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What does a public health advisor do?

Updated January 8, 2025
8 min read
Quoted expert
Mark Braunstein
What does a public health advisor do

A public health advisor is primarily in charge of designing and developing health programs according to the needs of a community. It is their duty to conduct research and analysis, gather and analyze community data, and monitor the practices and progress of current health programs to identify areas needing improvement, recommending solutions as necessary. They must also set objectives and guidelines in adherence to the budget and timelines, providing support to employees. Furthermore, a public health advisor may implement health programs while enforcing the agency's safety policies and regulations.

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Public health advisor responsibilities

Here are examples of responsibilities from real public health advisor resumes:

  • Manage projects relate to mammography promotion, hospital profiling, prenatal care, immunization and diabetes.
  • Certify plan- base enroller certify covered California certify federally facilitate marketplace certify
  • Review EOB's and claims.
  • Maintain strict confidentiality for all patient information in compliance with HIPPA standards.
  • Deliver educational sessions on ACA throughout the state of Iowa.
  • Advise members about the ACA plans and provide recommendations base on information receive from members.
  • explain EOB's to member's/process member's payments
  • Complete congenital syphilis reporting forms to determine the actuality of a congenital case.
  • Consult with physicians to recommend/verify treatment regimens with regard to proper syphilis staging and diagnosis.
  • Plan and present asthma education programs to elementary school children throughout Illinois.

Public health advisor skills and personality traits

We calculated that 12% of Public Health Advisors are proficient in Health Education, Patients, and NYC. They’re also known for soft skills such as Analytical skills, Instructional skills, and Writing skills.

We break down the percentage of Public Health Advisors that have these skills listed on their resume here:

  • Health Education, 12%

    Developed operational plans and policies necessary to achieve health education objectives and services related to community and non-pharmaceutical interventions.

  • Patients, 11%

    Assisted physicians in expediting linking of patients to clinical care by conducting highly effective educational presentations and encouraging partner reporting.

  • NYC, 10%

    Trained NYC Department of Mental Health and Hygiene personnel in areas of guidelines, procedure, and performance standards.

  • Public Health Programs, 7%

    Provided technical and administrative assistance in the prevention of communicable diseases to local, state, and international public health programs.

  • Disease Control, 6%

    Conducted epidemiological investigations on special AIDS cased as directed by the Centers for Disease Control.

  • Early Intervention, 5%

    Developed and initiated contracts with service providers and agencies for provision of services for Early Intervention programs.

Most public health advisors use their skills in "health education," "patients," and "nyc" to do their jobs. You can find more detail on essential public health advisor responsibilities here:

Analytical skills. To carry out their duties, the most important skill for a public health advisor to have is analytical skills. Their role and responsibilities require that "health education specialists collect and evaluate data to determine the needs of the people they serve." Public health advisors often use analytical skills in their day-to-day job, as shown by this real resume: "coordinated new york city providers in database under the directives of the center for disease control. "

Instructional skills. Another essential skill to perform public health advisor duties is instructional skills. Public health advisors responsibilities require that "health education specialists and community health workers lead programs, teach classes, and facilitate discussion with clients and families." Public health advisors also use instructional skills in their role according to a real resume snippet: "demonstrated strong instructional and communication skills through health fairs and clinical topics. "

Interpersonal skills. A big part of what public health advisors do relies on "interpersonal skills." You can see how essential it is to public health advisor responsibilities because "health education specialists and community health workers interact with many people from a variety of backgrounds." Here's an example of how this skill is used from a resume that represents typical public health advisor tasks: "utilized interpersonal skills to develop rapport with clients and to provide encouragement during participation of wellness program. "

Problem-solving skills. A commonly-found skill in public health advisor job descriptions, "problem-solving skills" is essential to what public health advisors do. Public health advisor responsibilities rely on this skill because "health education specialists and community health workers must think creatively about improving the health of the community." You can also see how public health advisor duties rely on problem-solving skills in this resume example: "resolved database network issues pertaining to statistical information from medicaid. "

All public health advisor skills

The three companies that hire the most public health advisors are:

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Compare different public health advisors

Public health advisor vs. Certified lactation educator

A certified diabetes educator primarily works with patients diagnosed with prediabetes and diabetes to promote and educate them about necessary lifestyle changes and disease management strategies. As a certified diabetes educator, it is their responsibility to help patients understand their condition and how it will affect them, serve as a mentor in different self-care practices, suggest lifestyle and disease management plans, teach them about the different medication procedures and dietary needs, and coordinate other services when necessary.

If we compare the average public health advisor annual salary with that of a certified lactation educator, we find that certified lactation educators typically earn a $28,067 higher salary than public health advisors make annually.While their salaries may differ, the common ground between public health advisors and certified lactation educators are a few of the skills required in each roleacirc;euro;trade;s responsibilities. In both careers, employee duties involve skills like early intervention, data collection, and analyze data.

These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. The responsibilities of a public health advisor are more likely to require skills like "health education," "patients," "nyc," and "public health programs." On the other hand, a job as a certified lactation educator requires skills like "classroom management," "cpr," "clc," and "english language." As you can see, what employees do in each career varies considerably.

Certified lactation educators tend to reach lower levels of education than public health advisors. In fact, certified lactation educators are 11.4% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 1.6% less likely to have a Doctoral Degree.

Public health advisor vs. Certified diabetes educator

A Diabetes Educator helps improve the health condition of people who are at risk of developing diabetes. They collect patient data to monitor health status and manage the patients conditions.

On average, certified diabetes educators earn a $12,239 higher salary than public health advisors a year.While the salary may differ for these jobs, they share a few skills needed to perform their duties. Based on resume data, both public health advisors and certified diabetes educators have skills such as "patients," "patient care," and "health fairs. "

While some skills are similar in these professions, other skills aren't so similar. For example, resumes show us that public health advisor responsibilities requires skills like "health education," "nyc," "public health programs," and "disease control." But a certified diabetes educator might use other skills in their typical duties, such as, "cde," "rd," "diabetes self-management education," and "blood glucose."

Average education levels between the two professions vary. Certified diabetes educators tend to reach lower levels of education than public health advisors. In fact, they're 11.7% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 1.6% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

What technology do you think will become more important and prevalent for public health advisors in the next 3-5 years?

Mark BraunsteinMark Braunstein LinkedIn profile

Professor of the Practice, Georgia Institute of Technology

This is an easy one. Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) is transforming the entire healthcare industry. It is the first practical solution to interoperability, meaning that, for the first time, healthcare data can be shared with relative ease. The implications of that for patient care, research, education, and public health, in particular, are far-reaching. FHIR uses web standards to package health data into JSON formatted packages called resources. Resources are created, read, updated, and deleted using the FHIR REST API. FHIR has already become the basis for some stunning innovations. For example, Apple now provides a tool for iPhone users to download their digital medical records to their phone and use special FHIR health apps to help them stay well and manage any diseases they may have. Just as they can connect to the data on the phone, FHIR apps can connect to EHRs. This has enormous implications for public health reporting, which has always been a manual or semi-automated process entirely removed from the clinician's workflow. CDC and others are now seriously exploring how EHR-connected FHIR apps could automate reporting so that the data already recorded in the EHR is automatically placed in the digital report, saving the clinician time and improving the accuracy of the report. As with virtually all fields, AI is a potentially important new technology in healthcare that is already being deployed for many use cases. Exploratory work done at Georgia Tech suggests that it could be deployed to help clinicians elucidate the sequence of clinical events that led to a patient's death, thereby substantially increasing the value of the death report for research and public health.

Public health advisor vs. Diabetes educator

On average, diabetes educators earn higher salaries than public health advisors, with a $16,047 difference per year.Using the responsibilities included on public health advisors and diabetes educators resumes, we found that both professions have similar skill requirements, such as "health education," "patients," and "community health.rdquo;

Some important key differences between the two careers include a few of the skills necessary to fulfill the responsibilities of each. Some examples from public health advisor resumes include skills like "nyc," "public health programs," "disease control," and "early intervention," whereas a diabetes educator is more likely to list skills in "cde," "diabetes self-management education," "rd," and "blood glucose. "

Diabetes educators make a very good living in the pharmaceutical industry with an average annual salary of $104,213. On the other hand, public health advisors are paid the highest salary in the health care industry, with average annual pay of $53,025.diabetes educators typically earn lower educational levels compared to public health advisors. Specifically, they're 11.3% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.3% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

Public health advisor vs. In service educator

In service educators average a lower salary than the annual salary of public health advisors. The difference is about $2,633 per year.While their salaries may vary, public health advisors and in service educators both use similar skills to perform their duties. Resumes from both professions include skills like "health fairs," "patient education," and "training programs. "

Even though a few skill sets overlap between public health advisors and in service educators, there are some differences that are important to note. For one, a public health advisor might have more use for skills like "health education," "patients," "nyc," and "public health programs." Meanwhile, some responsibilities of in service educators require skills like "bls," "educational programs," "critical care," and "professional development. "

In service educators reach lower levels of education compared to public health advisors, in general. The difference is that they're 15.5% more likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 1.4% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.

Types of public health advisor

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Research Team
Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

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