Healthcare Innovation Programs
The ASU College of Nursing and Health Innovation is a very special and different place, evidenced by its name. Like many colleges throughout the country, we have a goal to offer the highest quality of academic, research and clinical practice programs to produce graduates who will be the best clinicians, teachers and researchers. However, we are distinctly different from other colleges in some very important ways.
Health-related programs including Exercise and Wellness, Nutrition, and the new Health Sciences programs (pending approval) have become part of the college, which makes it a model of inter-professional health education. In addition, the Healthy Lifestyles Research Center adds a new dimension to our centers of excellence.
At ASU Nursing and Health, we foster innovative thinking—being on the cutting edge and visioning solutions to the most complex problems before others see answers.
Discovery and risk-taking are a way of life at our college. So many times, individuals do not achieve their goals because they are afraid to be risk-takers. However, the most successful people in life typically take the most risks. We not only encourage our students to take risks, we mentor them to do so.
Finally, we cultivate innovation and entrepreneurship in our college. Our Center for Healthcare Innovation & Clinical Trials is becoming a state and national hub for the development, design and testing of new products and systems to improve patient outcomes. Our interdisciplinary Master of Healthcare Innovation and Master’s of Clinical Research Management programs challenge students to think beyond traditional norms. Even our PhD degree programs vary from the norm. They are interdisciplinary and offer multiple career tracks.
Students here are taught how to innovate and think entrepreneurially as well as how to make a difference—for themselves and society.
Interdisciplinary Doctorate (PhD) in Physical Activity, Nutrition and Wellness
The Interdisciplinary PhD degree in Physical Activity, Nutrition and Wellness is an interdisciplinary program that integrates graduate courses from several academic units to provide a sound foundation for research leading to a dissertation. This doctoral program is unique in the nation in that it fully integrates exercise and nutrition research with health promotion research. The program focuses on issues that contribute to health through the reduction of disease risk, quality of life promotion, and enhancement of well being. While many healthy lifestyles are studied, the emphasis is on physically active living and sound nutrition.
Master of Healthcare Innovation
The Master of Healthcare Innovation (MHI) is a 33-credit (one year) master’s degree program using a hybrid online format open to nursing and non-nursing students working and living at a distance. This program is an initiative led by the ASU College of Nursing and Health Innovation in collaboration with the College of Design and the Hugh Downs School of Human Communications.
MHI offers a futuristic, multidisciplinary, educational approach to the development of healthcare leaders who base decisions upon the best evidence available. Students accepted into this program will learn new processes to develop innovative, immediate solutions to existing or potential healthcare problems in both traditional and non-traditional healthcare organizations. Students will come from a variety of backgrounds including nurse managers, nurses who are poised to move into management, physicians, engineers, dentists, and architects. Students are expected to come with a current or future healthcare problem or product they will work on during the directed study segment of MHI.
PhD in Nursing & Healthcare Innovation
Building on its strengths addressing the national nursing shortage, the ASU College of Nursing and Health Innovation is accepting graduate students into a new doctoral program. The PhD in Nursing & Healthcare Innovation degree is offered on-campus and using virtual educational technology for distance learners. Two entry pathways are available for this degree: BS-PhD and a MS-PhD.
The program leads to a PhD degree in Nursing & Healthcare Innovation and is designed for scholars who wish to pursue careers as leaders in health policy, nursing education and research. The degree will also help to address a national need for faculty and researchers who are increasingly in short supply.
In 2003, 614 faculty vacancies were reported in more than 300 nursing schools across the United States, according to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing. Of these vacancies, about 60 percent required a doctorate. The Arizona Board of Regents approved the PhD program in April 2007.
The innovative program has three practicums: teaching, leadership, and research, with the goal of optimizing quality of life and health resources.
