Ep. 80 - What is the Health Services Administration major?

In Episode 80 of the CSUSB Advising Podcast, Matt Markin chats with Dr. Nicole Henley about the B.S. in Health Services Administration major. Dr. Henley provides an overview of the major, career options, what you'll learn in classes, and more!

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Transcript

Matt Markin: [00:00:00] Hey Yoties. Welcome back to the C-S-U-S-B advising podcast. This is Matt Markin, an academic advisor here at Cal State San Bernardino. And on today's episode, we're going to learn more about the Bachelor of Science degree in Health Services Administration. And to help us learn more about this major, let's welcome to the podcast the program coordinator, Dr.

Matt Markin: Nicole Henley. Dr. Henley, welcome. 

Dr. Nicole Henley: Thank you. I'm so excited to be here. 

Matt Markin: Yeah. Thanks so much for taking time outta your busy schedule for this. I'm really excited for this particular episode. We have a lot of students interested within majors within the College of Natural Sciences, so very glad for you to be here today.

Matt Markin: But before we dive into the major, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and, your path into higher education? 

Dr. Nicole Henley: Sure. I'm currently an associate professor in the Department of Health Science and Human Ecology in the program coordinator for the Health Services Administration program.

Dr. Nicole Henley: [00:01:00] So my journey, I always tell people my journey wasn't. As planned as I thought. My interest was always in finance, so I have an undergraduate degree in finance and MBA in business management. But while pursuing my graduate degree, I was part of a graduate program where I was able to teach. So I was introduced to teaching college algebra, and I just fell in love with teaching and so it kinda shifted my trajectory into higher education.

Dr. Nicole Henley: I was a first generation college student involved in a lot of those TRIO programs as far as EOPI was a McNair scholar and that exposure again, kinda piqued my interest in higher education. And, my mentors and advisors kinda shifted me in that direction of pursuing a PhD so that I can teach.

Dr. Nicole Henley: And that's kinda my career in terms of education. I worked for LA County Department of Health Services for about five years, wanting to get that hands-on experience before going into the classroom full-time. And I was an [00:02:00] adjunct for about five years as well. So again I'm glad of the journey that prepared me for this experience, especially being a first generation college student.

Matt Markin: And let's say a student hears about health services administration, they're like what is, tell me more about that major. How do you describe that major to students? 

Dr. Nicole Henley: The major is it has one of those terms that's kinda interchangeable with healthcare management, health administration, and I always tell students, when you hear the term administration it's pretty general.

Dr. Nicole Henley: And then when you add the term health, again, it's just the management and administration of health organizations. Whether you're in a hospital, whether you're in a clinic, not-for-profit, for-profit, but I think students. To get overwhelmed when they think of health administration.

Dr. Nicole Henley: But again, when you think about every aspect of your healthcare, that's where health administration come in. We work alongside or we provide that level of support and management for those providers within those agencies. 

Matt Markin: And I guess generally speaking if a student's now that I [00:03:00] have that foundation of what the major is, what would I be learning in, in the classes that I'm taking?

Dr. Nicole Henley: Good point. In. Aside from just the GEs all students have to take we divide our major into kinda like three areas where you have your lower division courses and it's kinda a interdisciplinary where you learn again, you may have to take an accounting class, a marketing class, right? Management class.

Dr. Nicole Henley: Even outside of the department. So we've made the major kinda interdisciplinary because again, when you think of management falls within any discipline, right? And so we try to make the experience more well-rounded for the students so then that they can identify maybe a specific area they're interested in going into when it comes to management, right?

Dr. Nicole Henley: So they may learn about policy. Health policy, they may learn about finance and marketing and strategic planning. So again, when you think about all those different areas that fall under management, we kinda expose our students to [00:04:00] that again, with the hopes of them saying, ah I enjoy human resources more.

Dr. Nicole Henley: Or maybe they're more interested in the policy aspects, right? Health policy or maybe more specifically the administrative function of it. So again they have those major requirements and they also have an opportunity to select two to three electives, upper division electives, where they can personalize a few classes to get more experience and more in class information or content related to other topics.

Dr. Nicole Henley: Maybe they wanna merge the management with. Public health, right? Because we do have three other majors within our department, so again, they have this opportunity to kinda add additional courses from an elective side if they want to learn more, pursue other topics within the major. 

Matt Markin: Oh yeah, I like that flexibility with it.

Matt Markin: Yeah. 

Dr. Nicole Henley: Yeah. 

Matt Markin: And I'm sure you get this question a lot too, the career question. So can you talk more about what kind of career areas that one might [00:05:00] go in utilizing this major? 

Dr. Nicole Henley: Awesome. That's a great question. And it is a common question because even for our students, a lot of times when we're advising, we'll say, Hey, so what do you wanna do when you graduate?

Dr. Nicole Henley: Oh, I wanna run a hospital. It's that's like the number one position or job. And so we hope with the inclusion, i'll get back directly to your question. But when we were able to elevate the program to a separate bachelor's degree, we incorporated the intro to HSA, right?

Dr. Nicole Henley: Because it's the class that kinda introduces the students to the major, the different professional areas, whether it's the provider side or the administrative side, or the ancillary side. And we found that students have a much. Well-rounded understanding of the major. So they're also required in their last year to complete an internship and we identify different sites, within the Inland Empire where students may work or do their internship at hospitals, clinics, other university areas that may [00:06:00] bring in students students may work in research.

Dr. Nicole Henley: A lot of health has to do with addressing health disparities and health inequities. So you find students more interested in the data and research. Side of things. So again, our students are placed in different agencies in different areas, whether it's for-profit, not-for-profit. When you think about hospitals, clinics public sector, the government, right?

Dr. Nicole Henley: So the students have numerous and various opportunities to explore once they complete their undergraduate degree. 

Matt Markin: Very nice. And let's say someone is a student's on the fence of declaring they're like, this sounds like a very interesting program. Maybe I wanna declare it. I'm not sure any advice you have for a student that's like in, in that type of situation.

Dr. Nicole Henley: That? Yeah, good question. We found some students that who are non declared majors that may switch over. So always try to encourage students, one, to meet with program coordinator. They can always meet with me or meet with another faculty advisor within [00:07:00] our program to kinda help them. Better understand what options are there as it relates to whatever their interests are.

Dr. Nicole Henley: We always want to help students have that critical thinking aspect of what, where do you see yourself in three to five years? Or what do you consider your strengths and where do you see yourself serving? A lot of our students want to give back and they wanna serve, but they may not be interested in on the prep.

Dr. Nicole Henley: Interested in the provider side, like being a nurse or being a doctor, right? So they wanna help people, they want to be in a healthcare setting, but we always tell them this is another way where you can support and you can assist and you can help on the administrative management side, aside from just being the actual provider.

Dr. Nicole Henley: So I would encourage them to speak with a faculty member myself as a program coordinator meet with other students. We can always schedule a time where non HSA students can meet with other. HSA majored students, right? If they have questions and want more of a hands-on understanding and experience, and [00:08:00] then a non-direct way.

Dr. Nicole Henley: I always tell students if they're currently A-C-S-U-S-B student, every student has a pause report, right? They can go within the system of my coyote and generate a mock. Paul's report using a different major, and that way it can show them what courses they've already taken and what will count towards the major.

Dr. Nicole Henley: And then it will give them an idea of what additional requirements they need to meet in order to fulfill the major. But as you mentioned, there are podcasts, there are videos out there, but to really get a hands-on experience, always tell students, to meet with a faculty member, someone who's had that experience.

Dr. Nicole Henley: Even our adjuncts, they have a lot of hands-on experience because a lot of our part-timers are still working in the field. So that's a perfect way as well for them to get a better understanding of the field and whether or not it's something of interest. I hope I answered the question. Oh 

Matt Markin: yeah, absolutely.

Matt Markin: I think it's great advice for that. 

Dr. Nicole Henley: Thank you. Thank you. 

Matt Markin: Yeah. And then I'm sure too with any major sometimes there's misconceptions. Can you think of [00:09:00] any misconceptions a student or someone might have when they hear health services administration or what they might think the major is versus what it really is?

Dr. Nicole Henley: I think a lot of times, aside from just misconceptions, students, they have a lack of knowledge and I think the lack of knowledge may gear them towards this idea of misconceptions, but what they can do with the degree, I think the maj, the. The most common misconception is not understanding the vast of opportunities that exist with this major.

Dr. Nicole Henley: Like I mentioned before, they're taking classes within that, that can fall into other areas or major specific, right? Finance, marketing, management accounting. They're getting exposed to public health environmental health, right? So they have this. Exposure, and I look at it as like a interdisciplinary degree, but more of a health focus.

Dr. Nicole Henley: So I think the ma, the most common misconception is not understanding the [00:10:00] vast opportunities that can exist with this field, with this major. 

Matt Markin: And last question is, let's say someone is already a health services administration major, or they're now gonna declare it.

Matt Markin: Are there any resources or anything else that you wanna add about your major or department? 

Dr. Nicole Henley: Yeah, so we are building up our department website. I always encourage students to visit the website. They can explore the department as a whole or major specific. So there are tons of resources online.

Dr. Nicole Henley: We've created like a, it's called HSA Information Sheet where it talks about the career forecast within the next three to five years, what that looks like, specific jobs. It talks. Pretty much about what we've covered today, what are the specific areas that, that students may or graduates may go into following a degree in HSA?

Dr. Nicole Henley: So our department website have a plethora of resources and information. Again, resources are the faculty, we're tangible, living, breathing [00:11:00] resources, who would love to just, meet with students and share with them. One thing we're also doing is we are. Bringing back the student club.

Dr. Nicole Henley: So pre pandemic, we had a student organization or student club that kinda, fell to the wayside since COVID. And so now a few students have expressed the interest about the club. So we're starting that back up within the next couple of weeks. So again, I always encourage students stop by our department.

Dr. Nicole Henley: We're in physical science building, room 2 26 is our office. It's a lot of information there where they can physically grab or, schedule time to meet with any of us to learn more about the program. 

Matt Markin: Oh, that sounds awesome. And we'll make sure to also include the link to your website in our show notes as well, but a lot of useful information and, I look forward to having our students listen to this and learn more about HSA.

Matt Markin: So thank you so much Dr. Henley, for being on the podcast today.

Dr. Nicole Henley: Thank you. I truly appreciate you guys taking the time out to gather this information in such an organized manner so that students, whether they're campus students or not, they can learn more about [00:12:00] these programs and majors.