useful public health work in the context of a specific organizational and community context.
Treat all people with dignity and respect.
15 Leadership and Advocacy
Demonstrate the ability to work independently and in groups to foster positive change.
Design and conduct public health work that requires both independent analytic activity and the cooperation of others.
Make independent judgments to adjust and advance one’s work in the setting of barriers or setbacks
Use team and coalition strategies to advance ones work
Accurately assess one’s ability to create change, identifying and acting upon critical information and opportunities in a public health organization or system.
Use a contextual analysis to develop a public health action that is both acceptable to and has capacity to change an organization or system.
Use one or more collaborative strategies to advance public health work.
Take action to improve team and coalition effectiveness.
Use specific strategies to influence team or coalition dynamics so as to improve group communication, cooperation, use of diverse perspectives, or creative responses to conflict.
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