MOUNT PLEASANT - Central Michigan University is accepting applications from professionals in the health care field for admission into an innovative online doctoral degree program in health administration.
Approved earlier this year by CMU's academic senate, the Board of Trustees and the academic affairs officers of Michigan's public universities, the program also received approval this month for accreditation by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.
Applications are being currently accepted for fall 2002. The degree program is geared toward students who have extensive experience working in the health field, said Gerald Ledlow, a faculty member in The Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow College of Health Professions.
'The program is aimed at very highly trained people,' said Ledlow. 'Expectations are that top administrators who have been working for a number of years in the health care field will be interested in the degree. It will be a real community of learners, where professors with extensive executive-level experience themselves will work in a collegial type environment.'
Offered through the College of Extended Learning, it will include 15 online courses and six face-to-face weekend seminars over a two-year period. The third year of the program is devoted to completing an applied dissertation.
The program will offer courses in critical thinking, ethics and law, leadership, organizational theory, quantitative research, communication skills, and more.
People who have been in the industry want to know the latest research and knowledge to make their jobs easier, said Mark Cwiek, coordinator of the health administration program in the college.
'We're looking at taking the theory and applying it to their settings,' said Cwiek. 'These students want to make sure they are up-to-date and as sharp about their areas as they can be. There will be a great deal of intellectual rigor in the program. These students will walk away with the knowledge and skills of applied researchers.'
Health administrators often need specific training in various administrative areas and in effective communication, said Cwiek.
'The interesting thing is that they are already very successful,' said Cwiek. 'The students we will attract already have strong foundations in the health care area, but they need stronger skills to be able to keep up in the upper levels of management. The economics of health is vastly different from general economics. Our students need to know how to apply the knowledge to make positive outcomes. They need to know how and where to access the latest health information.
'In addition, these leaders want to know how to communicate this information to various audiences, such as employees, customers, managers and administrators of other systems, the business community, educators, health care professionals, and the local community. It's a major part of their job,' said Cwiek.
For information, contact Ledlow at gerald.r.ledlow@cmich.edu, or for an application, call CMU's College of Extended Learning at (800) 950-1144 ext. 4491, or log on to the Web site at www.cel.cmich.edu/dha.
