Designing schools of public health for the United States

Abstract

Abstract In the late nineteenth century, public health in the United States was institutionalized in city and state health departments, but there were few formal requirements for public health positions, no established career structures, and little job security for health officials. Most public health positions were part-time appointments at nominal salary; many who devoted effort to public health did so on a largely voluntary basis. As Arthur Viseltear has explained, some of the better medical, engineering, and technical schools offered courses in public health, Preventive medicine, and sanitary engineering but there was no standardized system of training and little agreement about the forms of knowledge necessary for public health practice. Most public health officers in the north and east had medical degrees, but some were engineers and others were lawyers, chemists, or biologists.