The broadening of traditional public health efforts has generated a need for new types of health professionals. The field of practice is more vast and complex than ever before and the modern, effective public health professional not only must be competent in his or her particular scientific or administrative specialty, but also must be aware of other overlapping influences on the public's health. Local, national and even global legislative and social policy, newly emerging dilemmas in health ethics, and qualitative and quantitative aspects of the many factors influencing the health and well-being of various population groups are just a few areas which impact public health.

With the adoption of multi-disciplinary and collaborative strategies for solving public health problems, schools of public health aim to educate their students to be prepared for careers in which they can perform their duties with efficiency and skill and can understand and work with colleagues from virtually every area of the biomedical, social and behavioral sciences. Unlike other health professional schools which emphasize a specific clinical occupation (for example, medicine, nursing or dentistry), schools of public health educate a wide range of professionals, from biostatisticians and epidemiologists to health administrators, community health educators and specialists in environmental and occupational health, maternal and child health, mental health, population studies, international health, the behavioral and social sciences, and health policy.

Because public health attracts individuals from diverse fields, one of the most important functions of a school of public health is to provide professionals from other disciplines with a common vocabulary and an understanding of public health perspectives, techniques and values. The one-to-one clinical relationship of practitioner-to-patient must be expanded to encompass the unique community-based orientation of public health. This broad approach parallels that of other fields such as anthropology, sociology, economics and engineering.