Preventive Care — Dr.P.H.
Program director
Hildemar Dos Santos
The Preventive Care Program prepares high-level health professionals for wellness and lifestyle-management intervention. Emphasis is on academic preparation, practical skills, and administrative abilities in developing, implementing, and evaluating programs and protocols designed to address a wide spectrum of health issues—particularly those dealing with chronic disease. These programs and protocols include physical and mental health-risk appraisal, nutritional assessment and recommendations, exercise testing and prescription, and smoking-cessation counseling.
The program seeks to demonstrate and elucidate the intimate connection between mind and body. Graduates address the combined influences of nutrition, exercise, stress, smoking, and other lifestyle factors on the promotion of health and the prevention of disease.
This program is ideal for health practitioners such as physicians, nurses, dentists, physical therapists, registered dietitians, and occupational therapists. Non-health practitioners can apply for this program, and it is recommended they take health and wellness coaching while in the program. Non-physicians are not able to practice medicine upon completion of this degree.
Coursework for the Preventive Care Program may be pursued in the following formats:
- An on-campus program (combination of on-campus and online coursework).
- An online program (combination of synchronous and asynchronous coursework).
Program learning outcomes
By the end of the program, the graduate should be able to:
- Develop strategies to prevent substance abuse and its consequences in a community setting.
- Design a professional practice to assist clients individually or in groups by applying lifestyle modification strategies.
- Develop a successful motivational interviewing plan using skills such as active listening, expressing empathy, rolling with resistance, and developing support of change.
- Develop strategies for weight management, including health-risk assessments, adequate diet, and exercise guidance.
- Apply preventive skills to design a health intervention that addresses lifestyle-related diseases (e.g., diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease).
Educational effectiveness indicators
- Comprehensive examination.
- Applied project presentation.
- Publishable paper.
- Doctoral project presentation.
Prerequisite
In addition to the entrance requirements for all Dr.P.H. degrees, applicants to the Dr.P.H. degree in Preventive Care Program must have:
Anatomy and physiology (or equivalent to be evaluated by program director).
Corequisites
In addition to standard Dr.P.H. corequisites, the Dr.P.H. program in preventive care requires the following courses in addition to units required for the degree. It is recommended these courses be taken early in the program.
HPRO 526 Lifestyle Diseases and Risk Reduction
HPRO 573 Exercise Physiology I
NUTR 529 Health Aspects of Vegetarian Eating
| Dr.P.H. public health core | ||
| Critical analysis | ||
| PHCJ 600 | Overview of Research Methodologies | 3 |
| PHCJ 615 | Intermediate Biostatistics | 3 |
| Electives (choose from following) | 3 | |
| Health Policy Analysis and Research | ||
| Concepts and Practical Issues of Secondary Data | ||
| Data Analysis | ||
| Leadership, management, and governance | ||
| PHCJ 607 | Professional Leadership | 3 |
| PHCJ 616 | Administrative Systems in Agency Management | 3 |
| PHCJ 617 | Building Healthy Systems | 3 |
| Education and workforce development | ||
| PHCJ 614 | Pedagogy: The Art and Science of Teaching | 2 |
| PHCJ 618 | Transformative Communication | 2 |
| Policy, advocacy and programs | ||
| PHCJ 609 | Building Healthy Individuals | 3 |
| PHCJ 610 | Building Healthy Communities 1 | 3 |
| Doctoral seminar | ||
| PHCJ 608A | Doctoral Seminar for Public Health | 1 |
| PHCJ 608B | Doctoral Seminar for Public Health | 1 |
| PHCJ 608C | Doctoral Seminar for Public Health | 1 |
| Preventive care major | ||
| HPRO 527 | Obesity and Disordered Eating | 3 |
| HPRO 529 | Preventive and Therapeutic Interventions in Chronic Disease | 3 |
| HPRO 542 | Wellness Coaching II | 3 |
| HPRO 553 | Addiction Theory and Program Development | 3 |
| HPRO 580 | Preventive Care Management | 3 |
| NUTR 556 | Nutritional Applications in Lifestyle Intervention | 3 |
| Electives | 0-3 | |
| HPRO 541 | Wellness Coaching I (for students seeking the wellness coaching certificate) | 3 |
| or elective chosen in consultation wth advisor | ||
| Religion | ||
| RELE 5__ | Graduate-level ethics | 3 |
| RELR 5__ | Graduate-level relational | 3 |
| RELT 5__ | Graduate-level theological | 3 |
| Integrated learning experience | ||
| PHCJ 698 | Doctoral Project | 4 |
| Total Units | 65 | |
| Practicum | ||
| Practicum units are in addition to the minimum didactic units required for the degree | ||
| PHCJ 795 | Applied Practice | 2 |
- 1
Fulfills service learning requirement
Applied practice experience and integrated learning experience
All Dr.P.H. students will engage in an applied practice experience that results in a product that is relevant to public health organizations. The culminating activity is an integrated learning experience that includes a field-based project emphasizing advanced practice. Both applied practice experience and integrated learning experience will demonstrate integration of foundational and concentration specific competencies.
Normal time to complete the program
Three (3) years — based on full-time enrollment
