What Courses Can I Expect as an Online Healthcare Administration Student?

What Courses Can I Expect as an Online Healthcare Administration StudentAspiring healthcare administrators who may be wondering what courses to expect in an online healthcare administration program have landed on the right page! Graduating from a healthcare administration program requires students to complete a variety of general education, healthcare-related, and program-specific courses. While program-specific courses may differ somewhat from one educational institution to the next, some of the most common of these courses are described below.

Healthcare Delivery Systems

One course that people can expect as an online healthcare administration student is known as Healthcare Delivery Systems. This class examines the nature and functions of healthcare organizations in the United States. Topics of this course are many and often include accessibility of healthcare services, costs associated with healthcare delivery, how the economy affects healthcare delivery, governmental influences on healthcare delivery, ethical issues in healthcare delivery, and proper healthcare delivery for the elderly and medically indigent.

Healthcare Quality Management

Another course that can be expected in an online healthcare administration program is Healthcare Quality Management. The main goals of this class are to teach students how to effectively manage healthcare operations and how to improve healthcare delivery and outcomes by managing effective processes. Specific areas of study include analyzing process systems, measuring productivity, monitoring performance and outcome metrics, reducing costs and wastes, and the role of technology and innovation in improving healthcare processes and outcomes.

Legal and Ethical Considerations in Healthcare

Due to the unique nature of healthcare services, healthcare professionals must adhere to certain legal and ethical standards as set by such organizations as the National Association for Healthcare Quality. Legal and Ethical Considerations in Healthcare is an online healthcare administration course that explores the role of policies and ethics in healthcare. Other topics included in the class include legal controls, ethical conduct, principles of healthcare policies, and the application of policies to the healthcare environment.

Organizational Behavior

To become effective healthcare administrators, online healthcare administration students will need to learn about typical behavior in healthcare organizations. Organizational Behavior is a common course required for healthcare administration programs. This course explores such interesting topics as factors that influence organizational behavior, group and inter-group dynamics, how leadership styles affect organizational behavior, organizational structure and design, technology and organizational behavior, and how culture affects organizational behavior.

Human Resource Management in Healthcare

All persons wishing to obtain leadership positions need to learn about proper human resource management. But with so many highly trained professionals involved in healthcare systems, human resource management in healthcare presents unique challenges. This online healthcare administration course helps students meet these challenges by examining such issues as human resource management policies, human resource selection, human resource training and development, international human resource management, and diversity in human resources.

Conclusion

Healthcare administration is a lucrative field that is growing in demand by a rate of about 20 percent according to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics. And for persons interested in this exciting field, five courses that they can expect in an online healthcare administration program are discussed in the sections above.

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