School of Public Health Dept. of Health Services  Dept. of EOHS NW Center for Occupational Health & Safety

Curriculum

Doctoral Degree Curriculum  

Flowering Trees

Doctoral-degree trainees follow the curriculum of the Health Services PhD Program. This curriculum consists of four components:

  • health services core competency courses
  • advanced health services theory and methods courses
  • occupational health and safety courses
  • supervised research training on an OHSR topic

Doctoral-degree trainees take the sequence of core competency courses and advanced theory and methods courses developed for the Health Services PhD program. Trainees adhere to the requirements for the general and qualifying PhD exams. The core competencies consist of 35 credit hours of general health services knowledge, theory and methods. These courses emphasize the interdisciplinary nature of health services research. Trainees receive a grounding in theory and methods as applied to health services research from the disciplines of Health Services, Biostatistics, Economics and other Social and Behavioral Sciences, Epidemiology, and Policy Analysis.

In addition to the core and advanced theory and methods courses, doctoral-degree trainees, working with their mentors, develop an Area of Emphasis curriculum within occupational health and safety:

Occupational Health Area of Emphasis

Lead Faculty: Jeff Harris

The Department of Health Services, in collaboration with the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, has established a program to train doctoral students in occupational health services research. This program offers training in health services research methods with a focus on occupational health. It offers students a range of opportunities to become involved in challenging research projects involving outcome research, economic analysis, epidemiological studies, and program evaluation. Students are encouraged to participate in applied research studies at Washington state agencies or at employers, eg. Boeing, Weyerhaeuser and other industrial settings. It is anticipated that the training program will prepare students for academic positions within schools of public health or other areas of health sciences, and for leadership roles in government or private industry.

Students work with their mentors to develop a tailored curriculum in Occupational Health that will support their individual research interests. Some example courses include:

ENVH 511
Environmental & Occupational Health (3)

ENVH 564
Recognition of Health and Safety Problems in Industry (4)

ENVH 570
Occupational & Environmental Epidemiology (3)

ENVH 584
Occupational Health and Safety: Policy and Politics (3)

ENVH 596
Current Issues in Occupational and Environmental Medicine (2-12)

NSG 554
Occupational Health Perspectives on Worker Populations (3)