Updated June 2025
This course is a part of the Arnold School of Public Health’s Workforce Development Series.
This course provides a comprehensive overview of public health from its historical roots to defining what public health is today. It also teaches participants how governmental public health agencies are organized while covering the core public health functions and 10 Essential Public Health Services. Overall, the course is designed to give you a better understanding of the core concepts of public health.
It is completely self-paced and you can work at your own speed. To complete it you must watch all module videos and complete the quizzes. At the end, you will be asked to provide feedback on the course.
This course offers 8 hours of continuing education credits.
This Module addresses the following Council on Linkages’ Core Competencies for Public Health Professionals (2021):
- 1.1 Describes factors affecting the health of a community
- 4.1 Applies principles of ethics, diversity, equity, inclusion and justice
- 4.2 Engages in continuous self-reflection about one’s biases
- 4.3 Recognizes the diversity of individuals and populations
- 4.6 Contributes to achieving and sustaining a diverse, inclusive, and competent public health workforce
- 4.7 Advocates for health equity and social and environmental justice
- 5.1 Describes conditions, systems and policies affecting community health and resilience
- 5.2 Establishes relationships to improve community health and resilience
- 6.1 Describes systems, policies and events impacting public health
- 6.2 Applies public health sciences in delivering the 10 Essential Public Health Services
- 8.1 Creates opportunities to achieve cross-sector alignment
- 8.2 Implements a vision for a healthy community
