Honors Dynamics of Healthcare in Society

Course Description: Dynamics of Healthcare in Society is an orientation to health care and delivery, from an interdisciplinary perspective, with a focus on process skills to include critical thinking, ethical reasoning, effective communication, and self‐directed learning abilities. The professional competencies stress application to general issues and topics common to all health care providers. Emphasis is placed on the role of the health care practitioner as both provider and consumer of health care services.

Credits/Modes of Instruction: This is a 3-credit undergraduate course in lecture format that relies on regular activities, assignments, and completion of weekly topics.

Goals: The goal of this course is to orient students to health care occupations, services and their delivery.

Objectives: Upon completion of this course, the student will be able to:

1. Develop critical thinking skills and strategies for solving problems.

2. Understand how various health team members function in diverse health care settings to serve the needs of individuals and society as a whole.

3. Demonstrate the characteristics, behaviors, and attitudes of professionals.

4. Clarify and analyze their own values and the values of others.

5. Speak and write clearly, effectively, and forcibly

6. Detect and circumvent barriers that obstruct interpersonal communication.

7. Analyze the fundamental questions and implications raised by selected ethical healthcare issues.

8. Communicate effectively with patients, of all ages, from a variety of cultural backgrounds.

9. Develop satisfactory personal and professional definitions of health, wellness, illness and disease and analyze factors that affect health status.

10. Demonstrate an understanding of the evolution, nature and complexities of the U.S. health care delivery system.

11. Differentiate among some of the key technical, economic, social moral, legal, and political issues associated with biomedical technologies.

12. Demonstrate an understanding of the complex problems that underlie the escalation of costs for health care in the U.S. and suggest ways of solving them.

13. Analyze current healthcare policy issues and describe how particular factors and groups affect the formulation of health care policy.

Upon successful completion of the course at the high school students will be eligible to take the Rutgers School of Health Professions, Health Science Careers standardized exam to determine college credit.