The Health Sciences Certificate, offered by the Life Sciences Department, is intended for students planning to apply to accredited nursing schools and/or seeking employment as a nursing assistant or home health aide. Although completion of the program may satisfy minimum requirements for entry into an accredited nursing program, it does not guarantee admission and requirements vary from program to program.
To earn the Health Sciences Certificate, students must complete each course with a grade of“C” or better. Please note that many nursing programs will require a minimum cumulative grade point average as well as a minimum grade point average in science prerequisites such as anatomy, physiology, and microbiology. Often the requirement will be at least a “B” in some sciences coursework.
Duringacademic year 2018-19, sections of core courses were offered as follows:
ANATOMY001 – 44 sections
PHYSIOL001 – 20 sections
MICRO020 – 26 sections
MICRO001 (alternative to MICRO 020) – 1 section
CHEM051 – 20 sections
CHEM065 (alternative to CHEM 051) – 43 sections
PSYCH001 – 102 sections
PSYCH041 – 43 sections
Allof the above sections serve multiple purposes, including preparation for transfer, general education, requirements for a variety of degrees, and preparation for allied health programs.
During the same year, there were nearly 10,000 unduplicated students enrolled in thecourses above.
Based on the current completion figures for the courses above, we expect 30-completions per year at the end of the second year as students become aware of the program, and 50 completions year at the end of the fifth year once the program is fully institutionalized.
In terms of labor market demand, there is an estimated 5,915 annual openings for nursing assistant and 3,313 annual openings for home health aide in the LA-Orange Country region. With that said, there were only 273 completers on average over the last three years in the same region (associated with TOP code 1201.00). There is significant unmet demand.
The Health Sciences Certificate is a program of study intended to provide students with the minimum academic competencies to matriculate at accredited nursing schools as well as seek employment as a nursing assistant or home health aide. The program prepares future nurses for further study by providing basic competencies including human form and function,fundamentals of chemistry, basic pathophysiology, spread and control of infectious diseases, human behavioral psychology, and life-span psychology.
The Health Sciences Certificate program is intended to fill a gap between the completion of a nursing program and eventual matriculation into an accredited program. The time between these two milestones can be years, and this certificate will provide students with a completion point that can be used to secure employment as a nursing assistant or home health aide. Further, the program helps consolidate standard program requirements for many nursing programs into a single “package.”
As of this writing, there were an estimated 5,915 annual openings for nursing assistant and 3,313 annual openings for home health aide in the LA-Orange Country region. With fewer than 500 completions from regional colleges, there is significant unmet employment demand for employees in this field, especially employees with nursing prerequisite knowledge in anatomy, physiology, chemistry, microbiology, and psychology.
Many of the potential program completers have an ultimate goal of entry into an accredited nursing program, and this certificate provides access to an employment path while these completers await matriculation. For example, at East Los Angeles College alone, there are currently 100 students wait-listed for entry into the nursing program. These students have already completed the requirements of the proposed program, and the ability to award them the proposed certificate of achievement will increase their employment potential as they wait for eventual admission.
Course | Title | Units | Year/Semester (Y1 or S1) |
---|---|---|---|
Anatomy 1 AND Physiology 1 AND | Into to Human Anatomy Intro Human Physiologyomy | 4 4 | S1 S2 |
Microbiology 20 OR Microbiology 1 AND | General Microbiology Intro to Microbiology | 4 5 | S2 |
Chemistry 51 OR Chemistry 65 AND | Fundamentals of Chemistry I Intro General Chemistry | 5 4 | S1 |
Psychology 1 AND | General Psychology | 3 | S1 |
Psychology 41 | Life- Span Psychology: From Infancy to Old Age | 3 | S2 |
No comments to display
No files to display