Health Sciences
The faculty welcomes you to the Web page of the Department of Health Sciences at Western Illinois University. The Department of Health Sciences prepares students for careers as community health educators, environmental health professionals, and health services managers. The faculty is dedicated to providing a challenging and supportive environment in which students may become competent professionals. Students are trained to translate theory to practice and to function effectively in culturally diverse settings.
Mission
The mission of the WIU Department of Health Sciences is to provide quality learning experiences; professional preparation for students; and to promote excellence in learning, application of technology, teaching, scholarship, and community s ervice.
Department Overview
The Department of Health Sciences at Western Illinois University offers a Bachelor of Science in Emergency Management, a Bachelor of Science in Health Sciences, and a Bachelor of Science in Health Services Management on the Macomb campus. A Master of Science in Health Education is available on both the Macomb and Quad Cities campuses. Undergraduate students majoring in health sciences may select one of two emphases: community health education or environmental and occupational safety.
Emergency management professionals
Community health educators are professionally prepared in the disciplines of community and public health education. They demonstrate competence in planning, implementation, and evaluation of health promoting and health enhancing programs for individuals, groups, and communities.
Environmental and occupational safety professionals are concerned with the relationships between the characteristics of the natural environmental (air, water, soil, chemicals, etc.) and mental and physical health. This information is used to establish limits on pollutants that the environment can absorb without detrimental effects, to develop control technology, and to implement controls as necessary for the benefit of human and animal populations.
The undergraduate health services management degree prepares students for the following career opportunities: long-term care administration, private sector, public health administration. Long-term care administration includes a wide spectrum of health care delivery involving the complete continuum of chronic care management and administration including: nursing home, rehabilitation, senior care, palliative care, specialized long-term chronic care, and mental health. The private sector includes many different types of primary care delivery management and administration. Careers in this track will focus on primary health care delivery in settings such as hospitals, outpatient clinics, physician practice management, managed care, health insurance, and pharmaceutical sales. The public sector includes all areas of public health management and administration. Career opportunities include public health departments at the local, state, and federal levels; health agencies focused on risk populations such as senior care and Medicaid populations; and environmental health and/or community health agencies.
Click here to view the Fulbright-Hays Summer 2005 Ethiopia experience website.