<p>Don’t know if I have the right forum for this question.</p>
<p>My D is a public health major. She is a junior and doing very well. She decided on PH because she originally wanted to be a PA and it would give her all the pre-reqs. During the last year she has considered pursuing an excellerated nursing degree instead (after undergrad) followed by a Nurse Practitioner License. She loves patient care and has a part time job at a doctor’s office doing some hands on stuff. She is trained as a CNA.</p>
<p>Anyway. She recently took a class in Epidemiology and loved it. Has an A in it at this point (not sure what level the class is so don’t know if that A is significant and predictive).</p>
<p>Does anyone out there know if there is an area of Epidemiology that combines with clinical care? She knows she would need at least a masters degree and possibly a PHD. She is going to speak to her professor about careers in the field but I thought I would tap into the wealth of knowledge on CC.</p>
<p>One good way to see what career choices are available for a particular major (and the educational requirements) is to plug the keywords into Indeed:</p>
<p>I have a friend who is both an NP and an epidemiologist. She has done polio and malaria work around the world, establishing public health surveillance systems while helping to train and work with nurses and community health folks. She has worked in India, Indonesia, Azerbaijan, and Zambia. When she is in the states, she usually teaches, and does clinical practice in travel medicine.</p>
<p>Epidemiology by itself pays extremely poorly, but it is fascinating work. (I worked in public health/epidemiology for 20 years. But I have degrees in neither. You’d probably have difficulty doing that today. But then, folks thought it was impossible when I did it, too.)</p>
<p>Thanks, mini. That’s interesting! I’m guessing that she can combine these interests somehow. She is getting stressed because she thought she was all set with her plan to be a PA or an NP so this new interest in Epidemiology feels like a complication to her! I keep telling her that she is blessed to have several areas of interest that she would love to have as a career.</p>