How To Pass The Health Care Health Care Coursework

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1 Breadth, Integration, Capstone (BIC) Policy The core curriculum of the School of Public Health (UM SPH), called the Breadth, Integration and Capstone (BIC) requirements, represents an approach to public health education that reflects the multidisciplinary nature of public health problems and the need for integrated solutions to recognize, understand and address those problems. The BIC approach/philosophy is an underlying theme throughout a student s experience at SPH, including coursework, research and internships/externships. The breath component of the BIC requirements provides conceptual foundations and analytic skills from the five core public health disciplines biostatistics, epidemiology, environmental health, social and behavioral science, and health administration. These courses provide perspective and knowledge of public health issues and practice beyond that provided by the student s home department. SPH students obtain this breadth by taking courses in biostatistics and epidemiology, attending a biannual SPH Symposium and selecting from among designated course in the other disciplines that best match their interests and career goals. The integration component of the BIC requirements is typically expressed in courses and seminars that combine and synthesize areas of knowledge that are basic to public health. Further integration is achieved during a student s academic program by engagement in crosscutting research, directed field experience/practicum, joint degree programs, interdepartmental concentrations / certificate programs and the capstone experience. The capstone component of the BIC requirements is a culminating course offered in each department that applies concepts and skills to problems of specific interest in their disciplines. Typically, these problems themselves are multidisciplinary in nature, involving, for example, health disparities; interventions at the individual, family and community level; global and environmental health and health care access and management. Together, the BIC requirements are designed to complement the knowledge, skills and experience provided in the student s home department with exposure to the broad field of public health and skills in critical areas. At the same time the BIC requirements allow students to tailor their education to their primary discipline and specific career goals and personal interests. The SPH faculty believes that the BIC requirements provide the interdisciplinary preparation and professional perspective needed for our graduates to address current and future public health challenges.

2 BIC Oversight I. School-wide Oversight The Advisory Committee on Academic Programs (ACAP) is charged with the general oversight of BIC requirements and ensuring that BIC classes are accessible to students. BIC courses- Biostatistics and Epidemiology offer at least two BIC options for students (BIOS 501 and 521; EPID 503 and 601). HMP, HBHE and EHS will identify one primary BIC course that the department believes gives a broad overview of that core area. This course must be offered every year and enrollment cannot be capped. These departments will also identify at least one other class that a student can take as a BIC option (contingent on the availability of slots in the class). Departments are responsible for guiding their students so that they can schedule the BIC courses that they will take. To successfully complete the requirement, a student needs to earn a C or better in each of the BIC courses. If a student does not earn a C or better in a BIC course, they must re-take the course and achieve a C or better to receive the BIC credit. In addition to ensuring availability of BIC courses, ACAP is also charged with the monitoring of BIC courses. ACAP will review all BIC course evaluations on an annual basis. If the evaluation scores for a BIC course are below 3.5 on the first two questions, then the Associate Dean will discuss this with the curriculum chair of that department to resolve the problem. Executive Masters Program- While ideally the same list of BIC classes would be offered in the Executive Master s classes, due to the structure of these programs, they cannot offer the flexibility that residential programs can in their course requirements (including BIC). Therefore, literal equivalence is neither possible nor desirable. BIC Documentation Procedures When a student applies to graduate, the departmental BIC form must be signed and submitted to the official student file housed in the Office of Academic Affairs (OAA). To ensure this happens each department conducts an audit of their graduating students during the semester prior to graduation. A complete and accurate BIC form is then submitted to OAA during the semester in which a student plans to graduate. II. Exemptions/Substitutions Biostatistics and Epidemiology All students regardless of degree level must demonstrate proficiency in both Biostatistics and Epidemiology. Therefore, all students are subject to the existing Biostatistics and Epidemiology 2

3 course requirements. MPH and MS students are able to take an exemption examination in order to pass out of this requirement. The Biostatistics exemption exam is held over two days at the beginning of the fall term and the Epidemiology exemption exam is held over two days at the beginning of both the fall and winter terms. These exams are administered by the Office of Academic Affairs. Even if a student has previously taken a statistics or biostatistics class (other than Stats 250 or 400 at UM), he/she will need to successfully pass an exemption exam to waive the Biostatistics requirement. If an MPH student has previously taken an Epidemiology course, he/she will need to successfully pass an Epidemiology exemption exam to waive the Epidemiology exam. In addition, a student requesting a waiver from Biostatistics or Epidemiology BIC requirements will need to have approval from those departments. Preventive Medicine Residency Fellows may take EPID 709 as a substitution for EPID 503 or 601 to fulfill the Epidemiology BIC requirement. Students also have the option to take Public Health 600 to cover the HBHE, HMP and EHS BIC requirements. The course is designed to integrate material across HMP, HBHE, and EHS to understand and address current challenges to the public's health. These challenges are increasingly complex and require students to understand and use integrative, cross-disciplinary strategies to examine relevant public health issues from disciplinary perspectives of the three departments. a. Acceptance of introductory Biostatistics and Epidemiology courses taken at other accredited Schools of Public Health for BIC requirement: Students who have taken introductory Biostatistics and Epidemiology courses at other institutions and who desire an exemption from taking Epidemiology at the UM School of Public Health, must take and pass the exemption exam in order to qualify for the exemption. Documentation of exemptions from these areas must be forwarded to the Office of Academic Affairs within the first year of the student s initial enrollment. A student who attended University of Michigan as an undergraduate may exempt out of the Biostatistics 501 requirement if he/she has completed STATS 250 or 400 with a grade of B or better. However, undergraduate credits are not transferred to the graduate record. Therefore, if a student takes STATS 250 as an undergrad and exempts out of Biostatistics, he/she is still required to take the total number of credits required for the entire program to graduate. As long as STATS 250 or 400 was taken at the University of Michigan within the last five years with a grade of B or better, the home department of the student can approve the exemption. In addition, students who have previously taken EPID 503 or EPID 600 at the University of Michigan prior to enrollment in the MPH program may also exempt out of the Epidemiology requirement, provided that the course they have taken meets with the requirements of their respective department. Exemptions/Waivers from BIC courses in the areas of HBHE, HMP and EHS 3

4 The student's home department determines exemptions and/or waivers of their students from BIC classes in HBHE, HMP or EHS. It is encouraged that the home department consult the department in which the BIC course is administered for advice on the exemption request. Timeline for Requests for Substitutions/Exemptions and Documentation of these Requests Requests for substitutions/exemptions/waivers must occur in the first year of the student s initial enrollment. Documentation of approval of those requests must also be submitted in the first year of the student s initial enrollment. PhD Students If a PhD applicant has had an Epidemiology/Biostatistics course in their Master's program and has earned a B or better, the departmental admissions committee may approve that the student not be required to take the Epidemiology/Biostatistics exam to exempt out of the Epidemiology/Biostatistics requirement. If the department has questions, they should defer to the Epidemiology/Biostatistics department for clarification. III. Scheduling/Changing BIC courses ACAP requires that a home department is mandated to give two years notice to ACAP before deleting or changing a term in which the primary BIC- protected course is offered. In this case, the course will need to be replaced immediately. Any changes in course content or objectives must meet the needs of the breadth requirement. CAPSTONE requirement: Each department has its own individualized capstone requirement. Students should work with their department in completing the capstone requirement. BIC OFFERINGS Course Number Title Credits Term HBHE Either/or HBHE 500 Behavioral And Social Science Foundations For The Health Professions 4 Winter HBHE 503 Introduction to Health Behavior Theory and Approaches 3 Fall 4

5 EHS Primary EHS 500 Principles of Environmental Health Sciences Secondary EHS 550 Introduction to Occupational and Environmental Health 3 Fall 2 Fall HMP Primary HMP 602 Survey of the U.S. Health Care System 4 Winter Secondary HMP 653 Law and Public Health 3 Winter Secondary HMP 685 The Politics of Public Health Policy 3 Winter BIOSTAT Either/or Biostat 501 Introduction to Biostatistics 4 Fall Biostat 521 Applied Biostatistics 4 Fall Exemption Exam EPID Primary EPID 503 Strategies and Uses of Epidemiology 3 Winter Secondary EPID 601 Principles and Methods of Epidemiology 4 Fall Exemption Exam 5