Wayne State College’s Rural Health Opportunities Program (RHOP) is looking to expand its health fields by adding Public Health.
“Public Health was a part of the PHEAST [Public Health Early Admission Student Track] program, but UNMC [University of Nebraska Medical Center] decided to end the program,” RHOP Coordinator Todd Young said. “Since we have a successful RHOP program, we will just merge that in with the other health fields.”
Originally, students in Public Health could apply to be in the Public Health Early Admission Student Track (PHEAST) program.
“The PHEAST program allowed a sophomore, or a junior on occasion, to apply to be accepted in the program and if they were accepted, like RHOP, they would have automatic admission to the Masters of Public Health program at UNMC’s College of Public Health as long as they maintain their academic standing,” RHOP Advisor Barbara Engebretsen said.
“There’s lots of aspects to public health, for example if a person likes to analyze things, they could go into epidemiology, biostatistics or geo-mapping,” Engebretsen said. “Also, in public health, they could go into emergency preparedness, health promotion, analyzing, health administration and agricultural environmental conservation health.”
“A One Health Studies major is much more interdisciplinary and could attract students that have diverse interests and like to think out of the box and work with people in a variety of fields and sectors,” Engebretsen said. “Students can select one of four concentrations depending on what their professional or graduate school interests are. They could go into social determinants of health, ecological health, health analysis and health behaviors and promotions.”
Engebretsen and her colleagues have been working on creating a One Health Studies major over the past two years that will encompass the possibility of lots of different sciences and methods of care.
“I’m hoping it will be something that will intrigue and resonate with a lot of students that see a lot of complex health issues we need to address,” Engebretsen said. “I figure this major can help them gain the skills and the aptitudes to be able to work with people to make a difference.”.
RHOP will begin to offer incoming freshmen a one health major at WSC following with a Master’s in Public Health at UNMC.
“There will be three slots and we are going to open applications to high school students this fall and the applications are due December first,” Engebretsen said in regard to applying to RHOP for Public Health.
“Now Public Health will join our other health fields in RHOP, which include medicine, dentistry, dental hygiene, physical therapy, occupational therapy, pharmacy, physician assistant, nursing, medical lab science and radiography,” Young said.
