The Future of Public Health: Where You Might Fit in
Healthcare
Healthcare workers are in Future of Public Health high demand. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there will be 2.6 million additional healthcare jobs created between 2020-2030. Many public health professionals work within this industry as community nurses or program managers; their goal is to build stronger communities through connections. They do work similar to that outlined by Robert Wood Johnson Foundations’ initiative on cross-sector alignment; RWJF believes integration between healthcare, social services and leadership leads to sustainable progress in public health.
Advocacy
The pandemic exposed many issues related to equity in patient care. Ethnic and racial factors had an impact on how COVID-19 affected individuals received treatment. Between 2020-2021, there has been much research done in Public Health on these devastating effects of inherent biases. We can only hope that public-health advocates continue this important work into 2022 and beyond. You can make public health more equitable by serving as a director, researcher of Public Health economics, program leader or manager of community centers.
Policy
Public health suffers when there is no strategy and management of resources. One might argue that the United States response to the COVID-19 Pandemic was inadequate, including changing guidelines about masking which caused confusion among citizens and diminished their trust in government officials. Due to duplicity in supply chain management, supply chain issues could have been avoided. Public health professionals balance priorities and guarantee initiatives remain on track while stress testing multiple scenarios for stress testing purposes. Furthermore, those skilled at budget management or health litigation have an invaluable impact when things don’t go as expected; these influential positions can be found at federal, state, and local levels.
Epidemiology
Epidemiologists specialize in data collection, computer modeling and research on disease and injury patterns. They come from various industries such as global N.G.O’s to pharmaceutical firms; they act as the backbone for Public Health problem prevention. With advances in healthcare technology, epidemiologists should be able to conduct research that is ahead of any upcoming pandemics.
In 2022, we must remain optimistic about public healthcare’s future. With more insight than ever into COVID-19’s viral evolution and with the U.S. having a higher GDP than all other major world economies combined, now is an opportunement to pursue a career that integrates multiple disciplines and contributes to humanity.
Additional Resource:
https://www.waldenu.edu/programs/health/resource/what-is-public-health-and-why-it-is-important
https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/
