Master of Health Science in Integrative Care

Preparing collaborative leaders to transform healthcare to be innovative, equitable, and sustainable

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New 100% Online Graduate Certificate in Integrative Health and Wellbeing Coaching

This 15 credit graduate certificate focuses on the core building blocks for optimal health from a holistic perspective. Graduates of the program are eligible to apply for the HWC Certifying Examination to earn the designation National Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach (NBC-HWC)

Reach out today to learn more!

The Master of Health Science in Integrative Care prepares leaders to co-create a thriving ecosystem of healthcare where every individual can offer their best self, contribute to optimal patient-centered care, and deliver equitable community outcomes.

100% Online

Designed with you in mind, we offer flexible 100% online coursework that fits your life and current career, and gives you tools you can begin to apply right away – making your goal of transforming healthcare accessible and achievable.

Customizable

Graduate in just one year or go at your own pace with a customizable schedule that works for you. With three specialization tracks, choose the coursework that fits your goals, focusing on the knowledge that applies directly to your career and future: Trauma Informed Integrative Care, Integrative Health Coaching, or Integrative Healthcare Administration.

Transformative

Connect with a community of leaders advancing integrative, person-centered healthcare. With our online program, you can join the movement to transform healthcare from wherever you are and learn to improve the lives of individuals and build better healthcare systems for your community.

Mission-Driven

At NWHSU, our focus is singular and clear: we are educating leaders in person-centered, evidence-informed, integrative healthcare. With our MHS in Integrative Care, you will be prepared to reimagine healthcare that is innovative, equitable, sustainable – and accessible to individuals and their communities.

Flexible

Courses are 7 weeks long with a brief break between sessions. Take two courses at a time to finish in just one year or take one course at a time for a more flexible pace. You don’t have to wait before finishing the core courses to begin your specialization. With 3 entry points a year, you can get started right away.

Multidisciplinary

Join a community of leaders working together to advance integrative, person-centered healthcare. Learn alongside diverse individuals who bring unique perspectives forming a strong network across multiple healthcare disciplines. Together you will work to create a future of healthcare that makes a difference in the lives of individuals and their communities.

Relevant & Applicable

The curriculum was designed by a diverse team of national industry leaders and healthcare professionals modeling the best of integrative care; this ensures relevance and immediate applicability, helping you to engage in truly patient-centered, evidence-informed curriculum.

Integrative & Holistic

Integrative care offers a greater understanding of healing through the lens of interconnectedness, including self-awareness, self-care, community connection, and person-centered healthcare. We encourage you to apply that holistic framework to your own life, enhancing personal growth, health, and resiliency.

One of the things I am most excited about is that in this program we are preparing changemakers in the Healthcare industry.

– Michele Renee
DC, MAc, Director of Integrative Care

Program Requirements and Course Details

We believe the future of healthcare is integrative and person-centered. The Master of Health Science in Integrative Care prepares practitioners, administrators, and other healthcare professionals to be collaborative leaders in that future. Through this flexible online program, you’ll gain the knowledge and skills you need to transform healthcare and make a difference in the lives of patients. Each specialization area offers a unique complement to core integrative care concepts, expanding your opportunities to affect change in a meaningful way from wherever you are positioned within the healthcare industry:

  • Trauma Informed Integrative Care: With a focus on better understanding the inextricable link between the mind and body, this specialization seeks to support people in healing from trauma and restoring wellness. Learn ways to provide multifaceted care that recognizes the relationship between trauma and pain, and how awareness of your own unconscious behaviors can make you a better provider. Transform healthcare, beginning with yourself – and create real change in the lives of your patients.
  • Integrative Health Coaching: Enter or advance in the growing health coaching field to inspire whole person well-being in individuals and communities through functional and integrative health practices. With a curriculum designed to meet the National Board of Health and Wellness Coaching (NBHWC) criteria to earn the (NBC-HWC) certified health coach credential, you can build a career helping others live healthier, active lives.
  • Integrative Healthcare Administration: Deepen your knowledge of the complexities of the healthcare industry to transform it from within and design systems that are collaborative, financially viable, and equitable. Learn how to communicate your ideas, gain support from within your organization, and build systems that center patients and improve outcomes. Apply your skills to reimagine technology, financial models, and healthcare delivery to be a leader that advances healthcare for individuals and their communities.

Bring innovation, equity, and sustainability to healthcare

Together, we can improve the lives of patients and build better healthcare for all. We are educating:

  • Healthmakers who want to work collaboratively across diverse disciplines to treat the whole person
  • Changemakers who want to work with complex aspects of health, remove barriers to care, and empower patients to advocate for themselves
  • Healthcare leaders who understand patients, their diverse communities, culture, and beliefs about health and healing
  • Systems analysts who want to change healthcare from the inside and build a healthcare system that centers patients and improves outcomes
  • Health creators who can apply a holistic framework to their own lives to enhance personal growth, health, and resiliency as a professional in the field of integrative care

What will I learn?

The goal of this online program is to prepare you with skills and tools you can put into practice right away. The coursework will build upon your background in healthcare and expose you to rigorous content allowing you to progress in your field using a more integrative approach.

Upon successful completion of the program, you will be prepared to integrate these competencies into your professional life:

  • Person-centered Care: Co-create a climate of teamwork to address the healthcare needs of patients, families, and communities using an integrative care approach.
  • Reframe the Healthcare Ecosystem: Synthesize multiple perspectives in order to apply complex aspects of health, social determinants, and policy to influence outcomes in an ecosystem of healthcare.
  • Holistic Framework: Apply a holistic framework to one’s own life to enhance personal growth, health, and resiliency as a professional in the field of integrative care.
  • Evidence-Informed Practice: Contribute to the development of integrative care plans that are evidence-informed, safe, effective, timely, and equitable.

(See below for a full list of coursework.)

What career opportunities can I explore with this degree?

With specializations in Trauma Informed Integrative Care, Integrative Health Coaching, and Integrative Healthcare Administration, you can select coursework that best fits your goals, focusing on the knowledge that applies directly to your career and future.

Depending upon prior degree(s) and/or credentials, along with professional experience, you may advance in:

  • Leadership positions: envisioning and implementing innovative, holistic systems within healthcare organizations or independent practices
  • Patient care: apply the best practices of integrative care to your clinical practice and your approach to the care of your patients
  • Administrator or coordinator positions within healthcare organizations: leveraging a deep understanding of the healthcare industry and systems, reimagining technology, financial models, and healthcare delivery at scale
  • Health coaching, community health promotion, and more: helping others live healthier lives

Master of Health Science in Integrative Care – Core Courses

30 credit hours total: 15 credit hours in core courses and 15 credit hours in specialization courses
Up to 9 credit hours of equivalent coursework may be from transfer credit

Core Courses

Successful integrative healthcare teams depend on patient-centered communication and collaborative leadership. Learners in this course learn how collaborative healthcare teams are created and sustained in a diverse integrative setting. They will understand the importance of this style of leadership, barriers and challenges they may face and how to overcome them. They will explore the skillsets needed to be an effective collaborative leader in integrative healthcare in various settings.
Integrative healthcare providers share an ethical and professional responsibility to partner with the public health system to improve health and wellbeing in their communities and reduce health disparities. This course creates a bridge between foundational public health concepts and the ways in which integrative healthcare can contribute to population-based public health strategies.
Success in integrative healthcare requires business competence and leadership skills. This course will focus on sound business strategies and practices that drive the development, management, and implementation of Integrative Healthcare. Practical programs and processes support providers and the entire team in delivering patient and family-centered care while ensuring both patient outcomes and financial sustainability.
Because of the collaborative nature of integrative professional networks, practitioners of integrative care are in a good position to help address disparities in the populations they serve. This course provides opportunities for the learner to understand implicit bias both internally and externally, the impact of bias on equity in healthcare, and strategies to mitigate these effects and positively impact change in this domain. Tools will be provided to continually engage in cultural awareness; this framework is vital in lifelong learning as healthcare professionals.
This course is the culmination of the Master of Health Science Integrative Care program. Learners will complete a capstone project that will apply competencies and portfolio projects completed from previous courses and demonstrate the ability to synthesize learning into application to guide professional practice. The capstone will culminate in a written proposal describing an initiative that could be implemented by the learner, which will be presented to program stakeholders. The proposal may focus on a project conducted within a clinical setting, a community, or in conjunction with existing public health initiatives.

 

*Prerequisite needed

Trauma Informed Integrative Care

Understanding how integrative care can support people in healing from trauma and restore wellness.**

In this course learners will study the interconnectedness of physical and psychological health, the essence of mind-body medicine. The relational structure and function of the central nervous system lays the foundation for a more in-depth examination of how a person’s mental and emotional health is reflected in and affected by the physical body (soma). Learners will come away with a better understanding of how they are somatically aware, in addition to being able to explain to others the implications of what it means to be somatically aware for themselves.

In this course learners will examine the basic principles of psychology from the beginning of our modern understanding to current day knowledge. Learners will be able to recognize the presentation of some of the most common mental health conditions encountered in personal and clinical environments. This knowledge will allow learners to stay within their scope of practice and make appropriate referral decisions to the proper mental health practitioners. Learners will better understand current treatment options as well as common medications used to treat mental health disorders.
In this course participants will study the role and impact culture, spiritual practices, and socioeconomic aspects have on health. Integrative healthcare considers a multi-dimensional approach to healing. The learner will examine how an individual’s personal and family culture, healing-traditions, and socioeconomic status contribute to the state of their health, well-being or illness. Participants will consider the intersection of each dimension when working with other professional disciplines in the planning and delivery of care.
The influence of psychological trauma, along with other psychological and social elements on health is significant. Indeed, the combination of these elements typically contribute either to healing or can further advance disease processes. In this course participants will learn, understand, and recognize how unresolved psychological trauma and addiction affects health and healing. Additional information about both positive and negative coping mechanisms, resilience and post-traumatic growth, and self-care will be presented and examined.
As providers it is imperative that we adjust for how psychological trauma affects and is affected by multiple environmental settings and behavioral interactions. An integrative care approach to trauma-informed practice shifts the conversation from pathology to healing and wholeness. In this course learners explore how to create and sustain a trauma-informed practice which includes policies and procedures.

 

*Prerequisite needed
**This program does not lead to certification or licensure to practice psychology

Integrative Health Coaching

Preparing coaches to inspire holistic wellbeing in individuals and communities through functional and integrative health practices.***

This course will begin covering the foundational theories of behavior change in individuals, groups, and large populations. From there we will apply these methods using case studies to integrate knowledge with clinical and organization application. Learners will study effective communication, observation, and active listening skills used to evoke positive health behavior change. Assessment of stages of behavior change and motivational interviewing are integrated with methods for guiding clients/patients through goal setting and maintaining accountability.

This course examines the core building blocks for optimal health from a holistic perspective. As part of the foundation of health coaching, each person is treated as an intrinsically healthy, whole, and wise being, who is the ultimate expert in his or her healing journey. In this course you will learn how to facilitate the client’s process by identifying and benchmarking stages and patterns of change, effectively interfacing with a wide range of interdisciplinary health care providers to educate clients on a variety of self-care practices.
This course provides an advanced learning platform to effectively facilitate the health coaching process. Learners will participate in a peer-coaching model and case-based practice to apply tools and skills, and utilize resources for effective health coaching and client outcomes. This course will fulfill the required learner practice coaching sessions that are followed by faculty-led developmental feedback on practical coaching skills.
In this course learners will discuss the importance of staying up to date on current health and wellness trends. They will learn to critically analyze and apply research to inform recommendations about health and wellness. Learners will learn to apply best practices for communicating health-related information with the lay public.
This course explores how the principles of health coaching can benefit the health and wellness of families, communities, teams, organizations, and schools. Using an asset-based approach, learners will learn to define and leverage existing community resources, expand professional networks, and develop deep listening skills to inspire change at a grassroots community level.

 

*Prerequisite needed
*** The MHS in Functional and Integrative Nutrition program and the MHS in Integrative Care – Integrative Health Coaching specialization are designed to meet the National Board of Health and Wellness Coaching (NBHWC) criteria to earn the (NBC-HWC) certified health coach credential. We are working closely with the board to adhere to the requirements necessary to be an approved training program and qualify our graduates to sit for the National Board Examination.

Each state’s requirements for professional licensure and/or certification varies and are subject to change. Please contact the Department of Health and appropriate board in your state to confirm eligibility requirements and to determine which certification(s) or licensure(s) may be recognized for practice in your state.

Integrative Healthcare Administration

Designing integrative healthcare systems that are collaborative, financially viable, and equitable.

Research is both a common language and a currency within healthcare. While there is tremendous demand for research to support healthcare decision making, integrative care acknowledges there are several ways of knowing, and is particularly attuned to patient-centered, collaborative care. Taking into consideration the patient population, setting, safety, outcomes, patient and care team experience, learners will learn how to structure, implement, and communicate an evidence-informed integrative care system or program.

The only constant in healthcare is change. Continuous quality improvement in healthcare is a must to ensure high value patient experience, provider experience, lower cost, and positive outcomes are met. Students explore the different systems and processes for continuous quality improvement and how to apply the concepts in an integrative care setting. They will learn how to design and implement programs and inform stakeholders with regard to continuous quality improvement initiatives.
Team wellbeing is rooted in respectful dialogue, a focus on patient outcomes, and self-care for both patient and the care team. With the goal of collective intelligence, learners include all team members’ ideas, education and experiences in decision making and care plans. Learners will navigate team dynamics in an integrative care setting using communication strategies to ensure information sharing, transparency, and collaboration for better patient and team outcomes.
In this course learners delve deeper into how integrative healthcare is influenced and shaped by policies and vice versa. Explore how integrated healthcare can impact both private practice models and large healthcare systems, taking into consideration payor models, governmental influence at local, state and federal levels and how this impacts outcomes for the health of both patient and the business.
Integrative healthcare providers offer a different point of view that brings a valuable perspective to healthcare. In this course learners examine innovative practice models, such as concierge medicine, grant and philanthropic supported programming, and value-based care models that expand opportunities for improved health and business outcomes. Learners will utilize overarching guiding principles and strategic roadmaps to inform every decision, plan, and action that a program, business, institution, or organization makes.

Join the movement toward integrative care and bring innovation, equity, and sustainability to healthcare.

Expand Your Opportunities

Specialization Areas

With three unique specialization options, you can choose where to focus and gain advanced knowledge specific to your professional needs. Designed for a wide range of healthcare professionals, you may select from Trauma Informed Integrative Care, Integrative Health Coaching, and Integrative Healthcare Administration.

Community Building

NWHSU Online was designed because we believe that the world needs a community of health makers and changemakers working to deliver the future of healthcare. For over 80 years, we have been educating people in Minnesota through our on-campus and hybrid programs. Our online platform helps us make this life-changing education accessible to a wider population of future leaders.

Diversity

Diversity of experience and thought are key to the learning environment of this program. We educate practitioners, administrators, entry-level healthcare workers, entrepreneurs, and IT professionals. When each of us brings our identities and expertise to the table, we can create life-changing outcomes for our patients and build systems that are accessible and equitable.

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Person-Centered

Engage in a truly person-centered, evidence-informed curriculum. Everyone who works in healthcare, from providers to IT professionals, can center the patient through their work. The Master of Health Science in Integrative Care is focused on putting patients first and teaching them how to optimize all the tools at their disposal.

Question: Is Financial Aid available for online students?

More Questions

Answer: Absolutely! Our goal is to make education accessible to all. Financial aid is available to those who qualify, and we have a variety of payment plans available. To learn more review our Tuition & Fees page.

Invest in yourself and help shape the future of healthcare. Get started on your online degree today.