Public Health Physician
What the work is
Provides the medical input into population-level planning for the prevention of health conditions, threats and disasters to maximise health across and within populations.
Would you enjoy the work?
These are the main tasks in the official description. Mark how each one sounds to you.
- Assesses and responds rapidly to urgent and evolving public health issues
- Leads teams, public health responses, programs, projects and organisations designed to address health inequity and population health outcomes
- Collects, analyses and applies data related to public health issues, and researches possible causes and links to other health determinants operating at the community level
- Develops strategies to assist the implementation of programs that will prevent disease or promote health in the community
- Advises senior public health officials about legislation and other strategies to improve the health and wellbeing of communities
- Designs and evaluates disease screening programs and disease and hazard surveillance systems
- Evaluates health services and public health programs, health technologies and interventions
- Advises and manages the public health management of environmental health risks
- Informs the management of public health emergencies and infectious disease outbreaks and control measures
- May advise and work in partnership on the public health issues affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
Try it
A simulation and a case study from this kind of work, set in a hospital ward and outpatient clinic where specialist physicians see older adults. They are fictional.
The kind of days you could have
Good days
- A puzzling set of symptoms suddenly makes sense and the right treatment starts
- An older patient goes home to the place they love, with the right support
- A junior doctor you teach asks a question you had not thought of
Hard days
- Families who disagree with each other, and with the patient, about what should happen next
- Pressure to free up a bed when the person in it is not yet ready to leave
- Conversations about what matters most that nobody is eager to have
Written by Career Calling as a general guide. Real roles vary by employer and place.
Work a mission
Step into a simulated workplace in this field, with a brief from your manager.
Description and tasks: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Occupation Standard Classification for Australia, 2024, Version 1.0 (opens another site), occupation 264344, used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. The skill guide above is our plain English summary.