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 AAS Medical Assistant.   For more information contact the administrative assistant, Sumner Hall, Rm 4 541-888-7443 or the director at 541-888-7298. Click here to view more information about the Nursing & Allied Health program.

Graduation Requirements

Students must complete a minimum of 14 credit hours with a cumulative Grade Point Average (GPA) of 2.0 or better. All courses must be completed with a grade of ‘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).

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.

Pre-Program Courses

Students are required to take the following courses prior to the program course, depending on a students' college placement information. See advisor for details:

Course List

Code	Title	Credits
CIS90	Computer Basics (or demonstrate proficiency)	2

Program Guide

Plan of Study Grid

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 or PSY203H may be substituted for BA285.