The Health Communication minor is an interdisciplinary program designed to provide undergraduate students with writing and speaking skills for use in health and medical settings. The minor prepares students to create clear, ethical, and culturally competent messages in a variety of written, visual, and oral communication formats.
The minor is beneficial for students majoring in health or biomedical sciences who wish to communicate in patient-centered ways. The minor is also useful to communication-related majors who wish to further specialize their training.
Program Requirements
Core
Communication impacts every facet of our experience of health and well-being. This course introduces students to the subdiscipline of health communication, its key concepts, and important theories and research in the field.
Prerequisites:
none
Special interest courses devoted to specific topics within health communication. Topics vary, and course may be retaken for credit under different topic headings.
Prerequisites:
none
Introduction to learning the written and oral communication of technical information. Assignments include writing and presenting proposals, reports, and documentation. Emphasis on use of rhetorical analysis, computer applications, collaborative writing, and usability testing to complete technical communication tasks in the workplace.
Prerequisites:
ENG 101
Goal Areas:
GE-02, GE-13
This course addresses the skills required for technical communication within the context of health and medicine. Students will discuss typical audiences, purposes, and genres of health and medical communication. Students will adapt complex health and medical information for audiences with varying levels of knowledge, demonstrating awareness of audience analysis, visual design, plain language, and ethics.
Prerequisites:
none
Restricted Electives
Health Elective - Choose 3 - 4 Credit(s). Choose a minimum of 3 credits. May choose other health elective with advisor approval.
Cross-cultural examination of healing traditions, health beliefs and the impact of social, economic and political factors on the health of peoples in different cultures around the world and among diverse ethnic groups within culturally plural societies, including the United States.
Prerequisites:
none
Diverse Cultures:
Purple
In this course, students will learn about health disparities and the social determinants of health in the United States. We will analyze how gender, race, class, ability, and sexuality impact access to health resources (including the environment, food, and medical care) as well as health outcomes. In addition to individual barriers to health, we will analyze how institutions and structural factors impact health in America. Topics may include health disparities by race and ethnicity, barriers to LGBT health care, weight discrimination, reproductive justice, and environmental effects on health.
Prerequisites:
none
Goal Areas:
GE-09, GE-7B
Diverse Cultures:
Purple
HLTH 260 Introduction to Applied Health Science is required of all Applied Health Science majors and minors. This is the foundation class for the professional preparation of health educators. The course explores the knowledge, skills, and competencies of health educators in various settings.
Prerequisites:
none
Introduces theories and models in the context of health education. Examines approaches to health education program planning as well approaches to explain and predict health behavior and their application to interventions in health education. NOTE: HLTH 360 may be taken concurrently with HLTH 260 with instructor permission.
Prerequisites:
HLTH 260
Health Communication and Advocacy focuses upon the development of communication and advocacy skills for the health educator. Identifying credible sources, communicating public health information, health media campaigns, health advocacy; written and verbal communication skills emphasized.
Prerequisites:
HLTH 101
Introduces students to social determinants of health and illnesses; health inequalities; and issues related to social class, race, gender, and ethnicity. Covers standards and practices in the healthcare services, professions, and institutions and their impacts. The course is designed to provide social and cultural competencies among students who choose the career path to becoming medical, health and human services professionals.
Prerequisites:
none
Aging and ageism in the US and globally from a sociological perspective; emphasis on how age intersects with race, social class, gender, and sexuality.
Prerequisites:
none
Diverse Cultures:
Purple
This course introduces students to thanatology, which is the study of the human response to death, dying, and bereavement within socio-cultural contexts. Topics include the history of death and dying practices and conceptions, current trends of death in our society, cross cultural beliefs and practices surrounding death, functions of death rituals, grief, the dying process, and debates about euthanasia and death with dignity legislation.
Prerequisites:
none
This course explores various forms of family violence including dating violence, spouse abuse, and child abuse. There is particular emphases on power dynamics in families and in the broader culture and evaluations of current policies related to family violence.
Prerequisites:
none
Policies
Double-Counting Credits: Students may not double-count courses between majors or minors in the department of Communication and Media or the Department of English.
COMM 110 and COMM 221W may be taken concurrently with department permission.
COMM 498 and COMM 499 Limits: Students may apply no more than 4 credits of COMM 498 and 4 credits of COMM 499 to fulfillment of a minor.
Internship Requirements (COMM 497, COMM 498): In compliance with federal policy, standard expectations are 45 hours of on-site internship experience for each credit hour earned.
