Attributes For Success As A Public Health Professional

Qualities & Skills:

• Adaptability

  Adaptability within public health is paramount given the often open-ended and sometimes undetermined capacity many public health issues and areas possess. To be successful as a public health professional, one must work within the given constraints and pivot when nuances emerge. Adaptability can be within a team setting, as well as within the definition of one’s role. Due to the nature of public health constantly evolving and shifting (or, for example, the emergence of a pandemic that was novel in many ways), adaptability is a skillset that will greatly help one navigate any situation.

• Advocacy

  Public health and advocacy go together organically because of the over-arching and ubiquitous work that touches all individuals within a community or larger population. Advocacy in any form is a baseline of support, and creates a foundation of honesty, compassion, and humanity. Public health needs individuals who are caring and thoughtful, and advocacy is a direct extension of this kind of person. Within public health, there are areas where one might need to advocate on behalf of a group of individuals, a city, a school, a workplace, or beyond.

  As such, refining one’s ability to be a strong advocate requires regular reflection and evaluation of key similarities and differences shared. 

• Critical Thinking

  A quality that can be developed into a strong skill is that of critical thinking and thought. Critical thinking is the ability to apply oneself wholly and fully to working through ideas in a manner that incorporates all feasible angles. By doing so, it is possible to challenge the status quo for topics that might already have substantial backing behind them. As we have seen over the past century alone, public health is ever evolving and developing into something new; this is often hard to articulate and does not fit into a clear mold.

  With critical thought, we can serve as professionals that are helping determine the best past forward, using all that we know and have yet to learn as a guide. This is crucial in all fields, but especially within this one.

• Empathy

  Similarly to the previously mentioned skill, empathy is a key component of public health because while public health generally covers all individuals, such support needs to be tailored to each person’s parameters to be most effective. With empathy, public health professionals can more adequately support these endeavors without any barriers to wanting to provide such service. Empathy allows for us all to recognize one another’s frame of reference and see someone as they are. 

• Flexibility

  The COVID pandemic showed the whole world the increasing need for flexibility, and allow some room to change our expectations, standards, and practices. Flexibility creates space for the unknown to occur and welcomes the unexpected. Public health in nature is largely a fluid, shifting field and most work within the field is largely mobile. It is not therefore beneficial to have boxed-in thinking, nor to adhere to the mindset that nothing will need modifying.

• Initiative

  Public health work sometimes requires individuals to step out of their comfort zone and live within a realm that might not have definitive answers or guidelines. Moreover, public health professions often have funding constraints and personnel shortages in addition to other issues leading to projects that turn stagnant. Taking initiative and the inclination to be the catalyst for change is a key skill that will greatly help your career and journey through public health be successful.

• Integrity

  It is hard to imagine public health practice that is not based on integrity, due to the nature and mission of work that incorporates evolution, community, and health. While there are definitively contrasting perspectives and sides within topic areas of public health, a universal value of the field is a focus on equity and justice. This ties in with a developed skillset of integrity; to be equitable is to act with integrity. In all the many public health roles, it is crucial to adhere to principles and act within a moral code.

  Integrity upholds the key element of public health to do the right thing, and to ensure you are adhering to a universal set of moral standards. 

• Patience

  As we have observed within the current pandemic, it is often rare or hard to predict an expected timeline for addressing a public health problem or occurrence. Many inequities that emerge in addressing health gaps, for example, are ones that are observed over a long period of time before understanding them fully. Additionally, public health infrastructure has had a steady but slow uptick in relation to meeting the need of matters that could use dedicated energy. Without patience, public health practice often can feel frustrating because of the potential barriers that exist.

  Patience within oneself, one’s role, and towards others is a skillset that will greatly help you along the path to success as a public health practitioner. 

• Perseverance

  Along the same lines as our previous point, public health change does not occur overnight, and is often operating without a crucial aspect. Catalyzing change, improving a situation, or finding meaning behind some data points all require tenacity and perseverance. It is hard to remain patient enough to see something through, but a “can-do” attitude will be quite useful in this field (and beyond). An element of perseverance is also having the ability to reflect on the difficulties and barriers faced while working on some change; by incorporating that level of awareness, it will be easier to learn and grow with each challenge.

  Problem-solving and believing solutions exist fit neatly into this skillset, and all would greatly impact the ability to sustain a career. COVID has taught us many lessons about the need to find strength amidst adversity and persevere until some challenges have been met. 

• Resourcefulness

  It should go without saying, resourcefulness is necessary in most roles (regardless of field) because often time resources are limited and it is difficult to predict the true amount of time, funds, staff, etc. that are truly needed to complete a task or project. Things change, circumstances evolve, and it is very likely that what one thought might be feasible is no longer possible due to some constraint. Public health regularly faces these issues and there are many gaps within the type of support needed to push a matter forward. Finding resources where they might not have previously been sourced from is a skill that will be meaningful in completing work.