What Is Public Health - Essay Example

'What Is Public Health?' is a perfect example of a paper on the health system. 
Public health is one of the core areas that many health professionals want to venture in to increase their knowledge about the health status of the public. Because of the increased demand and public interest, many organizations have developed websites to provide more information on the same subject. The websites vary in terms of their contents and topics they deal with since public health is a wider field with more information. Hence, the websites that proved to be useful on this subject are of American Public Health Association (APHA) http://www.apha.org/what-is-public-health, Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) http://www.astho.org/About/ and the National Association of County & Health Officials (NACCHO) http://www.naccho.org/.

Explanation of the choice

These websites proved to be important and useful in providing information and insights about public health because they teach and advise the public on how to maintain good health. Similarly, they offer advocacy services to the public, which is essential for one’s health as well as in the community. Besides, the web sites provided reviewed materials and research that the public can use to find more information about public health. Because of this, the websites were fruitful in providing the needed information concerning the subject or topic.

My definition of public health

There can be no fixed definition of public health because it is a wider subject that has many fields such as health educators, public health nurses, sanitarians, social workers among others (Ye Sun1, 2014). Hence, any definition may work as long as it encompasses one of the fields that public health deals in.

According to the CDC Foundation (2015), public health is the action of protecting and improving family and community health by promoting healthy lifestyles, conducting research on disease prevention, as well as control of infectious diseases. From this definition, it is clear that public health has a primary goal of protecting the health of the entire population in any given area; the area or population may be a small region, bigger or an entire nation or continent. Because of this mandate, public health professionals minimize the occurrence of health problems by recommending policies, conducting research as well as administering services (Ye Sun1, 2014). For this reason, health care providers have a role in ensuring that goals of public health are achieved by taking part in meeting the desired goals such as eliminating and keeping a disease-free population.

Rationale

The above definition of public health entails all the components as well as the fields of the above subject (public health). For instance, public health is concerned with the welfare of the population; hence, the definition had to consider the interests of the public. Similarly, the definition included the detection of diseases as well as a prevention mechanism, which are also the essential role of public health. Because of all these components, the above definition is valid since it encompasses the basic fields of public interest.

Other websites

Many websites offer information on public health thus proving to be very important in everyday life. For instance, the Government of the Netherlands, through its website, http://www.government.nl/ministries/vws, offers essential information on the subject. Secondly, Public Health Genomics is also essential in providing information on public health, and its websites are http://www.phgen.eu/typo3/index.php. Lastly, the World Health Organization is a key institution charged with ensuring best practices are achieved in healthcare, hence provides information to promote public health.