Population Health Management (Bachelor of Science, B.S.)

The Missouri Western State University School of Nursing and Health Professions offers a Bachelor of Science degree in Population Health Management.  The degree program prepares students to step beyond the individual focus of traditional public health and clinical medicine and address factors impacting the health of entire patient populations.

Students learn how to work as part of an interprofessional team to shift patient populations and communities toward healthier lifestyles and apply precision public health solutions.  The population health curriculum focuses on care coordination, advocacy, public health, social determinants of health, health education, integrated care, health informatics, and policy.  The degree prepares students to enter the workforce or to continue their education through graduate work.  Students learn to apply research, data, evidence-based practices, and policy to improve outcomes in workplace settings such as healthcare advocacy, care coordination, finance, policy, community wellness, hospital, technology, government, and public health.

Students will further customize their academic track through restricted electives, including coursework in a variety of population health-related focus areas such as human health, behavioral health, business, health informatics, and biology.  All students must complete an internship in a field placement in their interest area to enhance their preparation for entering the workforce.  Applied population health experience also includes student research, community service and other interprofessional applied learning opportunities.

Students intending to major in Population Health Management should declare their interest to the School of Nursing and Health Professions so they can be assigned an advisor. Students must have completed and received a grade of C or higher in BIO 101 Principles of Biology, BIO 250 Anatomy and Physiology, ACT 201 Microcomputer Applications, PSY 101 General Psychology, and ECO 261 Principles of Microeconomics and have a cumulative grade point average of 2.0 or higher.

Students who choose this bachelor degree program will have no more than 6 years from admission or subsequent declaration to meet the requirements listed below. If certification, accreditation or statutory requirements change and additional requirements become effective during this time, the new requirements take precedence. 

Note: Students pre-admitted into the bachelor degree program (pre-major) have three years to meet admission requirements before moving to the overall 6 year time-frame allowed to complete the program requirements. 
General Studies
Students must complete General Studies courses42
Core Requirements
ACT 201Microcomputer Applications3
ALH 106Medical Terminology2
ALH 320Community and Public Health3
ALH 330Introduction to Epidemiology and Biostatistics3
ALH 350Introduction to Population Health3
ALH 351Applied Population Health Management Lab1
ALH 402Population Health Internship3
BIO 250Anatomy and Physiology5
BIO 375Pathophysiology4
ECO 375Economics of Health Care3
EXS 391Personal and Environmental Health3
GBA 210Business Statistics I 13
or NUR 314 Quantitative Analysis for Health Care Research
or PSY 300 Introductory Psychological Statistics
HIF 200Health Care Delivery Systems3
HIF 300Health Data Management3
HIF 330Legal and Ethical Aspects of Healthcare Management3
NUR 424Care Coordination Across the Lifespan2
PSY 220Health Psychology/Stress Management3
SOC 360Sociology of Health, Illness and Medicine3
Restricted Electives
Fourteen additional credit hours, with six or more hours being Upper Division from ACC, FIN, MGT, HIF, PSY, GEO, CSC, SWK, ECO, ACT, PED, BIO, CHE, ALH, or NUR
1

PSY 200 Intermediate Psychology will be waived as a prerequisite for PSY 300 Introductory Psychological Statistics

Program Graduation Requirements

  1. Earn a grade of C or higher in all major coursework.
  2. Earn an overall GPA of at least 2.0 and a major GPA of at least 2.0. 

University Graduation Requirements 

  1. Earn a minimum of 120 credit hours (100 level and higher, maximum of 6 CED credit hours applicable).
  2. Earn a minimum of 30 credit hours in upper-division courses.  Lower-division transfer courses accepted as meeting upper-division departmental course requirements cannot be used to fulfill this requirement.
  3. Earn 30 of the last 45 credit hours at MWSU in institutional coursework (exclusive of credit by examination).
  4. Participate in required departmental and campus wide assessments. 
  5. Fulfill the Missouri Constitution requirement.
  6. Successfully pass the Missouri Higher Education Civics Achievement exam.