Hours, Documentation & Competencies
Logging hours, writing activity descriptions, collecting sign-offs, and demonstrating CEPH competencies.
- How many practicum hours do I need to log?It depends on your program. Hour minimums and rules about what counts vary by school, so confirm both in your practicum handbook before you start logging.
- How should I log my practicum hours each day?Pick one tool, log at the end of each activity or before you leave, and record date, time, a specific description, and the related competency for every entry.
- Do training, reading, and prep time count as hours?Usually yes when your site requires it or it directly supports your project, such as onboarding modules or learning a tool. Confirm gray areas first.
- How do I write good practicum activity descriptions?Use action plus context plus competency: say what you did, why it mattered for public health, and which skill it built. Two to four specific sentences works.
- What if I fell behind on logging my hours?Stop the gap today, then rebuild missed days from calendars, emails, and saved files. Mark reconstructed entries as estimates and never guess from memory alone.
- How do I get my preceptor to sign my hour logs?Make signing easy: send a clean, complete log on a regular schedule, give a clear deadline, and start multi-signature forms three weeks before they are due.
- What are the CEPH foundational competencies?They are 22 skills CEPH expects every accredited MPH graduate to have, spanning data analysis, program planning, policy, leadership, and communication.
- How do I choose competencies for my practicum?Start with the work your site can offer, then pick competencies that fit it and your career goals, mixing strengths with growth areas. Confirm with an advisor.
- How do concentration competencies differ from foundational?Foundational competencies are CEPH's 22 skills for every MPH student. Concentration competencies are set by your program for your specialty and go deeper.
- How do I map practicum activities to competencies?Tag each activity with a competency as you log it, then back each claim with a specific description, your role, and a work product or result showing the skill.
- What if I miss practicum days for illness or holidays?Missed days generally are not counted, so you make up the hours later. Tell your preceptor right away, log the absence honestly, and adjust your weekly pace.
- Can I count commute or travel time as hours?Your daily commute almost never counts. Travel that is part of the work, like driving to a community event or field site, often does. Check your handbook.
- How do I document hours when I work remotely?Log start and end times plus concrete outputs for each remote block, keep calendar and file history as backup, and send your preceptor a weekly summary.
- How do I prepare for my midpoint evaluation?Review progress on each learning objective, total your hours, gather two or three examples per objective, and bring honest challenges with a plan to adjust.
- What does the final practicum evaluation assess?Usually your competency performance, professionalism, finished deliverables, and progress on learning objectives. Get the rubric early and plan to it.
- How do I measure progress on my SMART goals?Tag log entries to each objective, check weekly progress against its measure and deadline, and revise objectives with your preceptor when work shifts.
- How should I document my deliverables and work products?Save each final version with a short record of its purpose, audience, your role, dates, and competencies, and get site permission before keeping a copy.
- Do I need to master a competency to claim it?No. CEPH competencies describe what new graduates can do. Show you applied the skill in real work with reasonable quality, and document how you grew.
- What if my work doesn't fit my chosen competencies?Do not force weak connections. Tell your faculty advisor early, then add activities that fit or revise your picks. Most programs allow changes with a reason.
- What if two competencies seem to describe the same skill?Find each competency's core verb and focus, then assign work where its main emphasis fits best. Overlap is normal; distinct evidence for each matters.
- Can I include patient or client details in my log?No. Keep names, identifiers, and any protected health information out of your log and reflections. Describe the work and population in general terms instead.
- How does my program verify my logged hours?Usually through preceptor attestation, periodic log reviews, and your deliverables. Specific, consistent entries backed by work products make verification easy.
- Can I finish early or bank extra hours?Sometimes. Many programs let you exceed the minimum, but hitting your hours early rarely ends your commitments. Check your program's end-date rules.
- How do I keep track of drafts and file versions?Use one naming convention with dates and version numbers, keep a single working copy, archive old drafts, and save reviewer feedback with each version.
- What practicum records should I keep after I finish?Keep your signed hour log, evaluations, learning agreement, training certificates, and permitted work samples, backed up in two places for at least a few years.