Public Health and Community Medicine

The Government of India has taken the initiative to spend 2.5% of the country’s GDP on the public health department in the next 3 years. The primary concern of filling up the shortfalls in the healthcare industry came up during the surge of the Covid pandemic. The public health and community medicine professionals treat illnesses of the residents within a limited geographical area. The doctors and nurses belong from several divisions all working to foster public wellness. The difference between public health and community medicine is critical and mostly depends on the scale of operation. Although prior experience is preferred, professionals entering the public health department require an advanced degree in community medicine.

Functions of the Public Health Department

Public health is concerned with the act of improving the well-being of the population at large. The scale of operation may vary from a tiny community to an entire nation. 

Apart from providing medical treatment, the responsibility of the doctors extends to educating the mass about various possible ways by which they can boost their immunity. These medical experts work in close association with the government to take crucial steps directed towards eliminating an illness from its roots. Public health nurses are distributed over a vast field of wellness establishments to actively attend to the patients. They are responsible for escalating consciousness regarding the preventive measures that can be followed by the general people. This includes safety demonstrations against viral diseases to the families, teaching prenatal and pediatric care, supplying free vaccines in school, and sharing emergency healthcare contacts that will assist the population to make informed decisions in the future.  The underprivileged class is vastly dependent on these healthcare services. 

Masters in Public Health

Masters in Public Health (MPH) denotes an intensive two-year post-graduate level program that qualifies students to work as public health professionals. The degree curriculum involves various core and elective subjects of study as it is a multidisciplinary course. Unlike doctors trained to find the remedy involving personal care and attention, this course of study is designed to serve the community as a whole. Their responsibility is not only providing medication but also recommending a balanced diet, lifestyle and launching informative campaigns to aid the pitfalls within the Indian health system.

Healthcare professionals going for this gradation should be committed to performing the following duties:

• Enhance the sector of the public health department and brainstorm ideas that are addressed towards specific problems through critical analysis.

• Conduct research that may be helpful for social wellness.

• Owing to existing pitfalls in the Indian health community, these knowledgeable medical practitioners must work in close association with the deprived and vulnerable social groups.

• Lead effective medical teams high in morality, liability, and obedience at all levels of the hierarchy. 

• Must adopt learning as a lifelong process.

After the pandemic has hit the world, public health has become the topmost priority. Public health and community medicine have emerged as an opportunity for social work. 

Community Health

There is a slim difference between the terms – public health and community health. The clear-cut expertise of community health professionals is to provide knowledge on the various social, economic and cultural standpoints affecting the mass’ health. This constitutes a completely distinct branch of education devoid of medical practices that directly aid particular diseases. Here, the main focus lies in spreading awareness and encouraging the communal gathering to live a healthy life. 

Another secondary difference is the operating scale and station of both the social workers. While public healthcare professionals seldom come in direct contact with the ailing, the community health professionals work in all state government hospitals. 

Community Medicine

Community medicine comprises a branch of family medicine that is produced to safeguard the health status of the community as a whole. This division particularly comes under the sector of primary healthcare. In government and private health care centers, clinics, and kiosks community medicine doctors are engaged in routine checkups and prescribe medicines to their patients. These doctors assess the requirements of the population to dispense diagnosis of critical chronic diseases. In general, this branch of science sums up a preventive medical treatment that cures the underprivileged population with a universal approach.

Conclusion

The field of study involving public health has numerous sub-departments. This branch getting the acknowledgment of a full department in the early 2000s covers the alarming aspects of social treatment, mother and child health, basic healthy nutrition, medical anthropology, and a lot more. The modern curriculum of community medicine provides ample opportunities for practitioners to work towards the betterment of the needy. Thus it has been accredited as social work. The public health ministry of India has devised a system that will simultaneously fulfill the need for primary healthcare of the poverty-stricken population, also provide hands-on experience to the aspiring medical team.