Board of Regents Approves New Health School

The Board of Regents approved the following at their April meeting:

• ‘School of Integrated Health Professions'; with the caveat that a market analysis be completed prior to permanent naming of the school
• Master of Science in Clinical Nutrition (MSCN)
• Master of Science in Nursing, post-licensure (MSN)
• Master of Social Work (MSW)

The proposed academic portfolio of ‘School of Integrated Health Professions' includes the existing programs of Athletic Training, Audiology, Physical Therapy, Physician Assistant, Speech-Language Pathology, and the new programs of Clinical Nutrition, Nursing, Occupational Therapy and Social Work. The alignment of existing and new programs of similar size in one school across the three campuses will provide consistent support and unique opportunities for these programs to develop synergistic pedagogies, shared courses and learning experiences, curricular innovations that cross programs and opportunities for students to learn about, from and with each other (inter-professional experience). Simulated clinical environments and integrated didactic curricula will provide opportunities for students to learn and work in interprofessional teams. The school will ensure that programs, students, faculty and staff are appropriately administratively supported to achieve their shared vision for the school, including support for assessment, specialized accreditation and shared clinical affiliations. The full prospectus can be found here as well as a PowerPoint overview.

The new programs will all be offered on an accelerated, trimester calendar with intentionally embedded opportunities for students to learn about, from and with each other. Each program has significant experiential learning components to develop practice ready graduates. Developing these new programs in parallel and housing them together administratively allows greater intentionality of curricular synergies and student opportunities. The anticipated first class for all of these programs is fall 2020. Searches for a founding dean and program directors will be begin shortly.

The first steps in establishment of the school are to: begin the search process for a founding dean; establish a working group of program directors/department chairs of the programs transitioning into the health school; and establish an external advisory board. The implementation timeline can be found here.