Competencies
Competencies define what students should know and be able to do upon completion of the PhD. Upon graduating with a Doctorate in Population Health Sciences, students will have mastered the following skills for a successful career, and be able to:
Foundational Knowledge in Population Health Science
- Understand the organization, structure, and function of healthcare systems across state, national, and international settings.
- Master the concepts of health as a product of factors operating at multiple levels in dynamic ways over time.
- Understand and apply foundational knowledge and key theories in population health sciences.
- Use various metrics to measure population health status and disparities.
Evidence-Based Population Health Sciences and Research Methods
- Demonstrate familiarity with foundational concepts in population health sciences.
- Analyze the strengths and weaknesses of a variety of research designs.
- Show in-depth expertise in at least one concentration (e.g., Measurement Science, Epidemiology, Health Services Research)
- Select appropriate interventional, observational, or qualitative study designs.
- Critically integrate multiple disciplines in designing and carrying out research in population health.
- Pose important population health sciences research questions.
- Use or develop a conceptual model and theories to specify study constructs.
- Display a mastery of applying study methodology and critical problem solving to a breadth of settings and situations.
Quantitative and Analytic Skills
Analyze quantitative and qualitative data using appropriate techniques and software.
- Use appropriate analytical methods to delineate causal inferences.
- Know how to collect primary data obtained by survey, qualitative, or mixed methods.
- Know how to assemble secondary data from existing public and private sources.
Research and Program Planning and Management
- Ensure ethical and responsible conduct of research.
- Demonstrate the ability to develop an applied project.
- Design a population-based policy, program, or project.
- Explain basic principles and tools of resource management.
- General understanding of managing/budgeting projects.
Systems Thinking and Policy in Population Health Sciences
- Apply systems thinking tools to a public health issue.
- Understand the basics of the policymaking process.
- Discuss and assess multiple dimensions of the policy-making process, including the roles of ethics and evidence.
- Able to engage multiple stakeholders in the design and execution of a study in order to speed innovation and improve acceptability by end-users.
- Evaluate policies for their impact on population health.
Leadership and Team Practice
- Demonstrate an ability to equitably collaborate with multiple stakeholders.
- Apply principles of leadership, governance, and management.
- Work collaboratively in teams across disciplines.
- Lead interdisciplinary teams and/or projects.
Communication and Knowledge Transfer
- Communicate with practitioners, policymakers, the media, and other relevant audiences about findings and significance of research.
- Summarize and communicate the importance of a body of research for relevant audiences.
- Understand how to engage networks, knowledge brokers, social media, and other avenues to disseminate research.
- Evaluate how potential end-users of one’s research prefer to access and use those research findings.
Goals and Associated Student Learning Outcomes
For the doctoral program, the department evaluates the following goals and outcomes related to the primary objectives to:
Train students to be successful researchers able to implement flexible, innovation-oriented methods in addressing population health questions and:
- Demonstrate proficiency in population health research methods and analysis.
- Develop innovative problem-solving skills to address important population health research questions.
- Demonstrate an ability to develop and manage population health programs or projects.
and,
Train students to be successful professionals able to contribute to and collaborate in interdisciplinary teams at government, industry, academic, and health system organizations, and:
- Effectively participate in interdisciplinary clinical and translational research teams.
- Demonstrate an ability to communicate research clearly and professionally in both written and oral forms to diverse audiences.
- Successfully compete for employment that is challenging and respected within areas related to Population Health Sciences.
Expectations of Graduate Students
Per the Duke University Graduate School, graduate students are expected to:
- Research
- to work responsibly toward completion of the degree in a timely fashion
- to learn the research methods and historical knowledge bases of the discipline
- to communicate regularly with faculty mentors and the masters/doctoral committees, especially in matters relating to research and progress within the degree program
- to discover and pursue a unique topic of research to participate in the construction of new knowledge in the chosen field and application of that knowledge to new problems/issues
- to exercise the highest integrity in all aspects of their work, especially in the tasks of collecting, analyzing, and presenting research data
- Teaching
- to receive appropriate training, compensation and evaluation for all instructional roles students are asked to take on
- to receive an appropriately sequenced variety of teaching opportunities relevant to their career expectations and likelihoods
- to devote the same seriousness to undergraduate instructional duties that they would expect from their own instructors
- Professional Development/Program Progress
- to develop, to the extent possible, a broad network of professional relations
- to contribute, wherever possible, to the discourse of the scholarly discipline through conference presentations, publications, collaborative projects, and other means
- to seek out a range of faculty and peer mentors that can help them prepare for a variety of professional and career roles and responsibilities
- to take responsibility for keeping informed of regulations and policies governing their graduate studies and to complete all required paperwork and other degree obligations in a timely fashion
- Community
- to create, in their own classrooms and laboratories, an ethos of collegiality and collaboration
- to realize their responsibilities as individual and professional representatives of both the university as a whole and the department or program in which they are studying
- to assist graduate student peers in their own professional and scholarly development