Public Health Practitioner

Public Health Practitioners are dedicated to promoting and protecting the health of communities through education, policy development, and disease prevention initiatives.

You will work across various sectors, collaborating with healthcare professionals, policymakers, and community members to address public health challenges and improve overall population health outcomes. You will have a huge influence on the health and wellbeing of individuals, groups, communities and populations, and may support healthy lifestyle programmes, helping individuals and groups to stop smoking and take more exercise.

Public Health Practitioner is also known as Health Promotion Specialist.

Role Characteristics

Develop the health awareness of people, communities and organisations and empower them to make healthy choices
Work on immunisation programmes and screening, based in local communities or in public health teams specialising in health protection
Provide specialist advice and resources to other organisations, such as schools and local communities
Support healthy lifestyle programmes, helping individuals and groups to stop smoking and take more exercise
Run community training courses and workshops in areas such as mental health, accident prevention, cancers and heart disease
Develop leaflets, posters, videos and brochures to help health promotion in different environments.

Skills

Goal-setting
Advice giving
Collaboration
Organisation
Public speaking
Communication

Day in the life

Watch the video to learn more about Public Health.

Routes into this role

Here are some example routes that can lead into this role.

GCSEs

A-Levels

Undergraduate degree

Postgraduate degree

Degree apprenticeship

How to become

There are no set entry requirements to become a Public Health Practitioner however it is expected that you would be a qualified Nurse or Health Visitor. Many roles do not have clearly defined training routes and, currently, registration as a ‘practitioner’ with the UK Public Health Register (UKPHR) is voluntary though strongly recommended. At present you can only apply to register as a Public Health Practitioner with UKPHR through a local assessment and verification scheme.

For more senior posts a Master’s Degree in Public Health (or equivalent experience) or registration with the UKPHR is often a requirement.

Where can this role lead

No matter what role you start in or where you are in your career path, there are always opportunities to develop and progress in health and care.

With experience you can move on to more senior roles such as Advanced Health Improvement Practitioner or Assistant Manager. This will involve taking on more responsibility for projects and staff, along with more strategic work.

You could undertake specialty training in Public Health which then allows you to apply for specialist roles such as Director of Public Health, where you will determine the overall objectives for public health in the local area.