Health Science (HSCI)

Related Catalog Entry: College of Nursing and Health Science

Related Mason Website: College of Nursing and Health Science ( http://www.ido.gmu.edu/departments/nursing/)

250 Holistic Health Perspectives (3:3:0). Allows each student to survey health and wellness issues related to his/her personal profile. Students define his/her health within the context of family, environment, culture, society, and life span. Motivational strategies for improving and maintaining health will also be stressed. The health of individuals will be considered in relation to the larger community as well as national health goals.

295 Nutrition for Health Professionals (3:3:0). Prerequisites: BIOL 124 and 125. Introduction to sound nutritional practices in improving health care in clinical and community settings. Designed to give students a working knowledge of the science of nutrition and how it influences health and disease. Nutritional needs throughout the life cycle area are addressed including special considerations during pregnancy and lactation. Problem solving and critical thinking methodologies are used in group presentations of micro nutrients, emphasizing nutrition deficits and excesses. Students use computer-based diet analyses to evaluate personal dietary intakes with a view to using acquired skills in recording nutrition assessments. f,s

302 Health Care Finance (3:3:0). Introductory course on finance in health care organizations. Reviews issues in reimbursement structures, regulatory mechanisms, cost control, and related factors affecting the financial management of health service organizations (including financial decision support skills).

303 Strategic Health Management and Planning (3:3:0). Introductory course on explaining past and present interventions that affect the supply and demand for health care at the community, state, regional, and national level. Health planning and regulatory entities are presented and strategic and program planning in the context of current economic and market conditions are discussed.

332/NURS 332 Concepts of Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Throughout the Life Span (3:3:0). Introduces the student to the concepts of epidemiology, health promotion, disease prevention, and their impact upon the health status of culturally diverse and vulnerable individuals, families, small groups, and communities. Focus is upon health problems and potential interventions throughout the life span and incorporates the principles of teaching/learning and the process of critical thinking as they apply to the health professional.

334 Role Development for Health Science Majors (3:3:0). Gives students the opportunity to explore career opportunities that build on their basic education in a health science field. Includes historical perspectives on current ethical, legal, political, social, and cultural issues related to health care policy and research. Multidisciplinary collaboration among health care providers will be explored.

341 Practicum in Health and Wellness Coordination (3:1:5). Provides a field experience in which students design, implement, and evaluate a project with individuals, families, or small groups who are at risk to or experiencing physical, psychological and/or social health problems in a variety of settings across the life span. Students receive opportunities to apply principles of health promotion and disease prevention. Risks are identified and a program is planned that will reduce risks and promote optimal function.

344 Health and Risk Appraisal (3:2:2). Provides exposure to a number of models of health appraisal and risk assessment through multiple technological means. Students implement a model of their choice in their practicum site.

378 Health Care Delivery in the United States (3:3:0). Survey course that introduces the history and current structure and function of health care delivery in the U.S. Students explore the components and subsystems of health care and the socio-political (public and private) context that shapes the system and impacts access to health care and delivery of health services.

402/HSCI 505/NURS 505 Case Management (3:3:0). Prerequisite: Bachelor's degree or permission of instructor. Open to seniors. Survey course on the state of case management programs and practice for health and human service professionals. Special emphasis is placed on comparing the nature, process, and outcomes for baccalaureate and graduate students guided by the objectives.

405 Care and Management of Persons with Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders (3:3:0). Focuses on the care of persons with dementing illness in acute, community, and long-term care settings. Strategies for managing family caregivers and allied health personnel are discussed.

436/NURS 436 Leadership and Management of Health Care (3:3:0). Introductory course in the leadership and management of health-related organizations. Reviews administrative issues in health-related services with particular emphasis on developing organizational strategies for effective interfacing of medical, nursing, allied health, and administrative staff.

440/NURS 440 Community Health and Epidemiology (3:3:0). Addresses population-focused health care. Emphasis is on primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention of health problems. Concepts of community, public health, and health
policy affecting culturally diverse and vulnerable populations are examined.

453/NURS 453 Research in Nursing and Health Science (3:3:0). Introductory research course designed to present basic concepts and methods of research. The research process is examined as a foundation for scholarship. Emphasis is placed on critique and use of current nursing and health science research in clinical practice.

465/NURS 465 Professional Transition and Role Integration (3:3:0). Capstone seminar assisting students in synthesizing the varied dimensions of their role as a health professional. Special emphasis is placed on collegiality, professional role transition, and responsible membership within the health professions and society. (Writing-intensivecourse)

495 Health Systems Management Practicum (2:1015:2030). Capstone course consisting of a two hour weekly seminar and 24 hour working practicum in a health related organization. Working under the supervision of practicum faculty and an assigned agency preceptor, the student conducts an independent administrative project for the agency. Students utilize organizational assessment information and explore organizational structure, roles, and functions within the organization. Critical thinking, project planning and management, communication and analytic skills are integrated in the performance of the pracitcum and development of the project product.

496/NURS 496 Violence in Today's Society (3:3:0). Interdisciplinary lecture/discussion course examining the magnitude of the problem of violence globally and more specifically within the United States. Case studies, guest speakers, drama, and small group discussion augment the lecture/discussion format and engage students in the learning process.

497 Health Care Coordination Practicum (10:2:18 mobility track, 15:2:28 traditional track). Provides for a variety of applied experiences in the student's chosen area of concentration under the direction of program faculty and a preceptor in the field agency. Critical thinking, project planning and management, communication and analytic skills are integrated in the performance of the practicum and development of the project product. Students may receive credit for experiential learning by portfolio evaluation.

505/HSCI 402/NURS 505 Case Management (3:3:0). Prerequisite: Bachelor's degree or permission of instructor. Open to seniors. Survey course on the state of case management programs and practice for health and human service professionals. Special emphasis is placed on comparing the nature, process, and outcomes for baccalaureate and graduate students guided by the objectives.

520/NURS 520 Rehabilitation Theory and Practice (3:3:0). Explores rehabilitation theory and research and their application to the practice of today's healthcare professional and to the care of specific client populations. Rehabilitation theory will be evaluated as a new paradigm for healthcare delivery.

542/NURS 542 Health Policy (3:2:1). Explores issues surrounding the development of public health policy and the influence of policy of health care delivery, nursing, and other health professions. Classroom and field experience.

543/NURS 543 Global Health: Trends and Policy (3:3:0). Surveys health challenges in the world today; their social, economic, and epidemiological causes; and the role and likely success of high-tech medicine, primary preventive health care, social manipulation, and aid in alleviating the problems.s

571/NURS 571 HIV/AIDS: Concepts, Principles and Interventions (3:3:0). Provides an overview of all aspects of HIV disease to include retrospective and current concepts and analyses of the epidemic, global, and societal impact, and cutting-edge research. Examines the development of therapeutic tools and skills to educate, reduce risks, control infection, and affect the care and healing of client, family, and community, as well as issues of increasing dilemma for health care professionals.

580 Alternative Health Care Practices (3:3:0). Explores the proliferation of alternative health care therapies in society and the role of the various professions in collaboration and participation. Cultural traditions and the scientific study of these therapies are evaluated. Lecture, discussion, seminar, and observation.

603 Advanced Clinical Nutrition (3:3:0). Explores advanced principles of sound nutrition and the application of these principles in clinical settings. Nutritional assessments are explored for the adult patients with chronic conditions.

626 Health Care Informatics and Computer Systems (3:3:0). Studies information and data management in nursing and the application of computer systems to solve problems on nursing practice, education, administration, and research. Focuses on generic concepts of information science and the use of computers to manage nursing health care data, incorporating computing skills for using specific software packages.

637 Gerontological Nursing: Normal Aging and Health Deviations (3:3:0). Examines the biopsychosocial aspects of aging. Emphasis is on examining the effects of age changes and health deviations on the functional capacity of older persons, and on interventions and promotion of the elderly's capacity for self-care.

659 Nursing and Health Care of Aging Persons and Persons with Chronic Illness (3:3:0). Focuses on the biological, psychological, and sociocultural aspects of aging and chronic illness. Seminar and discussion emphasize examining the functional capacity of persons and capacity for selfcare.

670 Quality Management in Health Care (3:3:0). Explores issues, trends, and methodologies in health care quality management within a systems framework with emphasis on law, ethics, principles, tools and techniques, cost, strategic directions, and evaluation. Roles and responsibilities of the various levels of health care managers are addressed.

678 Introduction to the U.S. Health System (3:3:0). Course is required, as a prerequisite to all other certificate courses, for students who do not have familiarity with all aspects (financing, providers, care systems) of the US HealthCare System and recent working experience. Explores the structure, function, and financing of the health care delivery systems in the U.S. Designed to familiarize students with the development of the various sub-systems of care and the ways in which public, private, and social forces influence the politics of healthcare, shape the system, and impact public health. Includes analysis of systems infrastructure and the socio-political context of the U.S. Health System.

698 International Health Care: Theoretical and Practical Dimensions (3:3:0). International health organizations and programs are studied in relation to comparative health care systems analysis. Theoretical conceptualizations, research approaches, and methodological issues in the development of international health are emphasized.

699 Practicum in International Health Care (3:1:8). Prerequisite or corequisite: HSCI 698. Practicum in international health in a selected international health agency. Health care programs are analyzed using a health care systems framework.

701 Quantitative Decision Making in Health Systems Management (3:3:0). Survey course using an epidemiological framework to explore selected quantitative methods in addressing management problems and decisions in health care delivery systems. Managerial applications in the use of analytic techniques as employed to support decision making in health care systems related to cost-benefit analysis, reducing clinical variability, program and decision analysis using system and population based data. Application of forecasting, linear programming, network models and selected biostatistical techniques as applied in health systems management are also included.

702 Managerial Accounting in Health Care Organizations (3:3:0). Practical examination of the controllership function in health care organizations and systems (profit and not for profit) with emphasis on policy formulation and evaluation of performance, including cost methods and systems, measurement criteria, and managerial planning, methods, and techniques.

703 Financial Management of Health Systems (3:3:0). Prerequisites: HSCI 555 or admittance to a graduate nursing degree program (M.S.N. or Ph.D.) or Health Systems Management degree program (M.S. in New Professional Studies), and working knowledge of the health care industry. Examines the tools and methods of financial management in health care organizations and systems with emphasis on allocation and use of funds. Analysis of costs and constraints of alternative source of funds and the application of financial decision instruments and their effect on operational management and market value of the entity is covered.

704 Contemporary Issues in Health Systems Leadership and Management (3:3:0). Analysis of management theory and practice from recently evolving works that identify, analyze, and resolve strategic organizational problems and issues in health care systems. Applied leadership strategy to effectively manage a variety of critical issues in health care systems, such as organizational development, change management, human relations and diversity, quality management for organizational and clinical effectiveness, technology, competing priorities, conflicting constituencies, delivery system redesign, and health services research.

705 Strategic Management and Marketing in Health Care (3:3:0). Develops executive skills for strategic decision making through the use of marketing-based tools and techniques as applied in health care systems. Strategic planning, market research and opportunity/risk analysis, customer assessment, market segmentation and life cycle assessment for health care services in managed care and nonmanaged care environments are covered.

706 Integrated Health Systems Management (3:3:0). Explores emerging structures for financing and delivery of comprehensive health services in integrated health systems. Successful development and management of alliances, provider hospital organizations, and managed care systems with an emphasis on strategies for vertical integration, community partnering, contract negotiation, governance, and management of antitrust situations.

707 Health Care Management Policy, Law, and Ethics (3:3:0). Survey course that prepares health care executives to understand selected legal and ethical principles as applied to complex decision making and policy analysis in the management of health care organizations and systems. Legal relationships (torts and contracts) and ethical references are used for selective managerial application in the analysis and management of organizational and clinical dilemmas, statutory and regulatory trends, and the management of scarce resources and interdisciplinary teams in health systems.

708 Operations/Quality Management of Health Services (3:3:0). Examines the operations and quality management functions of a health care/service organization from a strategic viewpoint. Explores the contributions of operations research and quality management to improve delivery and production of health services and business processes from the perspective of the health care manager. Explores contemporary performance measures (quality and productivity) useful for improving process performance and selected decision support system methods from operations management.

709 Health/Medical Informatics for Health System Managers (3:3:0). Introduces health/medical information systems with emphasis on systems analysis and design to support managerial and clinical communications and decision making. Explores trends and innovations in information technology and systems, focusing on the managerial oversight of health/medical information systems. Includes review and analysis of the issues and uses of databases and database management systems for clinical and managerial transactions and decisions in health care organizations and integrated health systems.

710 Health Management Practicum and Capstone Seminar (3:2:6). Prerequisite: All course work. Team-based field practicum in health management, problem analysis, and project management in a health care/service organization. Learning teams define a complex problem in the assigned facility and conduct an analysis of the problem with recommendations for management decision action. Analysis of the problem provides the context in which theoretical concepts and management skills are applied to conduct the project. Practicum seminar uses case study analyses to explore problem-solving approaches in a variety of situations and health care/service organizations.

730 Clinical and Managerial Optimization in Health Care (3:2:1). Prerequisites: HSCI 701, 709, 768. Students learn techniques to develop protocols of care from judgement panels of experts and risk adjustment measures for client populations. Applications relevant to organizing measuring and evaluation satisfaction with care are discussed. Methods to establish and use protocols of care to institute clinician practice patterns and other organization-wide change are also taught. Students are exposed to analytic and data management methods for administrative and clinical databases, necessary to construct episodes of care, severity of fit, and evaluation scenarios for health related outcomes. Students conduct projects that evaluate specific clinical and administrative processes through practical and case study assisgnments.

750/NURS 750 Legal Issues Relevant to Health Care Administration (3:3:0). Provides students with a general understanding of the United States legal system and sources of law, with a particular emphasis on laws that govern or are applicable to the health care industry and general administration. Students examine the changing health care models and delivery systems and the laws affecting such systems.

762 Aging and Health Care Policy (3:3:0). Prerequisite or corequisite: HSCI 637, SOCI 599, or NURS 659 or permission of instructor. Focuses on a policy perspective in relation to older adults in the community and in long-term care facilities. Students analyze policy issues and health care delivery systems as they affect the older adult through lecture/discussion, field trips, projects, and policy analysis papers.

800 Multivariate Statistics and Data Analysis I (4:3:2). Prerequisite: A graduate-level bivariate statistics course. Covers in detail multiple analysis of a variance (ANOVA, ANCOVA, and factorial design), exploratory factor analysis, and multivariate regression analysis. Emphasizes application and interpretation over formula derivations and mathematical calculations with emphasis on applying multivariate tests to health science data bases using structural packages with an emphasis on SPSS.

801 Multivariate Statistics and Data Analysis II (3:3:0). Prerequisite: HSCI 800 or an equivalent multivariate statistics course. Examines discriminant analysis, canonical correlation, structural modeling (LISREL and pathanalysis), and confirmatory factor analysis. Emphasis is placed on applications and interpretations in the analysis of health science data. The use of SPSS is stressed.

830 The Scholarship of Writing (3:3:0). Boyer's framework for scholarship shapes the presentation of theory related to writing for scholarship. Students apply research in composition to inform writing for a variety of scholarly purposes, including overall conceptualization of research papers and proposals, writing for publication, and writing for scientific, creative, quantitative, and qualitative research. Seminar and intensive writing.

855 Ethics in Health Care Administration (3:3:0). Prerequisite: Admission to Ph D. program or permission of instructor for other (non-Ph. D.) students. Philosophical foundations of health care ethics. Students analyze specific ethical dilemmas faced by administrators in health care settings.

866/NURS 866 Health Care Public Policy (3:2:1). Focuses on the process of formulating health care policy and analyzing its implications for nursing, administration in nursing, and education and nursing service. Current and impending health issues, the legislative process, and program implementation evaluation are examined. s

920/NURS 920 Qualitative Research in Nursing and Health Care (3:3:0). Co- or prerequisites: NURS 955/HSCI 960 and a multivariate statistics course (HSCI 800 or equivalent); familiarity with e-mail and computers. Analysis of the philosophical foundations and approaches to qualitative research in nursing and health care administration, health care policy, and health care ethics within the scholarship of discovery, integration, application, and teaching. Computer analysis is required.

930/NURS 930 Quantitative Methods in Nursing and Health Care (3:3:0). Prerequisites: NURS 955/HSCI 960 and a multivariate statistics course (HSCI 800 or equivalent). Examines advanced principles and special problems in quantitative research methodology. Emphasis is on measurement as it relates to nursing and health care administration, health care ethics, and health policy research. Computer analysis is required.

960/NURS 955 Philosophical Bases of Inquiry (3:3:0). Prerequisite: Admission to nursing doctoral program or permission of instructor. Philosophical bases of the discipline and practice of health related disciplines are examined within the scholarship of discovery, integration, application, and teaching. Comparison of nursing and health science philosophy with relevant related discipline philosophies is examined.