Excelsior College Launches Online Bachelor’s Degree in Health Sciences – Dental Hygienists Seeking Career Enhancement to Benefit
Posted: August 10, 2006
Excelsior College, a world leader in distance education, is now offering a bachelor’s degree in Health Sciences. The degree offers a practicing hygienist, among other healthcare professionals, the option to move toward a career as an office administrator, in teaching, or in clinical practice in public or school health programs.
The interdisciplinary program offered completely online enrolled its first students in May 2006. Flexible acceptance of transfer credit and the ability to complete coursework at any time from any location helps students continually progress toward their degree while managing work and family responsibilities. Delivering application-based knowledge in health sciences, the program may be tailored to enhance a hygienist’s ability to deliver patient education, improve supervisory capabilities, or learn more about the elderly and the aging process. Excelsior’s program helps students develop “big picture” critical thinking and problem-solving skills needed for effective practice.
“This program is in keeping with Excelsior’s 35-year tradition of educating adults at a distance so they can pursue their career dreams without losing time from work,” said Deb Sopczyk, director of the School of Health Sciences at Excelsior College. “Dental hygienists face the same challenges as professionals in other allied healthcare fields when they expand their job roles. This program helps bridge the gap when professionals move from providing care to new roles.”
An accredited institution located in Albany, New York, Excelsior College is known for its flexible yet academically rigorous programs. It offers degree and certificate programs and awards credit based upon completion of its online courses, its credit-by-examination program and the acceptance of transfer credit from a variety of recognized sources. Its BS in Health Sciences was developed by senior and tenured teaching faculty drawn from accredited colleges and universities, business and industry nationwide in collaboration with Excelsior College faculty.
Admission into the BS in Health Sciences requires a minimum of 20 credit hours in a health science field. The degree program is 120 semester hours and is comprised of 60 hours in general education and 60 hours in health sciences courses. It offers the broadest range of concentrations in an undergraduate health sciences program including: management, health education, gerontology, and end-of-life care. Up to 32 health sciences credits and up to 60 credits in general education may be transferred from prior college-level coursework.
The health sciences core includes courses in Health Care Issues in Culturally Diverse Populations, Introduction to the Health Care Delivery System, Writing & Communication in the Health Science Professions, Research for Evidence-Based Practice, Health Care Education: Methods and Strategies, and Introduction to Healthcare Informatics.
Students select an additional nine credits in the concentration of their interest. As an example, the management concentration offers courses in budgeting and finance, human resources, and leadership skills as they specifically relate to healthcare organizations.
A management and leadership Capstone course provides students with an opportunity to synthesize and apply the knowledge they’ve acquired to complex management problems and issues in health care.
Excelsior College (www.excelsior.edu) is a private, nonprofit institution of higher learning and an acclaimed world leader in the field of distance education. Founded in 1971 and located in Albany, N.Y., it is accredited by the Commission on Higher Education of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools. Excelsior College Examinations are recognized by the American Council on Education (ACE), Center for Adult Learning and Educational Credentials, for the award of college-level credit.
Excelsior College provides access to many different avenues for earning college credit, focusing on what students know, rather than on where or how they learned it. Undergraduate credits are earned through a variety of sources including Excelsior’s own online courses and for-credit exams; courses (online and campus-based) from other colleges and universities; certificate programs; and recognized college-level sources such as military and corporate training programs. Excelsior’s graduate and certificate programs are delivered online and accommodate credit already earned where appropriate. Through these means, the college makes associate, baccalaureate, and master’s degrees more accessible to busy, working adults.
U.S. News & World Report’s 2006 “America's Best Colleges” report recognized Excelsior College as having the largest number of transfer students in the nation for the third year in a row. It also listed Excelsior College as having the second highest percentage of students over 25 years old.
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