The Career Pathway Certificate of Completion: Health Care Career Core was designed based on the 2001 Institute of Medicine report "Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health System for the 21st Century" recommended that all health professionals should be educated to deliver patient-centered care as members of an interdisciplinary team, emphasizing evidence-based practice, quality improvement approaches, and informatics. These five core competencies are taught within an interdisciplinary student-centered environment.
Click here to learn how this Pathway Certificate can lead to an Associate of Applied Science Medical Assistant. For other medically-related training see the Allied Health website.
Graduation Requirements
Students must complete a minimum of 14 credit hours with a minimum Grade Point Average (GPA) of 2.0 or better. All courses in this program must be completed with a ‘C’ or better. One course must be completed at Southwestern before the Career Pathway Certificate of Completion: Health Care Career Core is awarded.
Complete the graduation application process one term prior to the term of completion (e.g., spring term graduates must apply during winter term).
Pre-Program Courses
Students are required to take the following courses prior to the program courses, depending on students' college placement information. See advisor for details:
| Code | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| CIS90 | Computer Basics (or demonstrate proficiency) | 2 |
Program Guide
| First Year | ||
|---|---|---|
| Fall | Credits | |
| AH100 | Introduction to Health Care Careers | 2 |
| CIS120 | Concepts of Computing | 4 |
| Credits | 6 | |
| Winter | ||
| BA285 | Human Relations in Organizations 1 | 3 |
| HIM110 | Health Information Technology | 5 |
| Credits | 8 | |
| Total Credits | 14 | |
| 1 | PSY203 General Psychology or PSY203H General Psychology w/Honors may be substituted for BA285 Human Relations in Organizations. |
Program Student Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of this program the student will be able to:
- Provide patient-centered care: Identify, respect, and care about patients' differences, values, preferences, and expressed needs; coordinate care, listen to, clearly inform, communicate with, and educate patients; share decision-making and management; and continuously advocate disease prevention, wellness, and promotion of healthy lifestyles.
- Work in interdisciplinary teams: Cooperate, collaborate, communicate, integrate care in teams to ensure that care is continuous and reliable.
- Employ evidence-based practice: Integrate best research with clinical expertise and patient values for optimum care, and participate in learning and research activities to the extent feasible.
- Apply quality improvement: Identify errors and hazards in care; understand and implement basic safety design principles, such as standardization and simplification; continually understand and measure quality of care in terms of structure, process, and outcomes in relation to patient and community needs; and design and test interventions to change processes of care with the objective of improving quality.
- Utilize informatics: Communicate, manage knowledge, mitigate error, and support decision-making using information technology.