Public health is about helping people to stay healthy and protecting them from threats to their health.
Sometimes public health activities mean helping individuals. However at other times they are dealing with wider factors that have an impact on the health of many people, such as an age-group, an ethnic group, a locality, or a country.
Medicine and nursing are vital for people when they fall ill. Public health work contributes by reducing the causes of ill-health and improving people’s health and well-being.
There are a wide range of careers in public health which span the four domains or areas of public health – Health Improvement, Health Protection, Healthcare Public Health and Academic Public Health.
Some of the types of roles in public health include:
- Directors of Public Health
- Consultants in Public Health
- Public Health Practitioner
- Health Visitor
- School Nurse
- Health Trainer
- Environmental Health Officer
- Public Health Information Analyst
- Health Protection Practitioner
- and many others.
You can find out more about roles in public health on the Health Careers website.
To find out more about the four domains of public health, check out the ‘Public Health in a Domain’ video series below.
Wessex contacts to discuss Public Health career options
If you want to discuss your career options then you can contact:
- Hampshire and Isle of Wight – Louise Bevan
- Portsmouth – Robert Anderson-Weaver
- Southampton – Ravita.Taheem@southampton.gov.uk
- Office of Health Improvement and Disparities – Elizabeth Burchett
- Wessex – Em Rahman or Lauren Kirk