AdvancedHealth

Quality, Moderately Priced Bachelor In Health Science Degree Programs Online

Bachelor in health science degrees can stream a graduate into many different job roles within the health profession. It’s actually such a flexible degree that it present too many choices, in a sense. As you try to choose the right program and school, a good starting point is to make some decisions about whether you’re ultimate goal is a clinical job (like radiology technician or nurse) or a more mangerial type position. Generally speaking, Bachelor of Science (BS) degrees in this area will focus more on giving you technical and clinical skills. A Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Health Science, on the other hand, will tend to prepare you more for work in a hospital administrative office, an insurance company, or some other place where you may never walk into a room with an actual patient. (Click to a list of schools offering online degrees in health science)

Obviously, taking a degree program online will save you the room and board costs you would incur at a traditional campus-based school. If you’re willing to work harder to get your degree finished in a hurry, you may also find that the large online schools in particular tend to offer more accelerated programs, as well as “completion” type degrees that allow you to use any credits you may have earned previously toward a BA or BS. Completion degrees in health science are popular with students who already have an associates degree and some experience working in healthcare, but want to earn a credential that can help them get a more senior position.

Start By Thinking Locally
Your own state’s university is often the best place to start looking for a low-priced degree program, and you want to attend school in a physical classroom. But if your public university doesn’t offer the health science degree you want, you may be able to benefit from other state university systems around the country, which are very gradually starting to offer online degrees that do not involve a higher fee for out of state students.

Bachelor in health science degrees are a bit less widely available than, say, nursing degrees. As a result, it can take some extra effort to shop for the right program. But it’s a field that’s poised to offer a good level of opportunity over the long haul. According to Economic Modeling Specialists International (EMSI), healthcare management jobs in the U.S. are expected to increase by about 16% from 2010 to 2020.

A Range Of Tuition Costs
Our research showed that there is not a huge number of affordable bachelor of health science degrees. Here’s a list of the online schools we found The estimated fees here are for the 2011 – 2012 school year, and do not include books and other costs unless otherwise noted.

Weber State University. Based in Odgen, UT, this is a school originally founded by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but became part of the Utah public university sytem in the 1930’s. It’s not widely known nationally, but has a good sized student body of over 26,000. It offers about 20 online degree programs, and with a cost per credit of $212. is rated a “best buy” school for bachelors degrees by GetEducated.com.
– BS Health Services Administration
– BS Health Information Management
Get info on Weber State University

Benefits Of A Bachelor In Health Science Degree

By Paul Mannet

(Click to a list of Schools Offering Online Bachelor In Health Science Degrees online)

A bachelor of health science degree is designed to move you towards a senior position in health care. But that can mean a lot of different jobs, depending on where your interest lies.

Colleges offer a wide variety of bachelor of science (BS) or bachelor of arts (BA) degrees in health science. While BS degrees generally lean a bit more toward clinical health care and the BA involves studying more of the broader humanities subjects, there’s actually a good deal of overlap between the two. Both types of bachelor of health science degrees are popular with students who already have some experience in health care and want to move into a new specialty or simply move up into a more managerial position. Many schools, in fact, call these “completion” degrees, and design them for students who already have an associate’s degree or some college credits completed.

Although there are usually restrictions on just how many credits you can transfer toward an accredited BA program from a previous school, most schools will give you a good deal of credit for studies you have already completed. Bachelor in health science programs often attract respiratory therapists, radiology technicians, dental hygienists, paramedics and others who want to give a boost to the careers they have already started (if you have not completed any college study yet, an associates degree may be your best choice to start with). A common approach is to build on an associate’s degree with a BA or BS in a specialized health science degree in management, informatics or another area requiring a particular skill set.

Of course, given that hospitals and other health facilities often base their salaries on an employee’s education level, many students like to get both their associates and bachelor’s degrees done as early in their careers as possible, so they can look toward the next step: a master’s degree.

Click to a list of quality, low-cost bachelor in health science degree schools.

Job Options
Being a health care manager can put you right in the middle of clinical practice, or it can result in you working in a more administrative position for an insurance company, pharmaceutical company or other health-related setting. The BA health science degree is, in fact, so flexible that it can result in you earning a salary across a very wide range.

If you would like to put your degree to work in a medical facility setting, your bachelor in health science degree can translate into a job as a radiology technician, a nurse or physical therapist to name a few – though you will need to take a certification test in addition to your BS or BA to get a license to practice in one of these specialties. If you know exactly where your interest lies, specializing in an area like nutrition or pharmacology while you’re in school can give you unique job qualifications. And if you’re willing to stay in school, your bachelors degree could be the gateway to graduate study in dentistry or medicine.

A more administrative career path could have you working in medical records, insurance coding or in the administration of a hospital. Government health organizations, community agencies also have a need to the kind of expertise a health science degree gives. Some graduates are also hired to teach health subjects in grammar or high schools.

Generally, you can expect to find employment more easily and earn a high salary in any of these areas than someone with no degree. And the good news, particularly in today’s rough economy, is that health care in general is predicted to be a recession-proof, high growth industry well into the next decade by the US Dept. of Labor.

Broad Health Knowledge
Beyond medical topics, the bachelor of health science degree will give you a good grounding in topics like critical thinking, data analysis, research, problem solving, record keeping, written and oral communication, technology and logical reasoning. It’s a credential that’s designed to get you ready to move up in health care, and then keep moving up as the field grows and changes.

Specializations For A Bachelor Of Health Science Degree

By Paul Mannet

The Bachelor of Health Science degree is generally designed to offer a more managerial skill set in health care. But it’s also meant to provide a more generalized knowledge in science and humanities that can be used to move among different areas of health care, go to graduate school or even change careers completely later on in life. (Click to a list of schools offering online degrees in health science)

But while B.S. degrees of health science are offered in general or administrative specialties, many are more targeted at a particular area of health care like advanced patient care or exercise science. Below is an overview of the various degree specialties available in this area.

The B.S. health science degree can provide varied career opportunities in hospitals, corporate benefits office or other management positions, and provide a good salary boost. According to Salary.com, business managers in health care facilities can earn from $70,000 per year up to more than $170,000, depending on the size of the facility and geographic location. (More on career benefits of a bachelor in health science degree.)

General Bachelor of Health Science Degree
Prepares the graduate to enter the health care industry in a very broad range of different ways. programs of this type combine a curriculum in humanities and science typical of any bachelor degree, along with a more focused combination of busines, public health and management topics that are very specific to the healthcare industry.

BS of Health science – Professional Development & Advanced Patient Care
A degree generally offered only for currently licensed nurses or other health care professional that looks at a broad range of issues in treating patients with complex health issues. Designed to equip the student to enter more managerial roles with knowledge of current trends in health care, regulations, health delivery theories and pactices, as well as leadership and critical thinking skills.

Bachelor of Health Science in Administration
A degree designed to stream graduates into managerial more than clinical or “hands on” type positions in health care. The courses tend to focus on financial management, operating efficiencies, legal and leadership subjects of importance to a director or senior manager in health care. The skill set is applicable to health care facilities or a wide range of insurance and other private industries involved in health care. Several schools offer this degree online:

Bachelor of Health Science in Health and Wellness
Focuses on communication and critical thinking skills for a managerial role in the health and wellness industry. This can involve working in an exercise center as a personal trainer or other type of fitness specialist, in a government community health agency as a community health director or in a variety of other roles as health director in a spa, community center or even a cruise ship. Some graduates with this type of degree also work in the pharmaceutical industry.

Courses For A Bachelor Of Health Science Degree

By Paul Mannet

Click To A List Of Schools Offering Online Degrees In Health Sciences

The bachelor of health science is a degree you can take either as a full four-year program, or in two parts: 1) an associates in health science followed by 2) a “completion” bachelor’s degree. If, like most people going after these degrees, you’re an adult with a full time job, breaking the program into two pieces with some time off in the middle can be a smart choice. Health sciences degree have remained popular in the tough economic environment, because health care is relatively “recession proof.”

The full BA (bachelor of arts) or BS (bachelor of science) degree normally takes four years of full-time study, but will probably take longer for a working adult. On the other hand, if you’re ambitious and disciplined, you should look for accelerated programs. Bachelor of arts programs will generally lean a bit more toward humanities courses than a bachelor of science. The latter is considered a bit more helpful in getting a graduate immediately employed in a hospital or other health care setting. Keep in mind that taking your bachelor in health science degree online can allow you customize a study schedule to fit into your work and family life.

Most bachelor of health science degress require that you complete 120 – 122 credits. Because it’s a full bachelor’s degree, your studies will include broad humanities and critical thinking subjects in addition to the medical and heath care administrative topics in the “core” curriculum. In the long term, these can make you better qualified for a manager’s job than an associate’s degree, which is usually focused more on pure health care practice topics.

Tons Of Choices
Because students often pick a specialization before they finish this type of degree, there’s often a wide choice of subjects you can take. Clinical and non- clinical topics you’ll be choosing from in a bachelor in health science program can include:

Writing & communication
Ethics
Death and dying
Leadership & management
Budgeting
Health care delivery systems
Management principles
Nutrition, health promotion
Social security
Research
Microbiology
Health education

With so many choices, you’ll need to make some decisions while you’re in school about what your career direction will be.

More Than Medicine
A key benefit of this type of “interdisciplinary” training is that it will get you ready not just to work in a health facility, but also to take the next step to a master’s degree or even to go into an academic career teaching a particular aspect of health care. Health organizations like to hire candidates with bachelor degrees because, more and more, they need people who can help them manage changes in health care delivery systems, technology innovations and extremely complex regulatory issues. The skills set grads are expected to gain from a bachelor in health science degree program include diagnosis & treatment, techniques for keeping charts, understanding laws that apply to health care, ethics and health finance issues. In addition, the degree should give you a knowledge of more cutting-edge fields like exercise science, alternative health, physical therapy and public health policy.

Beyond being a high school graduate, or an associates degree graduate if you want to a bachelor’s “completion” degree, having some real world job experience in the health field will help you get accepted into a good health sciences school. Once you’re in, you may need to choose either a “pre-professional” track if you expect to go for a master’s degree or a “clinical manager” track if you prefer to go right into working in health care after completing your degree.

A typical curriculum of a four year program would include a choice of non medical courses like English composition, fine arts, public speaking, history, algebra or accounting. The core professional portion of your studies will likely be divided among courses in health organization & financing, leadership, law and regulation, outcomes and evaluations, and information resources, which generally means a study of the key technologies in health care management today. The bachelor of health science will probably include options for research and independent study, where you can exercise some creativity in managing your own education.