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All graduate professional degree programs identified in the instructional matrix shall assure that each student demonstrates skills and integration of knowledge through a culminating experience.

2.5.a Identification of the culminating experience required for each professional public health degree program. If this is common across the program’s professional degree programs, it need be described only once. If it varies by degree or specialty area, sufficient information must be

provided to assess compliance by each.

All MPH degree students are required to complete a culminating experience in which they demonstrate integration and application of competencies developed during academic course work, the practice field experience and other learning experiences. The required culminating experience is the Capstone Project. The MPH Capstone Project may be related to the students’ Clerkship practice experience, but this is not a requirement of the Capstone Project.

 The Capstone Project is a six credit requirement which includes the Capstone Seminar, PBH 600 (3 credits) and Capstone Project, PBH 601 (3 credits).

 Students are eligible to register for Capstone Seminar, PBH 600, when they have completed all of their core academic requirements, a minimum of 40 of the required 120 Clerkship hours, and at least three of the nine required elective credits (i.e., one of three courses).

 Students are encouraged to take elective courses that develop specific knowledge and skills which are pertinent to their Capstone Project.

 One Year Plus pre-med and dual degree students are permitted to register simultaneously for

both PBH 600/601,and Clerkship(PBH 650) in order to complete 42 of the 45 credits within three academic terms.

 Following the successful completion of Capstone Seminar, students begin to implement their Project as designed in their project proposal.

PBH 600: Capstone Seminar

This course provides students with the building blocks for developing their project topic and Capstone proposal. Course sessions review expectations, requirements and scope of the Capstone Project and provide guidance and feedback for each step in developing a proposal (ERF 2.5 MPH Capstone Concept Document), policies and procedures, requirements for completing the Capstone Project (ERF 2.5 MPH Capstone Guidelines), and the essential steps of project development including:

 Conducting a literature review to establish the scope, significance, rationale and refinement of the public health problem chosen.

 Developing a well-defined research question/problem statement and specific aims for the proposed project.

 Identifying public health competencies expected to be developed through the Capstone Project (the range of competencies can be found at the Council of Linkages at

http://www.phf.org/resourcestools/pages/core_public_health_competencies.aspx. The competencies that each student selects are reviewed with her/his Capstone Project Chair and will differ among students depending on the nature of the chosen project).

By the end of the Capstone Seminar course the student is expected to:

 Complete their Capstone Project Proposal in the format designated in the Capstone Project Guidelines (ERF 2.5 MPH Capstone Guidelines);

 Establish a timeline for completion of their project;

 Identify an initial set of core public health competencies (Council of Linkages) to be addressed with their project; and

 Identify a Capstone Committee Chairperson and at least one Committee Preceptor.

o The Capstone Committee Chairperson is required to have a faculty appointment in JCPH or another college/department at Thomas Jefferson University (TJU).

o Committee Preceptors may be additional JCPH/TJU faculty and/or appropriate professional staff; individuals from community organizations that assist/participate in student’s project.

o A third member of the Capstone Committee may be selected by the student in

communication with his/her Capstone Committee Chair. That individual may be from a community organization or a faculty member and typically provides content or

methodology expertise. PBH 601: Capstone Project

Students register for PBH 601: Capstone Project in the term they expect to complete and present their project, unless required to register for these credits simultaneously with the Capstone Seminar (PBH 600) because of financial aid or other considerations (e.g., One Year Plus student). Once the student has identified their Committee members and their committee has approved their written proposal, they are permitted to begin working on the project. This includes:

 Determining if their project protocol requires Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval. If so, they complete required IRB documents with their Chair (Principal Investigator) and submit them for review. If IRB approval is not required (many MPH Capstone projects, such as secondary data analyses or public health policy analyses, are exempted for IRB review), students can begin implementing their project.

 Meeting with committee members regularly during the implementation process.

 Presenting their Capstone project within the permitted maximum of three terms after finishing Capstone Seminar. Students who are unable to meet this timeline may be permitted up to two additional terms after consultation and permission from their Committee and Capstone

Coordinator. They are required to register for 1.5 additional Capstone Project credits for each additional term.

o Often, the Project is not completed in the term in which a student registers for Capstone Project credits. In those cases, the student receives an In Progress (IP) grade. Once s/he completes the Capstone Project requirements, the grade is changed to Pass.

 Writing an academic, properly referenced paper in the designated format which is comprised of: o Rationale and public health significance of the project, based upon thorough review of

the literature and additional research;

o Clearly stated research question/problem including specific aims/objectives; o Complete description of the methods to be used for data collection, analysis and

interpretation;

o Project results, including appropriate use of data tables, graphs, mapping, etc.; o Integrated discussion of the results and their public health significance;

o Recommendations for continued research/integration of findings; o Complete list of references in designated format; and

o Appendices which include data collection/measurement tools and other materials used for the project.

 Giving a one-half hour presentation with discussion of their project and results to JCPH faculty and students, Committee members and representatives of the participating community or public organization.

 Recording of the presentation slides and narrative (with student permission) for posting on the University digital commons for dissemination (ERF 2.5 Capstone Presentations).

 Evaluation of the overall Capstone Project using the MPH Capstone grading rubric (ERF 2.5 MPH Capstone Guidelines). Students are required to have an overall proficient evaluation score (two on a three-point scale) to successfully complete the Capstone Project. See Table 1.2.1 for outcome measures related to evaluation of student Capstone projects.

 Reviewing and revising the initial list of public health competencies addressed by the Capstone Project with the Committee Chair.

 Formally presenting, if possible, the Capstone Project to the precepting organization/agency as a quality improvement process for that agency.

2.5.b Assessment of the extent to which this criterion is met and an analysis of the program’s strengths, weaknesses and plans relating to this criterion.

Strengths

 Robust culminating experience required of all MPH students.

o A number of Capstone Projects have been published in peer-reviewed journals and/or presented at professional conferences. See Table 1.2.1 for outcome measures related to student dissemination of scholarship, which includes Capstone Projects.

 Clear, easy to access policies and procedures (Capstone Guidelines and Capstone Concept Paper).

 Access to previous student Capstone Project papers and presentations (ERF 2.5 Capstone Presentations).

 Reinforcement of public health competencies specific to the student’s Capstone Project at beginning and end of Project.

 Grading rubric which incorporates public health scholarly and practice skills.

 Capstone Project process has a full-time staff person, a research project specialist, devoted to its cause and has developed a rubric or scoring criteria for evaluation of the MPH Capstone Project and its oral presentation.

Challenges

 Maintaining regular communication and tracking student progress after completing Capstone Seminar (PBH 600) can be problematic as many students either begin medical school or other graduate programs or job positions; or return to medical school, law school or social work school for their final year (dual degree programs).

 The distribution of Capstone Chair responsibilities among TJU and Affiliated is uneven, leading to situations where some faculty have too many Capstones to supervise and others have too few. At present students select their Capstone Chairs; this process may not be tenable in the long run.

 Preparation of faculty to serve as Capstone Chairs is uneven, sometimes leading to “lopsided” quality in Capstone Projects.

 Capstone process can be document heavy, creating a management burden on the MPH Capstone Coordinator.

 Use of the Capstone Project rubric for evaluation has been piloted and found to be sound, but needs to be explained to all Capstone Project Committee Chairs going forward; results need to be collected and maintained as a standard measure.

Plans for the Future

 The MPH Program Director will work with the Associate Dean and Capstone Coordinator to revise the process by which faculty are selected to serve as Capstone Chairs and will also establish ways to increase the overall pool of faculty eligible to serve as Capstone Chairs. The

latter will include filling the vacant faculty position in biostatistics; encouraging veteran adjunct faculty to seek formal, vetted ranked Adjunct appointments; and reaching out to full-time faculty in other JCPH Colleges to find persons with appropriate credentials and expertise.  Include Capstone Project updates and discussion of successes, challenges and strategies for

improvement of the process in the monthly MPH Faculty Meetings.

 Develop more systematic method of tracking student progress after Capstone Seminar. This has already been addressed through the addition of a full-time Capstone Project Coordinator and the inclusion of an Administrative Assistant in the process.

 Introduce “training sessions” for Capstone Chairs to assure that they are conversant with Capstone Guidelines and with use of the new Capstone rubric; this is now possible with the addition of a full-time Capstone Project Coordinator.

 Investigate availability of improved documentation management systems. This has already been initiated. Degree Works, a centralized web-based management system has been implemented as part of the University Office of the Registrar’s continuing performance improvement plan for documentation.