College of Health Sciences

Public Health Programs

Humanitarian Health Care Certificate Program

Overview

The global response to conflict and humanitarian crisis commonly involves charitable giving accompanied by a generous, but relatively unguided sharing of time and expertise by health practitioners. 

Within the professional literature, a small but steady stream of scientific papers, guidelines and recommendations have evolved aimed at ensuring a more consistent, more organized, and more technically sound response to those in need. As a result, high priority interventions have been identified, and a relatively clear public health approach to emergency relief has emerged.

The Salus University distance Humanitarian Health Care Certificate program offers insight into these evidence-based guidelines and public health interventions with the global capacity to serve those whose lives have been disrupted by emergencies and disasters.

The certificate program is 15 semester hours, divided among six selected courses from the Master of Public Health program: three elective courses in the areas of refugee health, cost-effectiveness analysis, and study design and grant writing.  There are three core courses in the areas of health policy, epidemiology, and program implementation and evaluation. Each course will provide students with an opportunity to apply new knowledge and skills to humanitarian problems.

A certificate in Humanitarian Health Care from Salus University is advantageous for professionals who:

• Work in volunteer humanitarian projects but seek addition skills for building sustainable programs;
• Have degrees in health care professions and wish to enter the field of humanitarian health care; and/or
• Wish to pursue an MPH degree in the future and want to earn credits to apply later towards that goal

(06/10/2010)