Degree Offered
Postbaccalaureate Certificate
Program Description
The online postbaccalaureate certificate in Global Health Systems and Innovation (PBC in Global Health Systems and Innovation or PBC in GHSI) is a partnership between the University of Maryland, Baltimore and the University of Maryland University College (UMUC).
This 12-credit program draws students primarily from UMB alumni and other practicing health care professionals. Taught online, its focus is to introduce basic global health systems and services to health professionals interested in short- or medium-term consultation/projects overseas and subsequent opportunities. Most students are trained/licensed and experienced practitioners.
This program is offered in partnership with UMUC’s online postbaccalaureate certificate in Global Health Management (PBC Global Management). Both certificates share two common core courses. UMUC and UMB have drafted a memorandum of understanding to articulate shared delivery of the first two courses, including hosting of courses, faculty, student enrollment in each program, and confidentiality of student information.
This UMB-UMUC partnership takes advantage of UMB’s extensive graduate health professional, clinical, practice, and global expertise and UMUC’s extensive online and health management expertise. It offers UMB and UMUC graduates and students interested in global health management and global health systems and services options that are unavailable through their home institutions.
It is the goal of this program to apply skills to improve delivery of global health systems, policies, and services.
Global health systems and innovation also is a concentration of study within the Master of Science in Health Science (MSHS) program. Credits earned in the stand-alone Global Health Systems and Innovation certificate program may be applied toward the MSHS degree requirements.
Certificate Objectives
- Formulate global health systems and services.
- Improve systems for quality of care and service delivery within different national health systems.
- Plan health programs within diverse cultures that may have differing ethical values.
- Produce global health policy and systems practitioners with understanding of global health ethics, women’s and children’s health, health implications of mass violence and disaster and/or infectious disease epidemiology.
Learning Outcomes
- Understand the international health organizations and their roles in promulgating global health systems, policies, and procedures and organizing health services.
- Assess and design global health programs within different national contexts.
- Implement and evaluate global health programs to maximize contributions to effective policy, enhanced practice, and improved and sustainable health outcomes.
- Work effectively within diverse cultural settings and across national and international political landscapes to maximize contributions to effective policy and enhanced practice.
- Build interdisciplinary teams and communicate with clinical providers, administrators, and patients using appropriate cultural practices.
- Use a systems approach to health services management, including strategic planning, budgeting, and resource allocation.
Evaluation and assessment for the program will take place in the required courses, including regular course evaluations, review of grade distributions, and faculty review of student performance on embedded course assessments. Additional review includes tracking student completion rates.
Program Admission
General application requirements for admission to postbaccalaureate certificate programs are outlined in the Admissions section of this catalog. UMB recognizes that the coursework designed for the GHSI certificate has the potential to benefit learners who are pursuing multiple clinical and professional degrees and credentials. Thus, the program considers applicants who hold a bachelor’s degree and who are co-enrolled in, or have graduated from, a UMB health professional discipline. To apply for this postbaccalaureate certificate, individuals must (1) have a bachelor’s or master’s degree in health, or (2) three to five years of health care experience and a bachelor’s degree, or (3) be a current UMUC or UMB graduate student.
Graduates with postbaccalaureate certificates in global health systems and innovation may volunteer for global assignments through their current health workplace or go to work for:
- In-country field consultants
- Disaster relief organizations
- Immigrant/refugee health organizations
- Research and academic institutions
- International agencies
- Other nongovernmental organizations (NGOs)
- Lending agencies that do work in developing countries
- Multilateral agencies (such as the World Health Organization)
- Governmental agencies (U.S. Agency for International Development, in-country ministry of health, etc.)
Degree Requirements
Certificate candidates must complete a minimum of 12 credits. Students must maintain a minimum, cumulative grade-point average of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale. All courses must be taken for letter grade; courses taken as Pass/Fail (P/F) or Audit (AU) do not count toward the certificate. All requirements for the certificate must be completed within three years after admission and all credits for the certificate must be completed at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. Complete guidelines and requirements for progression and completion are outlined in the Academic Performance and Progress in a Postbaccalaureate Certificate Program section of this catalog.
Required Courses
| MHS 605 | PERSPECTIVES ON GLOBAL HEALTH | 3 |
| MHS 610 | NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL APPROACHES TO HEALTHCARE AT THE COMMUNITY LEVEL | 3 |
Required
Once students have completed the core introductory courses, they can choose to specialize further in health outcomes related to women and children in low-resourced environments, infectious diseases, mass violence and disasters, or health delivery ethics and law.
Select two from these three courses:
| CIPP 960 | GLOBAL WOMEN'S HEALTH | 3 |
| MHS 639 | HEALTH IMPLICATIONS OF MASS VIOLENCE AND DISASTER | 3 |
| MHS 630 | ESSENTIALS OF CHRONIC INFECTIOUS EPIDEMIOLOGY | 3 |