What does a public health physician do?
A public health physician provides health services in communities, treating and diagnosing illnesses and injuries, referring patients to other services when necessary. Besides providing direct health care, they also spearhead various programs focusing on disease and injury prevention, help local communities in dealing with natural disasters and outbreaks, and facilitating seminars and information drives. Moreover, a public health physician may also utilize their health care expertise by participating in various studies and research programs meant to help communities.
Public health physician responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real public health physician resumes:
- Develop skills in managing diabetes, hyperlipidemia, and hypertension.
- Educate employees about the prevention of hypertension, diabetes and hyperlipidemia.
- Develop, administer, and follow up on new to EHR competency assessments complete by new hires during EMR training.
- Work and supervise patients with severe emotional problems.
- Provide overall quality prenatal health care, gynecological services, patient triage, refer patients with complications, provide patient education service
- Scan and upload patient documentation into eClinicalWorks system.
Public health physician skills and personality traits
We calculated that 39% of Public Health Physicians are proficient in Patients, Primary Care, and Patient Care. They’re also known for soft skills such as Communication skills, Compassion, and Detail oriented.
We break down the percentage of Public Health Physicians that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Patients, 39%
Assisted in rooming and scheduling patients, Performed routine tests such as urine Drug Screens.
- Primary Care, 13%
Provided primary care for uncomplicated medical problems, treatment of life threatening emergencies, and care of acute medical conditions.
- Patient Care, 10%
Provided and managed direct patient care including physical examination, evaluation, assessment and treatment of children with immunological diseases.
- Urgent Care, 7%
Process urgent care and emergency room patient discharges.
- Family Practice, 5%
Offered, in additional to traditional family practice, nutritional/biochemical medicine, herbal medicine and homeopathic therapeutics.
- Medical Care, 4%
Provided leadership for clinical staff and delivered quality medical care at the Pocahontas Family Medical Center.
Common skills that a public health physician uses to do their job include "patients," "primary care," and "patient care." You can find details on the most important public health physician responsibilities below.
Communication skills. The most essential soft skill for a public health physician to carry out their responsibilities is communication skills. This skill is important for the role because "physicians and surgeons need to be excellent communicators." Additionally, a public health physician resume shows how their duties depend on communication skills: "maintained excellent inter-department communication to ensure quality patient care. "
Compassion. Another essential skill to perform public health physician duties is compassion. Public health physicians responsibilities require that "patients who are sick or injured may be in extreme pain or distress." Public health physicians also use compassion in their role according to a real resume snippet: "created caring and compassionate relationship with patients ages 0-21 years of age. "
Detail oriented. This is an important skill for public health physicians to perform their duties. For an example of how public health physician responsibilities depend on this skill, consider that "patients must receive appropriate treatment and medications." This excerpt from a resume also shows how vital it is to everyday roles and responsibilities of a public health physician: "scanned patient records for upcoming appts in the emr answered a high volume of calls, attention to detail. ".
Dexterity. A big part of what public health physicians do relies on "dexterity." You can see how essential it is to public health physician responsibilities because "physicians and surgeons may work with very precise and sometimes sharp tools, and mistakes can have serious consequences." Here's an example of how this skill is used from a resume that represents typical public health physician tasks: "direct hands on patient experience obtain patient history and information obtain blood pressure perform injections assist in minor surgery"
Leadership skills. Another crucial skill for a public health physician to carry out their responsibilities is "leadership skills." A big part of what public health physicians relies on this skill, since "physicians who work in their own practice must manage a staff of other professionals." How this skill relates to public health physician duties can be seen in an example from a public health physician resume snippet: "developed leadership training programs on a variety of topics to improve hr practices. "
Physical stamina. While "physical stamina" is last on this skills list, don't underestimate its importance to public health physician responsibilities. Much of what a public health physician does relies on this skill, seeing as "physicians and surgeons should be comfortable lifting or turning disabled patients, or performing other physical tasks." Here is a resume example of how this skill is used in the everyday duties of public health physicians: "protect the physical and emotional safety of patients and community. "
The three companies that hire the most public health physicians are:
- Banner Health25 public health physicians jobs
- Mount Sinai Health System19 public health physicians jobs
- University of Florida14 public health physicians jobs
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Compare different public health physicians
Public health physician vs. Family practice md
A family practice MD is responsible for monitoring and diagnosing patients' conditions of all ages. Family practice MDs identify the patients' medical histories and administer treatment plans and medications. They also coordinate with other medical professionals for further laboratory examinations. A family practice MD must have excellent communication and extensive knowledge of the medical industry to identify the best treatment methods for the patients. Family practice MDs keep an organized record of medical charts for reference and reports.
There are some key differences in the responsibilities of each position. For example, public health physician responsibilities require skills like "urgent care," "epic," "public health," and "health services." Meanwhile a typical family practice md has skills in areas such as "emr," "internal medicine," "private practice," and "nursing home." This difference in skills reveals the differences in what each career does.
Family practice mds really shine in the professional industry with an average salary of $207,373. Comparatively, public health physicians tend to make the most money in the health care industry with an average salary of $154,155.On average, family practice mds reach similar levels of education than public health physicians. Family practice mds are 3.1% less likely to earn a Master's Degree and 10.5% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Public health physician vs. Family practice doctor
Family practice doctors provide lifelong care for a patient and their family. They offer medical attention to all family members, educates patients on disease prevention, provide health maintenance, and ensure mental and emotional needs are met. They manage basic complaints, like colds or flus, and also treat chronic illnesses, like asthma, diabetes, or degenerative conditions. They provide ongoing personalized care. Doctors must be empathetic, professional, and knowledgeable.
While some skills are similar in these professions, other skills aren't so similar. For example, resumes show us that public health physician responsibilities requires skills like "primary care," "family practice," "epic," and "public health." But a family practice doctor might use other skills in their typical duties, such as, "family medicine," "internal medicine," "outpatient clinic," and "disease prevention."
Family practice doctors earn similar levels of education than public health physicians in general. They're 2.5% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 10.5% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.What technology do you think will become more important and prevalent for public health physicians in the next 3-5 years?
Janet Williams Ph.D.
Professor of Biology, College of Our Lady of the Elms
Possibly, a little further out, will be genome sequencing to determine health risks for patients. It might even be able to prescribe lifestyle and nutrition best-practices for individuals, based on their genetics.
Public health physician vs. Chiropractor, sole practitioner
A Medical Doctor, also known as a physician, is a healthcare professional who diagnoses and treats patients from injuries and illnesses. As a Medical Doctor, your day-to-day duties will typically include assessing a patient's symptoms, prescribing and administering treatment to patients, and providing follow-up medical care to patients. You will be responsible for interpreting patients' laboratory results and referring them to other providers when needed. Also, you will need to work closely with other healthcare professionals and promote health education.
The required skills of the two careers differ considerably. For example, public health physicians are more likely to have skills like "patients," "primary care," "patient care," and "urgent care." But a chiropractor, sole practitioner is more likely to have skills like "litigation," "real estate transactions," "probate," and "bench trials."
When it comes to education, chiropractors, sole practitioner tend to earn lower degree levels compared to public health physicians. In fact, they're 9.2% less likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 27.5% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Public health physician vs. Medical doctor
Types of public health physician
Updated January 8, 2025
