Undergraduate Health Science, Assisted Living/Senior Housing Administration Pathway

Point of Contact
Andrew Carle
Program Coordinator
Phone: 703-993-9131
Email: acarle@gmu.edu

• General Education (38)
  • Composition (ENGL 101 and 302; 3 credits of
      literature are a prerequisite to ENGL 302) (g)
    
  • Communication (COMM 101) (3)
    
  • Information technology (IT 103) (3)
    
  • Literature (at the 200 level or above; does not include ENGL 101 and 302) (3)
    
  • Western civilization (3)
    
  • Arts (3)
  • Global understanding (3)
    
  • Sociology or anthropology (3)
    
  • Biology (BIOL 103 and 104) (8)
    
  • Statistics (STAT 250) (3)
    
• Required Courses (22)
  • PHIL 309 Medicine and Human Values (3:3:0)
    Prerequisite: completion or concurrent enrollment in all other general education courses. Examines some major moral issues involved in practice and research in medicine and health care. Topics to be chosen from medical experimentation, definition of death, physician assisted dying, genetics and human reproduction, distribution of scarce resources, fertility and organ transplants.
    
  • PSYC 100 Basic Concepts in Psychology (3:3:0)
    Prerequisite to all 200-, 300- and 400-level courses in psychology. Introduces psychology as scientific discipline. Examines concepts and methods in learning, motivation, development, personality, and measurement.
    
  • ECON 103 Contemporary Microeconomic Principles (3:3:0)
    Introduces microeconomics in the context of current problems. Explores how market mechanism allocates scarce resources among competing uses; uses supply, demand, production, and distribution theory to analyze problems.
    
  • MIS 102 Spreadsheet Applications for Business (1:0:1)
    Hands-on course using popular spreadsheet package. Business examples used to teach fundamentals of spreadsheets and their use in business applications. Graded as S/NC.
    
  • ACCT 203 Survey of Accounting (3:3:0)
    Prerequisite: grade of C or higher in ECON 103. Introduction to accounting from the viewpoint of those who prepare and use financial information. Topics include using accounting information; creating financial statements; an overview of the firm's operating, financing, and investing activities; and an introduction to product costing, operating budgets, and capital investment decisions. Lecture, recitation format; requires attendance in weekly lecture and weekly recitation.
    
  • MSOM 300 Managing Financial Resources (3:3:0)
    May not be taken for credit by SOM majors. Students who have received credit for both ACCT 203 and FNAN 301 cannot also receive credit for MSOM 300. Focuses on using basic concepts of accounting and financial management to make investment, credit, and operating decisions for an organization. Emphasizes financial reports to aid planning and control of organizational activities.
  • MSOM 306 Managing Projects and Operations (3:3:0)
    May not be taken for credit by SOM majors. Students cannot receive credit for both OM 301 and MSOM 306. Introduces project management and operations management concepts and tools including project planning, scheduling, monitoring, and control; process design, selection and improvement; supply chain management; inventory management; and quality assurance.
    
  • BULE 302 Legal Environment of Business (3:3:0)
    Prerequisite: sophomore standing. Exposure to general legal environment of business, emphasizing government regulatory process, business ethics, and social responsibility. Regulatory topics include torts and crimes, product liability, intellectual property and cyberlaw, contracts, and issues related to employment and competition. Lecture, discussion, cases.
• Assisted Living Concentration (42-45)
  • GCH 332 Concepts of Health Care Promotion throughout the Life Span (3:3:0)
    Introduces epidemiology, health promotion, and disease prevention, and effect on health status of culturally diverse and vulnerable individuals, families, small groups, and communities. Focuses on health problems and potential interventions throughout life span, and incorporates principles of teaching and learning as they apply to health professionals.
  • GCH 440 Community Health and Epidemiology (3:3:0)
    Prerequisite: completion of 300-level requirements. Addresses population-focused health care. Emphasizes primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention of health problems. Examines concepts of community, public health, and health policy affecting culturally diverse and vulnerable populations.
  • GCH 480 Health Maintenance and Health Aspects of Aging (3:3:0)
    Studies physiological and psychological factors that influence health and have implications for preventive measures in disease and health disorders. Examines nutrition, nature of health problems, and methods of assessing physical and psychological needs.
    
  • HAP 302 Health Care Finance (3:3:0)
    Introduces finance in health care organizations. Reviews issues in reimbursement structures, regulatory mechanisms, cost control, and related factors affecting financial management of health service organizations including financial decision support skills.
  • HAP 303 Strategic Health Management and Planning (3:3:0)
    Introduces past and present interventions that affect supply and demand for health care at community, state, regional, and national levels. Presents health planning and regulatory entities, and discusses strategic and program planning in context of current economic and market conditions.
  • HAP 307 Assisted-Living Management and Philosophy (3:3:0)
    Overview of growth of assisted living industry, its role in health care continuum, current or proposed regulatory environments, and differences between assisted living and other forms of senior health care and senior living services. Specific instruction provided in philosophy and day-to-day management of assisted-living communities, including resident care, operations, finance and budgeting, human resources and staffing, and successful marketing and community relations. Also examines industry future, including cutting-edge programs and technologies, and approaches to creating next generation of assisted-living services.
  • HAP 378 Health Care Delivery in the United States (3:3:0)
    Introduces history and current structure and function of U.S. health care delivery. Explores components and subsystems of health care, and sociopolitical (public and private) context that shapes system and affects access to health care and delivery of health services.
  • HAP 416 Leadership and Management of Health Systems I (3:3:0)
    Prerequisite: completion of HAP 300-level course requirements. Introduces theoretical concepts and their application to the leadership and management of effective health care organizations. Explores the structure and function of health-related organizations and selected administrative and operational issues in program development and service design, emphasizing strategies for effective performance management, decision making, and communication.
  • HAP 417 Leadership and Management of Health Systems II (3:3:0)
    Prerequisite: completion of HAP 416. Explores challenges to providing effective leadership and management of health care organizations and systems of care related to operational issues such as personnel management and labor relations, information management, conflict and goal alignment, financial management, accountability, and quality and safety improvement. Focuses on identification of management skills, technology, and strategy that influence optimal performance and communication between clinicians, administrative staff, and managers.
  • HAP 470 Introduction to Health Information Systems (3:3:0)
    An introduction to basic information management in health care service organizations. Provides an overview of health information systems for selected administrative functions and clinical care services, including electronic data interchange for billing and claims management, institutional approaches to ensuring data security and privacy, and information management and decision support for managers and clinicians.
  • HAP 498 Health Administration Internship (3-6:2:2-8)
    Not repeatable for credit. Prerequisite: open to HAP majors only. Taken in last semester of studies. Capstone course involves a two-hour weekly seminar and a 6- to 12-hour internship in a health-related organization. Provides variety of applied management experiences in a health systems or related organization (field agency), under the direction of a HAP faculty member and a preceptor in the field. Students integrate and apply critical-thinking, project-planning, and management and communication skills in the internship experience and toward completion of an approved internship project.
  • HAP 512 Introduction to Health Services Research (3:3:0)
    Prerequisites: HAP 678 (if required in program of study) and HAP 501 or equivalent statistics course. An introductory course in the basic methods of interdisciplinary health services research and program evaluation in health systems and policy. The course covers topics related to policy, management, and program effect and evaluation within health delivery systems, including research design, existing data systems, measurement of quality and basic cost benefit, and effectiveness analysis.
    
  • HHS 465 Examination and Integration of Professional and Health Care Issues (3:3:0)
    Meets requirement as synthesis course. Prerequisites: completion of all general education requirements and English 302. Capstone course synthesizing varied dimensions of health professional's role in global society. Examines issues in health care through reflection on natural and behavioral sciences, humanities, and other prerequisite course work. Selected topics examined through reading, writing, and discussion. Application of literature in professional practice and related disciplines expected in formal and informal writings on issues. Writings and presentations receive written self-evaluation and formal review by peers and multiple faculty members involved in teaching the course. Writing intensive.
    
  • NURS 492 Death, Dying, and Decision Making (3:3:0)
    Interdisciplinary examination and analysis of clinical care of dying and psychosocial issues related to death and dying. Special emphasis on applying ethical principles in resolution of complex problems for individuals with life-threatening illnesses and their families as caregivers or decision makers. Decision-maker models provide basis for clinical case discussions. Questions of futility examined with associated care issues. Current professional and lay literature discussed in context of socially changing norms and mores. Explores hospice and alternative palliative care models, and reviews policies, laws, and regulations that affect caregivers and health service providers. Includes advance directives, do-not-resuscitate orders, and assisted suicide. Presents bereavement as part of death, dying, and grieving process. Lecture-discussion.
    
    ~OR~
    
    GCH 585 Care Management of Persons with Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders (3:3:0)
    Focuses on caring for people with dementing illnesses in acute, community, and long-term care settings. Discusses strategies for managing and evaluating care provided by family caregivers and allied health personnel.
    
  • Electives (15-18)
    Electives must be taken from a list of electives approved by the department, three of which must be CHHS courses.

Total Program Credits = 120

* HAP 498 is taken for 3 or 6 credits, depending on student's experience as determined by the program coordinator. The internship is taken in assisted living and senior housing administration or hospitality services. Independent study will be used to complement the internship if necessary.
Note: HHS 465 satisfies the university synthesis course requirement.

Explanation of Credit Hours
Course titles are followed by numbers in parentheses (0:0:0), separated by colons. The numbers have the following significance:

• First Number: credits for the course
• Second Number: hours of lecture or seminar per week for the course
• Third Number: hours of laboratory for the course

For independent study, readings, topics, or similar courses, individual instructors set hours.