What Can You Do With a Public Health Degree?

March 31, 2025 in [ Nursing & Healthcare ]

Female doctor talking with young woman in exam room

With a public health degree, you could pursue any number of career options in the public health field. For example, you might decide to apply to roles as a health education specialist, medical and health services manager, environmental health specialist or community health worker. These types of professionals play a vital role in protecting and promoting the well-being of communities.

If you’re a current or rising undergrad student and you’d like to work in healthcare but aren’t sure you’d like to become a nurse, earning a public health degree could be a viable alternative. Not all public health workers are nurses, but some are. If you are currently a nurse, you might consider going back to school to earn a specialized degree in public health that could allow you to give your career greater focus.

Certain public health jobs may have additional eligibility criteria, for example, so you should spend some time researching the career pathway for the options that interest you.

In This Article:

What Is a Public Health Degree?
What Is a Public Health Major?
Are Public Health Careers in Need?
Public Health Careers To Consider
Enroll in Public Health at GCU

What Is a Public Health Degree?

A public health degree is designed to prepare students to improve human health by promoting preventive health practices, preventing disease, reducing exposure to harm and educating the public about healthy lifestyle choices. Public health is the branch of healthcare that is involved with the health of entire communities of people — including communities as small as towns to as large as a country. Public health workers may engage with individuals in the population, work with groups of people and advocate for policy improvements on a legislative level.

What Is a Public Health Major?

A public health major explores key competencies in public health, such as the structure of the U.S. health system, factors that impact health disparities and public health data systems. Students will explore both theory and the application of theory in practical contexts with an eye toward improving the health outcomes of communities.

Other core concepts and competencies covered in this degree program at GCU include:

Principles of human health and disease, health education, health behaviors and cultural contexts for health promotion
Elements of workplace health and safety, the effects of organizational policies on human health and the fundamentals of emergency preparedness
Frameworks and process for community health assessments and strategic approaches to planning public health programming
Research methods in epidemiology
Public health policies and advocacy

In addition, GCU’s public health major emphasizes the importance of professional ethics and servant leadership in the field. The curriculum is designed to prepare students to tackle modern challenges in the public health field — from pandemics to public health policy and financing problems.

Are Public Health Careers in Need?

There are many different public health roles you might consider pursuing, and a few of them are showing positive job growth projections. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the job growth rate for health education specialists is expected to be 7% from 2023 to 2033, faster than average, indicating that employers expect to hire about 4,300 new health education specialists during this time period.¹

The positive job growth rate for health education specialists is fueled in part by the need to improve both health outcomes and quality of care, and to prioritize preventive healthcare for the purpose of reducing healthcare costs.¹

The BLS predicts a 29% job growth rate for medical and health services managers. This job growth rate is much faster than average and indicates that employers expect to hire about 160,600 new managers during this time. One reason for the job growth is that the aging U.S. population is creating an increased need for healthcare. In particular, health services managers with technological competencies are expected to be needed.²

Public Health Careers To Consider

As you sort through your career options, consider factors such as your strengths, interests and career requirements. Some public health careers you may wish to explore include:

Health Education Specialist

A health education specialist typically engages with individuals and small groups, helping them learn about healthy lifestyle choices and the proper management of chronic diseases. A health education specialist may evaluate current public health programs in a community, identify any gaps and analyze their effectiveness before planning and implementing needed public health programming.

These professionals may spend their time:

Advocating for public policies and resources that benefit the community’s health
Delivering training programs for community health workers
Supervising the staff responsible for implementing public health programs
Collecting and analyzing public health data
Assisting members of the public with accessing health resources

According to the BLS, health education specialists made a median annual salary of $62,860 as of May 2023.³

Environmental Health Specialist

An environmental health specialist is a public health professional who focuses on environmental concerns and their impact on human health. They provide consulting and community education and work on environmental regulation enforcement. An environmental health specialist can choose to specialize in a particular area, such as air pollution, institutional sanitation, food protection or health, sanitation and safety in migrant labor camps.

Some specific tasks they may do, include:

Collecting and analyzing environmental samples to identify potential hazards
Supervising the treatment and disposal of hazardous waste
Identifying pollution issues and obtaining stop-action orders
Developing environmental health programs
Educating communities

According to the BLS, community health workers made a median annual salary of $48,200 as of May 2023.⁴

Medical Health and Services Managers

Medical and health services managers are responsible for planning and directing health services delivered in a particular unit, clinic or hospital. The healthcare landscape is continually evolving in response to current needs, new research, emerging technologies and changing regulatory requirements. As such, managers need to stay on top of these changes and ensure their unit or facility adapts accordingly.

Some of the daily tasks of a health services manager can include:

Recruiting, training and supervising healthcare staff
Ensuring regulatory compliance
Developing and tracking budgets and managing finances
Organizing and updating facility records
Representing the department or facility at meetings
Developing policies and objectives

According to the BLS, medical and health services managers made a median annual salary of $110,680 as of May 2023.⁵

Enroll in Public Health at GCU

GCU encourages students interested in promoting the health and well-being of others to consider applying to the Bachelor of Science in Public Health program. This degree offers a well-rounded curriculum designed to support the pursuit of several different public health careers, with a focus on professional ethics and servant leadership. If you’re currently a nurse interested in specializing in public health, consider applying to the Master of Science in Nursing with an Emphasis in Public Health Nursing program.

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¹COVID-19 has adversely affected the global economy and data from 2020 to 2023 may be atypical compared to prior years. Accordingly, data shown is effective September 2024, which can be found here: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Health Education Specialists, retrieved on Feb. 24, 2025.

²COVID-19 has adversely affected the global economy and data from 2020 to 2023 may be atypical compared to prior years. Accordingly, data shown is effective September 2024, which can be found here: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Medical and Health Services Managers, retrieved on Feb. 24, 2025.

³The earnings referenced were reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Health Education Specialists as of May 2023, retrieved on Feb. 24, 2025. Due to COVID-19, data from 2020 to 2023 may be atypical compared to prior years. BLS calculates the median using salaries of workers nationwide with varying levels of education and experience. It does not reflect the earnings of GCU graduates as Health Education Specialists, nor does it reflect the earnings of workers in one city or region of the country or a typical entry-level salary. Median income is the statistical midpoint for the range of salaries in a specific occupation. It represents what you would earn if you were paid more money than half the workers in an occupation, and less than half the workers in an occupation. It may give you a basis to estimate what you might earn at some point if you enter this career. Grand Canyon University can make no guarantees on individual graduates’ salaries. Your employability will be determined by numerous factors over which GCU has no control, such as the employer the graduate chooses to apply to, the graduate’s experience level, individual characteristics, skills, etc. against a pool of candidates.

⁴The earnings referenced were reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Community Health Workers as of May 2023, retrieved on Feb. 24, 2025. Due to COVID-19, data from 2020 to 2023 may be atypical compared to prior years. BLS calculates the median using salaries of workers nationwide with varying levels of education and experience. It does not reflect the earnings of GCU graduates as Community Health Workers, nor does it reflect the earnings of workers in one city or region of the country or a typical entry-level salary. Median income is the statistical midpoint for the range of salaries in a specific occupation. It represents what you would earn if you were paid more money than half the workers in an occupation, and less than half the workers in an occupation. It may give you a basis to estimate what you might earn at some point if you enter this career. Grand Canyon University can make no guarantees on individual graduates’ salaries. Your employability will be determined by numerous factors over which GCU has no control, such as the employer the graduate chooses to apply to, the graduate’s experience level, individual characteristics, skills, etc. against a pool of candidates.

⁵The earnings referenced were reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Medical and Health Services Managers as of May 2023, retrieved on Feb. 24, 2025. Due to COVID-19, data from 2020 to 2023 may be atypical compared to prior years. BLS calculates the median using salaries of workers nationwide with varying levels of education and experience. It does not reflect the earnings of GCU graduates as Medical and Health Services Managers, nor does it reflect the earnings of workers in one city or region of the country or a typical entry-level salary. Median income is the statistical midpoint for the range of salaries in a specific occupation. It represents what you would earn if you were paid more money than half the workers in an occupation, and less than half the workers in an occupation. It may give you a basis to estimate what you might earn at some point if you enter this career. Grand Canyon University can make no guarantees on individual graduates’ salaries. Your employability will be determined by numerous factors over which GCU has no control, such as the employer the graduate chooses to apply to, the graduate’s experience level, individual characteristics, skills, etc. against a pool of candidates.

Approved and verified accurate by the associate dean of the College of Nursing and Health Care Professions on March 17, 2025.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Grand Canyon University. Any sources cited were accurate as of the publish date.