258850 Preparing future healthcare administrators as leaders in public health through collaborative efforts

Tuesday, October 30, 2012 : 12:30 PM - 12:50 PM

Shae Foutch, PhD, CHES , College of Business & Technology, Healthcare Administration, Northeastern State University, Tahlequah, OK
The goal of the Northeastern State University (NSU) Healthcare Administration (HCA) BS degree program is to prepare students with skills in evidence based business operations required of health service organizations. This presentation will describe how the HCA program has integrated five core values including integrity, excellence, creativity, leadership and collaboration to prepare HCA students with the tools and skill sets to become advocates to improve the US healthcare system, meet the needs of the healthcare workforce and to be professionally marketable. Benchmarks in preparing the undergraduate HCA majors for the workforce include creative and collaborative efforts with public health and private health service organizations and partnership opportunities with several chambers and workforce support systems. As the state of Oklahoma's appropriations to regional institutions has decreased and become more of a challenge the funds allocated by NSU College of Business & Technology to develop and implement the HCA undergraduate degree program were minimal. The shortage of healthcare professionals and the health care reform initiatives within the Affordable Care Act has created a need for higher education programs to meet the needs of adult learners. The NSU HCA program joined three other degree programs within NSU and implemented an innovative and new College of Extended Learning (CEL). The CEL allows the 170,000+ identified adult learners in the region the opportunity to go back to school and finish their BS degree in several different formats and the CEL created an innovative way to begin a profit sharing partnership within the university. The HCA program is offered at four different sites in Northeastern Oklahoma. As competitive online programs move into NE Oklahoma the regional institutions must move forward in a progressive and productive way but must also still maintain the high standards necessary in the traditional format of higher education.

Learning Areas:
Public health administration or related administration

Learning Objectives:
Describe the vision of the HCA curriculum to meet the needs of healthcare in the future. Demonstrate the evaluation benchmarks in preparing the undergraduate HCA majors for the workforce. Explain the collaborative efforts of the HCA program and health service organizations. Discuss the College of Extended Learning efforts to market and fund the regional institution undergraduate degree program through market sharing efforts.

Keywords: Health Futures Curriculum, Collaboration

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: As coordinator of the NSU Healthcare Administration program I have been the key player in developing, implementing and evaluating the undergraduate degree program. As a CHES certified professional I understand the importance of developing programs utilizing needs assessment, models and the continuous process of evaluation. Marketing the HCA program, building collaborative partnerships with health service organizations and preparing students for the future needs in healthcare has been my sole responsibility at NSU.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

Back to: 4219.0: Leadership Development Models in Public Health Practice Settings