Opportunities for veterinarians with postgraduate training in public health are almost unlimited. Some US federal agencies with a variety of public health careers include the US Public Health Services and its Centers for Disease Control, National Institutes of Health, Food and Drug Administration, the US Air Force and Army, and the US Department of Agriculture with its many varied programs. State, county, and local departments of health provide hundreds more opportunities.
The DVM/Master of Public Health (DVM/MPH) dual degree program incorporates coursework from the Master of Public Health program into the DVM schedule. Students take an additional 30 credits to acquire a firm foundation in public health, in conjunction with the veterinary medical program. The Veterinary Public Health Track accepts 12 credits from the preclinical DVM course sequence. These courses are supplemented by 30 credits of public health courses. The program is a combination of didactic lectures, hands-on training, a short-term practical internship in a public-health-related organization, and a capstone paper for written and oral presentation. Students who are accepted concurrently to the DVM and MPH programs will most likely complete the dual degree within three years. Students who are accepted into the MPH program after starting their DVM classes may need additional time to complete the dual degree.
Students seeking admission to the DVM/MPH program will first be reviewed for acceptance into the veterinary medical program. Upon acceptance, the Office of Admission will forward the application to the School of Graduate Studies for review and consideration.
To incorporate the MPH program into the combined degree requirements, the scheduling of DVM terms around the MPH schedule will differ for August-entering students and January-entering students. Students on loans will complete the capstone seminar and final elective during the third term of the veterinary medical program. Appropriate schedules will be distributed to students upon acceptance into the dual degree program.
The US accreditation authority for public health programs, The Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH), has granted accreditation for five years to St. George’s University’s Master of Public Health degree program. This makes St. George’s University only the fifth institution outside of the United States to be accredited by CEPH.
For more information about the MPH program and for a list of course descriptions, visit sgu.edu/mph.