The Healthcare Professionals champions and team have developed a framework for enhancing and promoting health professions. The primary goal of this initiative is to address the shortage of healthcare professionals by leveraging TWU’s leadership in producing high-quality faculty who prepare the next generation of health care professionals. To achieve this goal, the group is considering the following:
- Targeted initiatives for students interested in a variety of health professions that have limited enrollment capacity. These initiatives will allow us to broadly expose students to the diversity of opportunity in health care.
- Consideration of accelerated 4+1 programs, which allow students to earn a bachelor's and master’s degree within five years.
- Create pipelines from community colleges to accelerated baccalaureate to graduate programs.
- Integration of interprofessional education and interprofessional practice across health profession disciplines and the curriculum. This integration will create a learning environment that fosters collaboration in the workplace and includes the development of inter-professional clinics and the expansion of clinic infrastructure on TWU campuses.
- Accelerated programming in nursing that builds on a background in nutrition or child life. This allows us to develop and produce interprofessionally trained health care providers with unique skills and expertise.
- An interdisciplinary collaboration between programs in the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Nursing and the College of Health Sciences to develop a mental health focus within several majors.
- Creation of a series of teaching workshops or graduate certificate, particularly for doctoral students with an interest in teaching. The series of workshops would be offered once a semester and the certificate would encompass 12 hours of coursework in the areas of teaching, learning, and instructional strategies.
For more information, contact initiative champions Interim Provost Carolyn Kapinus, Dean Christopher Ray or Dean Rosalie Mainous.