HA599 Masters Capstone: Career Network and Professional Presence

This discussion board post analyzes a student's professional development within the context of a Master's capstone course in Healthcare Administration (HA599) at Purdue Global University. The student reflects on their career goals within public health administration, detailing the roles and responsibilities associated with the field. The assignment emphasizes the importance of developing a strong professional presence through the Career Network platform, focusing on resume building, skills assessment, and portfolio creation. The student discusses the necessary skills employers seek, including honesty, technical competency, work ethic, persistence, teamwork, and problem-solving. The student also reviews their academic experiences, highlighting relevant courses and assignments that have contributed to their skill development. The post concludes with a plan to enhance their professional presence on LinkedIn and other platforms, showcasing their experiences and achievements to potential employers. The student also discusses ethical and moral values learned in the classroom and how they will apply them in their professional life. The student also discussed the importance of the Optimal Resume tool provided for resume building.

Running head: HEALTHCARE
Healthcare
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Institution:
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Career Network
This is a professional degree in health administration in public health and a M.Sc. in
public health administration.The role of a public health administrator is basically to oversee
and to take care of the operations in the non-clinical department. It is also to oversee the
private health operations in private organizations dealing with public health departments.
Public health administrations are also responsible for leadership, administration and
management of healthcare such as medical facilities and hospitals (Bobek, & Zhao, 2015).
With a public health administration degree, one can be; chief Executive officer, clinic
managers, chief operations officer, department division director, health care consultant and
health service manager. Health care administrators mainly work in health facilities such as
hospitals (Brinkert, 2018).
Scope of public health administration
Public health administrators manage every aspect of public health in an organization.
Such aspects include budgeting, oversight of budgets, staff, programs and grants among other
functions. The duties of the job include; educating the public on alleviation and prevention of
health programs.
As a science oriented degree, public health is an art and science of promoting health
through public education by the administrators, preventing diseases and prolonging life of
members of the society. Public health administration is as a result of efforts by the society as
a whole rather than centered on individual efforts. The list of scope in public health
administration includes; epidemiology, management of health services and biostatistics.
Other subfield in public health administration include community health, environmental
health, public policy, reproductive and sexual health, occupational safety and health
economics. Public health involves promoting healthy lifestyles, researching on injury

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prevention and diseases, preventing, detecting and responding to diseases which may be
infectious.
What are the employers looking for?
Employers are more concerned about problem solving skills, teamwork, communication,
analytical thinking, resilience and self-management. This is not only in public health but also
in many other professions. A public health administrator should be able to cope with pressure
and changes in the workplace. A public health administrator is particularly crucial since he or
she deals with many people in educating the public. Other qualities that an employer looks
for in a public health officer include;
1. Honesty- this is where employers require timely and accurate information regarding
the business and the job description of the public health administrator. When an
employee makes a mistake, he or she should not try to cover it up but rather learn
from the mistake.
2. Technical competency- improving skills along the way is expected in public health
administration job to top it up with the skills acquired in college. Technical skills is
very important in every area and department of public health. Poor technical skills
may lead to increased errors and mistakes while handling important work (Rojewski,
& Hill, 2017).
3. Work ethic- this are the right things to do in a particular job. They include factors
such as reporting to duty on time, do what the organization hired you to do, meet
deadlines and targets to the best of one’s ability and put an extra effort in carrying out
your job (Danhauer, et al,2019)..
4. Persistence and determination- every employer gives their employees challenging
goals but which are generally very achievable. The main aim is to be able to work

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hard and move forward constantly when an employee faces persistent challenges or
obstacles. Public health administration is especially challenging as it mainly deals
with people who can sometimes prove to be difficult.
5. Teamwork or ability to work in harmony with others- for effectiveness and efficiency,
teamwork is encouraged in many organization. Getting along with others can prove to
be very essential especially in conducting group tasks (Xue, 2016).
6. Problem-solving skills- a public health administrator should first and foremost be able
to solve problems that arise in public health. Public health administration on the other
hand should conduct good administration
Lessons learned in classes for effective field practice
In every profession, there are moral and ethical values that are required to be learned and
will be used in the field. In public health classes, moral and ethical behaviors were taught so
that it may lead me and guide me in the work life and professional life. The moral and ethical
values learnt in classrooms include; integrity, honesty, trustworthy, diligence and
professionalism in all aspect of work life.
How will you communicate that you have mastered these skills?
The only way to communicate that I have learned these skills is by practicing them,
having an opportunity to practice is very essential in clearly communicating what I have been
taught in the classroom (Evers, van der Heijden, Kreijns, & Vermeulen, 2016)..
Review your degree plan
The specific assignments and courses that I have learnt where I gained professional
experiences include

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1. Basic anatomy
2. Public speaking
3. Administration in health
4. Internship in a public hospital as a requirement for graduation.
In my degree course, I have also created professional presentation like the marketing
healthcare plan and used both qualitative and quantitative research in my studies.
Communicating the mastery in these proficiencies will require a written examination or an
oral test. Also carrying out practices in my internship will communicate that I have learnt a
lot to better my skills.
Reviewing of career network profile
So far in reviewing of my career progression, I have earned several points. They
include networking, communications and professionalism. In self-evaluation, I have
completed tasks that include practical experience in a public health institution, public
speaking and networking in social media presence like LinkedIn and Tacoma. I plan on
completing my personal assessment test that include oral interviews and written
examinations. As a science oriented degree, public health is an art and science of promoting
health through public education by the administrators, preventing diseases and prolonging life
of members of the society (Li, Fagan, & Bourguiba, 2016,).
Public health administration is as a result of efforts by the society as a whole rather
than centered on individual efforts. In increasing my professional presence, I will invite more
people on my LinkedIn profile especially who have the same career path as mine that is
Public health administration. I will post my professional experience, that is the hospitals that I
have done internships in and many more. I will have a good cover letter and a polished CV.

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References
Bobek, B., & Zhao, R. (2015). Education and career navigation. Beyond academics: A
holistic framework for enhancing education and workplace success, 39-51.
Brinkert, R. (2018). Career and professional development as levels of engagement in the
communication training and development field1. The Handbook of Communication
Training: A Best Practices Framework for Assessing and Developing Competence.
Journal of Career Development, 43(3), 22-24
Danhauer, S. C., Tooze, J. A., Barrett, N. A., Blalock, J. S., Shively, C. A., Voytko, M. L., &
Crandall, S. J. (2019). Development of an Innovative Career Development Program
for Early-Career Women Faculty. Global advances in health and medicine, 8,
2164956119862986. 34-66
Evers, A. T., van der Heijden, B. I., Kreijns, K., & Vermeulen, M. (2016). Job demands, job
resources, and flexible competence: The mediating role of teachers’ professional
development at work. Journal of Career Development, 43(3), 227-243.
Li, K. F., Fagan, J., & Bourguiba, I. (2016, December). Teaching professional practice and
career development to graduate students. In 2016 IEEE International Conference on
Teaching, Assessment, and Learning for Engineering (TALE)(pp. 398-402). IEEE.
Rojewski, J. W., & Hill, R. B. (2017). A framework for 21st-century career-technical and
workforce education curricula. Peabody Journal of Education, 92(2), 180-191.

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Xue, M. (2016). Professional career navigation of East Asian international faculty:
constraints, enablements, and agency(Doctoral dissertation, University of Alabama
Libraries). 65-77