Healthcare is one of the largest and fastest-growing areas of employment in Connecticut. There’s an enormous range of professions in hospitals and healthcare centers, including many types of jobs in direct patient care, clinical research, administration and management, patient support, and healthcare data analytics, among many other areas.
The major in Healthcare Studies prepares students for careers in the healthcare field. As a Healthcare Studies major, you’ll take courses that provide you with knowledge about various aspects of healthcare systems and healthcare delivery, and professional and interpersonal skills valued by employers in the healthcare sector. You will also take courses that allow you to learn about different career paths within healthcare.
Your coursework and degree will help you get started with your first job in healthcare, and the degree will become especially valuable as you gain professional experience and advance in your career. Healthcare Studies is also a great choice for students who want to pursue additional professional education, whether in clinical training or administrative and management programs.
In Healthcare Studies, you can opt for the General concentration and pair it with a minor or additional elective courses outside of the major. You can also select a concentration for a specific professional area. The professional concentrations are Clinical Trials Administration and Practice (formerly Healthcare and Clinical Research), Speech-Language Pathology Assistant, and Therapeutic Recreation in Aging Concentration.
A separate STEM Foundations for Nursing concentration is available for students in their first two years who are preparing to apply for the Nursing College Pathway at SCSU.
Program Highlights
- Enables students to pursue a broad range of current or emerging careers in the healthcare sector.
- Provides students with a strong foundation for application to a variety of medical, health and human services graduate programs.
- Prepares Associate’s degree-trained healthcare professionals to pursue opportunities for career advancement.
- Curriculum designed with direct input from healthcare professionals and focused on meeting critical workforce needs in healthcare settings.
- Program faculty include professionals who are currently working at healthcare facilities in our region.
- Coursework includes 40 program specific credits that provide broad, foundational knowledge in all aspects of healthcare.
- Program allows students to complete 34 elective credits focused on specific workforce needs or prerequisites for application to graduate healthcare degree programs.
Topics Covered
- Careers in Healthcare
- Patient-Centered Care
- Effective Communication and Professionalism for Healthcare
- Healthcare Ethics
- Healthcare Systems and Policy
- Medical Billing
- Electronic Health Records
- Evidence-Based Practice
- Cultural Humility in Healthcare
- Aging Studies, Dementia and Long-Term Care
- Clinical Trials
Learning Outcomes
- Distinguish the roles, responsibilities, and scopes of practice for different healthcare professionals among the interprofessional healthcare team.
- Apply principles and knowledge of patient-centered care, healthcare ethics, privacy and confidentiality policies, and cultural differences to communicate effectively and appropriately with healthcare professionals and with patients, both orally and in writing
- Demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of the US healthcare system, its fundamental characteristics and functions, and major federal and state policies and practices regarding managed healthcare, billing and reimbursement, privacy and confidentiality, and electronic health information.
- Demonstrate awareness and appreciation of the challenges in achieving equity in health care, including impacts of healthcare accessibility, healthcare policies, and stereotypes, prejudices, and implicit biases towards marginalized groups
- Locate and assess information from relevant and reliable information sources, and critically analyze and interpret information to determine relevance for evidence-based practice
Concentrations
Healthcare Studies, B.S. - General
The General concentration provides students with a core education in healthcare systems that can be applied to a range of different career paths. With faculty advising, students additionally select a minor or targeted course sequences that are tailored to their professional interests and goals.
The General concentration is ideal for students who want to work in the healthcare field in non-clinical patient support and advocacy roles, administrative and management roles, long-term care and gerontology, and other areas such as pharmaceutical and medical sales.
The General concentration is also a good choice for students who plan on pursuing post-graduate education in areas such as:
- Accelerated Nursing programs
- Masters of Business Administration (MBA)
- Masters of Health Administration (MHA) programs
- Certificate programs in technical skill areas, such as ultrasound and radiography
Healthcare Studies, B.S. - Clinical Trials Administration and Practice
The Clinical Trials Administration and Practice (formerly Healthcare and Clinical Research) concentration prepares students for careers in the field of Clinical Trials. Clinical trials are how new medical treatments are tested for safety and effectiveness in humans before receiving FDA approval. A large number of clinical trials are being conducted at major research hospitals and private companies in Connecticut, and there is a severe need for professionals qualified to work on clinical trials teams.
The concentration includes a sequence of courses, some taught by active professionals in the field, that provide students with hands-on training on clinical trials management. The courses are followed by a semester-long internship at a clinical trials site. Students who complete this program and who work in clinical trials research for 1-2 years will be eligible to take a certification exam to become a certified clinical research professional (CCRP). This is a valuable and highly marketable credential that will help in long-term career advancement.
This is a great program to consider if some of the following apply to you:
- Want to help contribute to finding effective treatments for diseases
- Are interested in being involved in the research process
- Have strong organizational skills
- Have a high attention to detail
- Are comfortable working with data and numbers
- Have good interpersonal and communication skills
Healthcare Studies, B.S. - Speech Language Pathology Assistant
This concentration prepares students for employment as a Speech Language Pathology Assistant. SLPAs are support personnel who work under the supervision of a Speech Language Pathologist (SLP), usually in school or rehabilitation settings. SLPAs assist speech-language pathologists in treating individuals with speech, language, fluency, and voice disorders in a variety of settings. They provide a wide range of services including implementing speech and language programs designed by the SLP.
The SLPA concentration combines courses on healthcare with a course sequence in Communication Disorders and includes a 100-hour practicum in a professional setting. Students graduating with this concentration will be eligible to apply for the national American Speech-Hearing-Language Association certification for SLPAs.
If you enjoy working with people of all ages, in a variety of settings such as schools, health clinics, private practice, early intervention, and other work settings with the goal of improving communication and overall quality of life, this might be a good career path to explore.
Healthcare Studies, B.S. - STEM Foundations for Nursing
STEM Foundations for Nursing is a concentration within Healthcare Studies for students on track for admission into the BS in Nursing program at Southern. It includes all of the prerequisite math and science courses for Nursing. Students in this concentration must maintain a 3.0 GPA and progression towards eligibility for Nursing. SLPA students are advised in the Center for Pre-Professional Programs (CPPP).
Healthcare Studies, B.S. - Therapeutic Recreation in Aging
This concentration prepares students for careers as therapeutic recreation directors in skilled nursing facilities, assisted living facilities, and senior centers. Therapeutic Rec Directors are responsible for planning, organizing, and implementing individual and group activities for residents of a facility.
Graduates of this program will meet the Connecticut Health Code qualifications for therapeutic recreation directors in skilled nursing facilities.
If you enjoy working with an aging population and are creative, outgoing, and compassionate, this is a good career path to explore.
Careers
The B.S. Healthcare Studies degree program prepares students for entry-level jobs within the healthcare sector, provides a strong academic foundation for those advancing to graduate school, and prepares students with the prerequisite coursework and advisement to apply to a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree program.
Nationally, the Bureau of Labor Statistics cites 13 of the top 20 fastest-growing occupations as those in the healthcare sector with overall employment in healthcare occupations expected to grow 19%. This is the single largest growth sector among all occupation areas. In Connecticut, healthcare practitioner and technical positions, both clinical and non-clinical, are expected to grow 9.5% in a 10-year period ending 2024 (approximately 24,000 new healthcare jobs will be added statewide by 2024).
Many Connecticut healthcare employment opportunities exist in the Greater New Haven region as the healthcare industry is a dominant contributor to the local economy. Employers are seeking professionals attuned to the dynamics of an evolving healthcare system. They have expressed a growing demand for bachelor-level trained employees in critical non-clinical positions. Employers are seeking employees who possess a skill set that includes knowledge of overall health, health informatics, health systems, and healthcare management. The B.S. Healthcare Studies degree program addresses the development of these skills and helps employers meet these needs.
The healthcare field is broad, and employers include hospital systems, medical practices, pharmaceutical companies, managed care organizations, clinical research organizations, long-term care facilities, medical device companies, and biotechnology firms.
Typical Job Titles
The General concentration can lead to careers in areas such as:
- Healthcare Administration and Management
- Patient Support and Advocacy
- Pharmaceutical and Medical Equipment Sales
- Health Information Technology
- Healthcare Quality Improvement
- Program Coordination
- Long-Term Care Program Administration
The Clinical Trials Administration and Practice concentration prepares students for careers in Clinical Trials. Professional tracks within this field include:
- Clinical Research Assistant / Coordinator / Manager
- Community Outreach Planning and Coordination
- Clinical Operations and Patient Support
- Regulatory Affairs and Compliance
- Data Management
- Project Management
Graduates of the Speech-Language Pathology Assistant (SLPA) Concentration will find job opportunities as SLPAs in:
- K-12 schools
- Birth-3 programs
- Speech Therapy and Speech Rehabilitation centers
Graduates of the Therapeutic Recreation in Aging (TRIA) Concentration will find job opportunities as a Therapeutic Recreation Director at long-term care facilities.
School / College
College of Health & Human Services
Department
Healthcare Systems and Innovation
Contact
Larry Brancazio, Ph.D.