Human Health and Disease

This course introduces students to the most important worldwide human health issues, and examines possible solutions. These issues will be examined from multiple perspectives, including biological, environmental, socioeconomics and political. Specific topics will include infectious diseases, nutrition, reproductive health, and non-communicable diseases from childhood to old age. Students will work with case studies that explore global health metrics, ethics and human rights, policies, and practices in a variety of countries. IDS-1500 will complete a reflective assignment related to their evolving perspective on global human health.

This course explores health with an emphasis on global issues. Health will be examined using the influence of social, political, economic, cultural, and geographical factors. Students will examine the basic health needs of all people and compare the availability of and types of services in different parts of the world.
Prerequisite(s): IDS 1010/IDS 1011 Archway Seminar and sophomore standing.

A course designed to give the students a better understanding of how the body functions. Health and wellness involves the study of factors affecting the physical, emotional and mental well-being of individuals. Health is a state of body and mind viewed within the context of the individual, community, society, and environment. This class will offer a holistic view of how ones external and internal factors affect health.
(Normally offered each semester.)

An introduction to the ethical issues raised by modern biological and medical research and clinical medicine. Case studies and readings will be used to present the following ethical issues: environmental ethics; patients' rights and physicians' responsibilities; abortion, euthanasia, and definitions of death; allocation of medical resources; humans as experimental subjects; behavioral technologies; genetic testing, screening, and manipulation; and reproductive technologies. Student participation will involve class discussions and oral and written presentations.
One 2-hour lecture/discussion session per week. No P/F.
Prerequisite(s): Junior standing and at least 16 hours in biology coursework.

A systematic study of chemicals of plant and fungal origin that are used as poisons, hallucinogens, and pharmaceuticals in human health. This course will examine the compounds produced by plants that make medicinal effects possible and the biological mechanisms through which these effects take place in the human body. Ethnobotanical and herbal therapy perspectives in identifying new medicines will also be discussed.
Three lectures per week.
Prerequisite(s): BIO 1400FYW Introduction to Biological Inquiry, BIO 2200 Genetics and Cell Biology and BIO 2300 Ecology and Evolution or permission of the instructor.
(Normally offered alternate spring semesters.)

Laboratory practice in seeding, growing, active ingredient extraction, and utilization of medicinal plants. Emphasis is placed on the survey and identification of important medicinal herb taxa. Students will complete a semester- long project focused on growing a medicinal plant and then isolating and testing extractions for biologic activity.
Prerequisite(s): BIO 1400FYW Introduction to Biological Inquiry, BIO 2200 Genetics and Cell Biology, and BIO 2300 Ecology and Evolution or permission of instructor.
Corequisite(s): BIO 3160 Medical Botany.
(Normally offered alternate spring semesters.)

A survey of the mechanisms of diseases and fundamental disease processes of each organ system. Special topics related to the study of diseases will be assigned.
Prerequisite(s): BIO 1090 Introduction to Human Anatomy and Physiology I and BIO 1100 Introduction to Human Anatomy and Physiology II, or BIO 3200 Advanced Human Anatomy and Physiology I and BIO 3210 Advanced Human Anatomy and Physiology II, or permission of the instructor.
(Normally offered each semester.)

A study of the mammalian Immune system. Topics will include innate immunity, acquired (antibody and cell-mediated) immunity, common laboratory techniques, and medical immunology. No P/F.
Prerequisite(s): BIO 1400FYW Introduction to Biological Inquiry and BIO 2200 Genetics and Cell Biology.
Pre or corequisite(s): BIO 2300 Ecology and Evolution.
(Normally offered each spring semester.)

Health Communication is the study and use of communication strategies to inform and influence individual and community decisions that enhance health. We will be exploring a wide range of messages and media in the context of health maintenance and promotion, disease prevention, treatment and advocacy. Through readings, discussion, written assignments, along with shadowing and interviewing a variety of health care professionals, you will learn theories focusing on the communication patterns and practices that shape health care in the U.S. as well as in other cultures.
(Normally offered in the spring semester.)

Each course in the Topics in World Literature group will study a selection of literary works that engage the chosen topic--texts of different genres, from historical eras, and from different cultural traditions. The selected readings will present both abstract principles involved in the topic and its immediate, lived realities.
Prerequisite(s): Any First Year Writing course.

A course designed to develop and expand information about the use and abuse of drugs including: alcohol, tobacco, depressants, stimulants, narcotics, inhalants, club drugs, date rape drugs, hallucinogens, marijuana, sport enhancement drugs, prescription and OTC drugs. The course will include history of, and facts about the substances, the pharmacokinetic properties, the formation of laws, the victims, prevention, and approaches to treating the problem.
(Normally offered each fall semester.)

A course designed to develop and expand information about the environment, the informed health consumer, healthful aging and community health. The course will acquaint students with the process of aging, consumer protection, the environment, and community from a health perspective.
(Normally offered each fall semester.)

A course designed to develop and expand current information about human sexuality in a practical manner. The course will present facts and statistics about anatomy and physiology, gender, sexual orientation, reproduction, sexually transmitted infections, contraception, sexual growth and development, relationships and sexual communication, sexual health, commercialization of sex and sexual coercion.
(Normally offered each spring semester.)

A course designed to develop and expand information about stress, mental health, and major chronic diseases. The course will present causes and warning signs of major chronic diseases and coping strategies for emotional stress.
(Normally offered each spring semester.)

This is a course designed to provide students with the basic scientific principles of nutrition focusing on their personal choices and experiences. The student will develop a definition of nutrition, and learn how nutrition has evolved. The student will be introduced to the concepts of: essential nutrient classifications, defining and developing a healthy diet, recommendations for specific nutrients, eating disorders, energy balance and obesity, body composition, lifetime nutrition (infancy to older adults), and food/beverage choices and the influence on chronic disease and optimal wellbeing.
(Normally offered each semester)

This course will focus on the inner workings of health care policymaking, from the legislative process to socioeconomic impacts, and reveals both modern and historical perspectives in detail. The student will explore factors that shape the U.S. health care system and policy, such as values, government, and private players, and compares them to other countries for international context.
Prerequisite(s): Junior standing or permission of instructor.

This course will investigate the influence of disease on historical development, and look at the issues involved in the historical study of disease in the past. Themes will include the following: early human settlement and disease, disease as an agent of change, the emergence of new diseases and patterns of pandemics, and changes in diseases over time. We will also consider how the historical record might inform our understanding of the threat of emergent diseases today.

See Thread Coordinator.

This course focuses on application of community health nursing concepts with aggregates, families, and populations. The role of the community health nurse in caring for specific aggregates is addressed. The clinical component requires students to apply the nursing process to promote the health of persons from various cultural groups and those with developmental and situational crises. Students work with persons throughout the age span and in a variety of community settings.
Prerequisite(s): NURS 2180 Health Assessment for Traditional BSN Students, NURS 3050 Issues of Professional Nursing Practice, NURS 3310 Nursing Theories and Contemporary Nursing Practice, NURS 3340 Health Care Ethics, NURS 3360 Introduction to Nursing Research and Evidence Based Practice, NURS 4400 Management and Leadership in Health Care, and PSYCH 2350 Lifespan Development, with grades of "C" or better.

This course focuses on application of community health nursing concepts with aggregates, families, and populations. Application of the nursing process to clients from a variety of cultural groups and to those with developmental and situational crises is required. The role of the community health nurse in caring for specific aggregates is addressed.
Prerequisite(s): NURS 2330 Health Assessment, NURS 3050 Issues of Professional Nursing Practice, NURS 3310 Nursing Theories and Contemporary Nursing Practice, NURS 3340 Health Care Ethics, NURS 3360 Introduction to Nursing Research and Evidence Based Practice, NURS 4400 Management and Leadership in Health Care, and PSYCH 2350 Lifespan Development or other approved lifespan course, with grades of "C" or better.

This clinical course requires students to apply the nursing process to promote the health of persons from various cultural groups. Students work with persons throughout the age span and in a variety of community settings.
Prerequisite(s): NURS 2330 Health Assessment, NURS 3050 Issues of Professional Nursing Practice, NURS 3310 Nursing Theories and Contemporary Nursing Practice, NURS 3340 Health Care Ethics, NURS 3360 Introduction to Nursing Research and Evidence Based Practice, NURS 4400 Management and Leadership in Health Care, and PSYCH 2350 Lifespan Development or other approved lifespan course, with grades of "C" or better.
Pre or corequisite(s): NURS 4460 Community Health Nursing.

This introduction to the study of ethics uses primary sources for the analysis of present day ethical dilemmas in health care.  The course examines some of the prominent moral principles and systems of the western tradition from Aristotle to the present and how those principles are applied to issues in health care ethics.
Course is over 8-week period.
Prerequisite(s): Admission to BSN program, IDS 1010/IDS 1011 Archway Seminar, and junior standing.

Psychopharmacology is a course intended to introduce the student to the effects of drugs on human behavior. The course will cover routes of drug administration, how drugs affect society, and the physiological mechanisms by which drugs produce their effect(s). The course will investigate the major drug categories (i.e., stimulants, sedatives, narcotics, hallucinogens, and psychotropics). For each drug, the student will learn about its historic background, modes of action in the brain, use and abuse, and ways to treat addiction.
Prerequisite(s): PSYCH 1010/PSYCH 1010FYW Introduction to Psychological Science.
(Normally offered each fall semester.)

An introduction to the field of health psychology, which is devoted to understanding how people stay healthy, why they become ill, and how they respond to illness and disease. Topics will be discussed from local, national, and global perspectives, and will include the behavioral aspects of the health care system, exercise and nutrition, health-compromising behaviors, stress, AIDS, and the etiology and correlates of health, disease, and dysfunction.
Prerequisite(s): PSYCH 1010/PSYCH 1010FYW Introduction to Psychological Science.
(Normally offered each spring semester.)

An investigation of the symptoms, etiology, and treatment of psychological disorders including those associated with anxiety, mood, psychosis, dissociation, somatoform reactions, personality, substance use, sexual dysfunctional/deviance, eating disorders, neurodevelopmental, and neurocognitive disorders.
Prerequisite(s): PSYCH 1010/PSYCH 1010FYW Introduction to Psychological Science or permission of the instructor.
(Normally offered each semester.)

Explore the complexities of creating a comprehensive psychology for a global context. Study cultural concepts and controversies, integrate cultural issues into mainstream psychological science, and develop culturally responsive practices. Elaborate a broad definition of culture (that includes ability status, age, ethnicity/race, gender, geographic location, language, migration, national origin, politics, religion, sexual orientation and social class) to examine the intersectionality of diversity through a sociocultural lens. Cultivate a worldview of psychology outside the dominant perspectives of the Global North and promote human dignity and justice.
Prerequisite(s): PSYCH 1010/PSYCH 1010FYW Introduction to Psychological Science.

This course will focus on helping participants identify the numerous losses suffered in their own lives and in the lives of others. We will address the relevant methods, theories and skill base needed to provide social work intervention to the bereaved. The assessment of grief reactions and social work roles and tasks in facilitating mourning will be presented. The concepts of companioning and hospice care will be addressed. Finally, students will increase their competency with death and demonstrate increased sensitivity, awareness, and skills in coping with grief and death.

The course surveys the field of social work in the health care arena. A generalist social work perspective will be used to address the social work roles of assessment, intervention, advocacy, and policy analysis in the health care environment. Social work roles at the individual, group, and organizational/community levels will be addressed.
Prerequisite(s): SOCWK 1150 Introduction to Social Work and junior standing or permission of the social work program director.
(Normally offered alternate years.)