Whether you are an undergraduate or a graduate student with a master’s degree, there are a variety of Health PhD Programs and medical doctorate degrees to choose form, ...
especially in the campus-learning format. Why? Most of the professions where a terminal degree is required for practicing a patient-centered profession, pursuing scholarly research or teaching careers require building interpersonal and communication skills as well as the hands-on learning experience that you derive from in-person learning. Ready to explore graduate schools to land on one with the PhD that might take your career or professional practice in healthcare or medicine to the next level? Read on for some tips to help you navigate this exciting process.
Doctoral degrees are terminal degrees, although this does not mean that in certain medical professions, learning stops there. For instance, some chiropractors complete postgraduate programs offered by associations leading to diploma credentials (e.g. orthopedics).
Other medical programs may include periods of residency. Optometrists, for instance, after completion of their O.D. degree often complete a 1-year residency program. Residency provides advanced clinical training. Surgeons and Physicians often have 3 to 7 year internship and residency programs.
This being said there are 2 principal types of doctorate degrees on Health & Medicine:
The Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) is the terminal degree that is designed to prepare individuals for careers in research, teaching, and other scholarly activities.
The Clinical Doctorate is the terminal degree that is designed to prepare knowledgeable, competent clinicians who are capable of providing exemplary clinical services in a wide variety of fields.
DID YOU KNOW? Some pharmacists who own their own pharmacy may choose to get a master’s degree in business administration (MBA) in addition to their Doctor of Pharmacy degree. Others may get a degree in public health.
Campus Health PhD Programs have several potential advantages.
SELECTION: Many medical doctorate degrees are not available online because they involve a high level of interaction. In some fields, the course work is only one component of the PhD experience. The other components are daily interactions in the research lab and in the classroom that require one to be present and participate.
TEACHING: Many of the Health PhD Programs are in fact geared for prospective teachers. Some postsecondary teachers gain experience by working as teaching assistants in the graduate school they are attending.
FACILITIES: PhD programs are research-oriented and much time is spent preparing to write and then defend a dissertation. Some of the research may be in the library, some in the laboratory. Being on a college campus means you get access to all the facilities and services. E.g. PhD in Immunology & Cancer Biology
IMPLICIT LEARNING: Learning takes place in different ways for different types of students. Some learning is derived from books while other learning might be derived from watching your professor deliver a lecture.
INTERACTIONS: Arguably, many health and medicine PhD programs focus on patient care where interpersonal skills and effective communication are necessary. It might be said that whereas online learning might diminish the interactive component of study, a campus-based program offers you enhanced opportunity to interact with your professors, supervisors and fellow classmates. You might even have some extra time to participate in other activities while you are at grad school.
FUN FACT: Medical schools also consider an applicant’s personality, leadership qualities and participation in extracurricular activities.
If you are very clear on what you want to pursue your PhD in, it might help you narrow down your search for graduate schools. Sometimes a university is renowned for a specific program or research that they have funding for. For instance are you looking for a Doctor of Chiropractic, a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (D.O) or a Pharm.D on-campus program?
Once you have chosen the subject from the GradSchools.com directory, you can either browse all listings or filter your search by location. If you are looking for graduate schools in a particular area (close to home or abroad), use the city, state or country tabs to generate other listings.
DO YOUR HOMEWORK! There are multiple listings in some cases so you want o request more info from each school to find out about their unique curriculum, requirements or admission protocols.
Accreditation is important; it is quality control. There are different agencies that accredit programs and institutions. You might check with the US Department of Education (USDE) and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) or the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP). CAAHEEP has committees on accreditation and review educational programs in 28 health science occupations.
Health PhD programs extend beyond patient care into administration and leadership, science and technology. In high level science and research careers as well as in the medical specialties fields, professional doctorate degrees are standard, and there is also a growing trend as well to earn a PhD in areas where the Master's degree used to be sufficient. This is the case in nursing, where advanced practice registered nurses used to hold master's degree, but there has been a shift to the Doctor of Nursing Practice as the terminal degree instead.
What this shows perhaps is that health and healthcare are becoming more complex, driving up the need for highly trained professionals with sophisticated skills. Why not prepare yourself for a potentially bright future -take the next step and look into a PhD or Professional doctorate program in Health and Medicine today!
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