Ideally, health educators have an advanced degree at the time they enter the profession. Those candidates seeking certification will have prepared at accredited universities, doing undergraduate and graduate work in health education, often with an emphasis in public health. After successfully completing written examination and review, health educators are licensed for 5 years, during which time they are required to complete 75 hours of continuing education. Health Educators are assigned a certification number upon successful completion of a standardized test that measures seven designated areas of responsibility. They do not hold to a theory of one germ-one disease, but rather that heredity, environment and lifestyle all impact on the effects of one or several invaders.
Health education is a multi-disciplinary study.
From anthropology, they study cultural diversity and environmental influences on health behaviors. From nursing, they consider the physical and emotional aspects of care. From ethics, they study how interventions must not be imposed upon people but rather desired by them. From social work, they learn about behavior theory and individual assessment. From medicine they analyze scientific research and translate it into practice.