Using community partners to develop an MPH culminating experience that reflects community health education professional practice

Accreditation criteria established by the Council on Education for Public Health require MPH students to complete a culminating experience demonstrating public health knowledge and competencies obtained from curricular elements across the MPH program of study. Although many academic programs offer a thesis or research project as an option, neither is feasible for students wishing to complete an MPH degree within two years. Consequently, comprehensive exams become the expedient option. Although they can effectively assess whether students have mastered adequate public health knowledge, comprehensive exams are limited in their capacity to assess proficiency in required competencies across the MPH program of study. A community advisory group was convened to develop a culminating experience designed to meet accreditation expectations by requiring students to demonstrate their proficiency in synthesizing and integrating knowledge and applying theories, concepts, and principles in a situation approximating community health education professional practice. With community partners, we developed a three-day comprehensive exam to model an enhanced response for proposals that delivers theoretically-based community interventions on a timely topic of interest. We will discuss how our comprehensive exam assesses traditional community health education competencies of community problem and needs identification; program design, implementation, and evaluation; and data analysis; while assessing the core values and principles of our program, which include: engaging community participation and inclusion, identifying community assets, conceptualizing solutions to eliminate health disparities in a social ecological framework, incorporating ethical considerations, and working with communities in a culturally competent manner.