HSC 104 - Introduction to Health Care

1. Explain the different career foundations of health care
2. Explore and recognize the different career pathways you can take in the field of health care.

Course Objectives:

Explain the different career foundations of health care

Unit 1:

• Define key terms in healthcare and relating to health care workers characteristics and abilities
• Describe health care of the past, present, and future
• Identify changes happening in the current healthcare system and how they relate to the history of medicine
• Recognize agencies and acts that oversee health care
• Identify health care costs increasing and ways insurance is changing to improve the problem
• List factors and advantages in choosing healthcare as an occupation along with general requirements Identify the different hospital organizations and their organizational structure
• Recognize the interpersonal dynamics, including relationships among values, attitudes, cultural and behavior
• Define and give examples of the hierarchy of needs by Abraham Maslow
• List the different development theories
• Identify methods of maintaining good personal health and professional appearance
• Describe and utilize time management, leadership, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills
• Demonstrate & explain effective communication skills

Unit 2:

• Define key terms relating to safety practices in health care.
• Evaluate safety, health, and environmental practices in healthcare
• Separate and explain the different groups for accreditation, regulatory agencies, professional credentialing, professional organizations, and professional development and advancement.
• Describe the infectious process, methods to prevent infection, and the signs and symptoms of general and localized infection.
• Describe disease transmission and the precautions used to prevent it
• Explain asepsis and how it is evaluated
• Role-play safe ergonomics, hand washing, sterile gloving, and moving a patient when working in healthcare
• Interpret how to identify and report hazards in healthcare
• Perform transferring a patient safely from a bed to a chair, handwashing, and good body mechanics
• Identify tubes, catheters, lines, and other devices

Unit 3:

• Define key terms relating to legal principles, ethical principles, and cultural competency
• Describe and relate professional codes of conduct, malpractice and liability
• Explain confidentiality in health care and its hurdles
• Understand the ethics and legal responsibilities in health care
• Understand order, requests, diagnostic reports, and the importance of precise documentation
• Understand patient rights in a hospital and informed consent
• Discuss health care regarding advance directives and telemedicine
• Recognize and know what to do with ethical behavior, issues, legal doctrines and standards in health care
• Acknowledge the different culture in today’s health care
• Rewrite the timeline of a patient consent
• Acknowledge cultural differences and how they affect patient care
• Describe cultural barriers
• Demonstrate how to use an interpreter
• Describe cultural obstacles and how they would relate to a health care setting

Unit 4:

• Define key terms relating to seeking a career in health care
• Construct an example of professional organization
• List benefits of being involved in an organization
• List how parliamentary procedure would be used during a meeting
• Understand the purpose of a job application and standards to go by during the job application and interview process
• Discuss and create a resume and portfolio
• Understand employability and career development

Unit 5:

• Define key terms related to the academic foundation for health care
• Define key terms related to the wellness growth and development in healthcare
• Describe the elements of a basic health assessment
• Identify normal and abnormal vital sign values and describe the importance of normal vital signs
• Differentiate and analyze military time, graphing, and computer literacy
• Solve emergency first aid and identify risk factors for cardiac arrest
• Discuss and practice blood pressure, temperature, pulse, and respiration
• List different descriptors to determine levels of wellness
• List ways to prevent disease
• Describe an overview of nutrition, what are the five essential nutrients and the current recommendations by the government
• Identify stress, stress reduction/management and health conditions due to stress
• Compare the physical and psychosocial development stages throughout a lifespan
• List the five stages of death acceptance (grief) and how they may relate to a healthcare employee or patient

Unit 6:

• Define key terms related to professionalism in health care
• Define key terms relating to math in the healthcare setting
• Identify job readiness and job preparedness
• Discuss considerations and evaluations for employment choice and performance
• Evaluate success and satisfaction in the workplace
• Identify the importance and use of math in healthcare
• Perform basic math operations, common uses of math and measurements in healthcare
• Identify medical terminology, decodable, nondecodable terms, roots, prefixes and suffixes
• Identify the meaning of abbreviations and symbols in medical terminology
• Select what professionalism is and how to be a professional
• Understand general medical terminology and how to apply to communication with a patient

Explore and recognize the different career pathways you can take in the field of health care.

• Explore a variety of careers in the health sciences including, but not limited to:
  • emergency
  • information & administration
  • environmental
  • nursing
  • dental
  • integrative health
  • veterinary
  • social services
  • mental health
  • rehabilitative
• Define key terms and abbreviations as they relate to careers in health care
• Describe health care occupation requirements, content instruction, and performance instruction
• Compare areas of expertise within the HC career of interest
• Recognize and define the basics of biotechnology research & development careers
• Recognize and define the basics of clinical laboratory & medical forensics careers
• Recognize and define the basics of imaging careers
• Define the relationship between the patient and the different health care careers