Bachelor of Health Sciences (BHSc): An Introduction

The Bachelor of Health Sciences program is this concept of a pathway to a health profession. And there are students who really want to go into health professions and we wanted to develop something which was purpose-built for them to go into health professions. Health Sciences program is really a multidisciplinary approach to studying the health sciences. Students who enroll in this program will have a wonderful opportunity to take many different courses from many different departments here at Queen's, all within the Health Sciences. You get a very multidisciplinary approach. As students progress through the program, they will be introduced to different areas of health care. They'll learn about global and population health. They'll learn about the law and ethics of health and health care. And if any of those spark a particular interest, they're welcome to take more courses in those sorts of fields. Otherwise, they can take any number of courses that are related to health and health care. Usually it's a 17 or 18 year old who comes into first year university here and guess what? Sometimes somebody has taken some time to revive their desires for their career and they might be a 25 year old working in a job and they want to now go into a health profession. We want to give them that opportunity. One of my students in the very first offering, she was in Belleville. She was a dental assistant, middle 40s and she just wanted to enrich her knowledge in this field. The thing about a degree that's entirely online is that people can do it from wherever they need to be. It really is the equalizer in the sense that if someone is having to work in a job in a small town or raise a family or stay wherever they are for whatever reason, they can take this degree program. They can change their life and move forward and get the degree and really set themselves up well to be able to apply to any professional health program afterwards. Online comes with a number of advantages to people who are at home who do not have access, who are at different levels of their careers or education. In our course, we have people from different countries, different places, so accessible and coming to the same place, doing group activities at the same place, learning together. The students can't say enough about how much they've enjoyed the course, they've enjoyed the modules, how well they work, how well they're helping them learn. And it's not just working by yourself in modules. We've really taken great care to find ways for the students to be able to communicate with each other. Each week, the students have discussion board posts that they need to post and then they need to reply to people. It's been really gratifying to see the things that they've written and the communication that they've had. The online environment changes learning for a substantial number of students. It may not be for everybody, but you know what? Either is lecture based learning for everybody. There are so many different kinds of learners in this environment. Why can't we engage some of them in a different way? Take it from me. I mean, I was nervous to teach an online course because I just didn't understand how it could work. It works. I really think that it will be able to make a huge difference in the lives of people who wouldn't otherwise be able to get a health degree, a health science degree. So it does give you an opportunity if you have to stay where you are. If you don't want to have to pay for rent and the travel away to leave a loved one or to leave somebody else, this kind of program is for you because it gives you the opportunity to take a Queen's course of Queen's quality anytime, anywhere.