Health Sciences Pathway

• Nursing Program

  • Nursing program at the University of Northern Iowa approved by Iowa Board of Regents

  • Hired UNI’s Chief Academic Nurse Administrator: Dr. Nancy Kertz

    • Some of her roles will include providing leadership, designing and recruiting.

  • Launched the new Nursing Program in Council Bluffs and held a Press Conference

• The New School of Health Updates

  • Currently building a collective version of Health Sciences with the help of deans, heads, faculty, and staff

        Team Leads and Steering Committee Liaisons

• Nathan Bird

• Mark Hecimovich

• Bill Henninger

              Team Members

• Ken Bleile

• Karen Cunningham

• Elaine Eshbaugh

• Darcie Davis-Gage

• Sei-Young Lee

• Mick Mack

• Susan Roberts-Dobie

• Nilda Rodriguez

• Colin Weeks

Heath Pathway Summary Concept

UNI will expand our footprint in allied health fields in two ways. We will develop synergy among our existing health-related programs to create a coherent and marketable identity and find new low-investment innovations. We will also explore new programs in high-demand fields that can draw new students to UNI.  "Health Science" is placeholder language and may evolve into different language that is a better representation. 

Goals

1. Recommend a new major in a high-demand field

2. Recommend appropriate options for structuring a health-related unit, with unit focuses of clinical (or non-clinical) human service as well as physiological/science focus taking priority. For each, the breadth of programs in order to build new campus synergy and elevate the health meta-major field for prospective students should be addressed in full.

Prioritized Objectives      

1. Recommend a new major in a high-demand field such as nursing, occupational therapy, or physical therapy.

   1. Analyze market data for various health-related high-demand fields that can be synergistic to existing health science-related graduate and undergraduate programs at UNI and require key physiological/science courses in its curriculum.

   2. Consider multiple options: developing full program, and/or strengthening existing partner relationships in various ways

   3. Identify strategies to enhance diversity

2. Recommend strategies to scale existing programs, and create shared efficiencies among current stakeholder

   1. Programs that exist for which we already have courses/faculty

   2. Quickly scalable with one-time investments

3. Identify possible structures for a health-related unit, including recommendations for a human service focus, either clinical (direct patient/client contact), or non-clinical, as well as for a physiological/science focus. The structural recommendations will include the breadth of programs to include to build new synergy and to elevate the health meta-major field for prospective students

   1. Incorporate the new program, existing programs within the identified focus, and any modified programs.

   2. Recommend best language to represent the new structure (e.g., health science(s), allied health and biological sciences, health and social sciences, biological and health sciences, etc.)

   3. Identify strategies to enhance diversity

   4. Consider establishing a multi-disciplinary (student) clinic that incorporates several of the clinically-based programs. This UNI-based clinic will incorporate students and be supervised by professional providers (faculty).

Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Objectives

• Identify obstacles to achieving equity and inclusion in the health sciences

• Address the obstacles with adaptive solutions 

• Recommend innovative strategies to enhance health sciences at UNI for a diverse student and faculty body

Why this pathway

UNI’s enrollment has been steadily declining for years and we know that the primary reason students choose a university is the majors offered. Students are increasingly interested in professional fields and link the value of a university degree to job placement. Student interest in health fields is high as indicated by our own CRM recruitment data showing health fields as the top choice for prospects. While nursing and pre-med are top choices, OT (occupational therapy), PT (physical therapy), AT (athletic training), and a variety of other allied health fields are also in demand. UNI’s current footprint in providing health-related degrees is relatively small and lack coherency, giving us room to capture a larger market share. Market analysis data show health fields as the third largest field in terms of employer demand, including nursing, health care administration, gerontology, and other helping professions.

How this pathway will impact UNI

The elevation of and expansion into health fields will position UNI to increase overall enrollment, including enrollments in general education classes, and retention majors. Many traditional and non-traditional students are seeking health-related programs and this pathway will help us attract those students. Attracting students should increase course enrollments in impacted areas. The creation of an institutional structure, such as a new administrative unit, will impact existing programs, faculty, and staff. Other programs will have an opportunity to serve in collaborative roles from their current administrative home. Programs will be asked to review existing curriculum to align better with current student interests. This may include sunsetting programs to create resources for new programs.

Health Science FWG Updates

Data

Student Meta-Major Areas of Interest	Fastest Growing Occupations by Meta-Field	Health Care Degrees Awarded in Iowa
Open	Open	Open
Market data on in-demand health care majors, and top health professions - focused on percent	Recombined market data from Stamats focused on absolute values	Background on Stamats Data
Open	Open	Open