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High School
Health Science Foundations 1a
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Introduce yourself to the rewarding field of health science! You will acquire foundational knowledge required to pursue a career, such as roles in the health care industry and the education, training, and credentials needed to attain them. Basic medical terminology, principles of anatomy and physiology, and legal and ethical responsibilities are also discussed. In addition, you will explore communication, teamwork, and leadership techniques – providing a solid basis for advancing through the health sciences.
During this course, you will learn career-related skills and earn a badge for this accomplishment. A badge is a digital certification of your career-related learning that you can share on social media or with higher education platforms, colleges, potential employers, peers, and colleagues. Select this link to learn more about badges.
Major Topics and Concepts
Unit 1: Considering a Career in Healthcare? Finding the Right Role
- Explain the concepts of the five career pathways in health science and provide examples of jobs in each category
- Compare the roles and contributions of different members of a healthcare team
- Research and assess the level of education and training required for specific healthcare jobs
- Develop a logical potential career path in health sciences
Unit 2: Healthcare Today: The Business of Caring
- Compare the services of different healthcare settings
- Explain the government’s role in the US healthcare system
- Distinguish between the delivery models of HMOs, PPOs, EPOs, and POSs
- Analyze the economic factors affecting healthcare
- Trace the origins of current health treatments to older practices from many cultures
Unit 3: Anatomy, Physiology, and Medical Terminology in a Nutshell
- Trace the hierarchy of the structure of the human body, from atoms all the way up to the whole organism
- Distinguish between anatomy and physiology, and discuss the relationship of these two fields of study
- Explain homeostasis and give three examples of this process
- Describe position and direction of movement in anatomical terminology
- Decipher complex medical terms and build your own medical terms from prefixes, roots, and suffixes
Unit 4: Growth and Development Throughout the Life Span
- Explain the physical, emotional, and social needs of babies, toddlers, teenagers, and adults
- Predict healthcare needs throughout the life span
- Debate the value of Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development in modern times
- Apply Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to understand what motivates human behavior
Unit 5: Health and Wellness
- Integrate healthy eating and regular exercise into daily habits
- Assess and avoid the risks associated with using substances like alcohol, tobacco, and drugs
- Reflect on the emotional reactions to illness and the stages of grief
- Apply wellness principles to improve health and plan for wellness
- Link the effects of chronic stress to physical health and strategize interventions for stress management
Unit 6: Effective Communication in Healthcare
- Deconstruct communication using the sender-receiver model
- Experiment with active listening and using open-ended questions in personal and school life
- Articulate barriers to communication in healthcare settings, including cultural factors
- Adapt your body language to build trust in a professional setting
- Categorize objective and subjective data and report events in the order of occurrence
Unit 7: Healthcare and the Law
- Advocate for your rights as a patient
- Explain the components of HIPAA to keep patient information safe
- Debate the legality of actions a healthcare worker might take
- Role play situations with legal and ethical implications for health workers
- List workplace rights and responsibilities that apply to healthcare employees
Unit 8: Ethical Responsibilities
- Apply ethical principles to healthcare decisions
- Compare and contrast scope of practice and codes of ethics
- Debate the ethics of technological advances in healthcare
- Reflect on how empathy is related to ethical principles in healthcare
Competencies
Healthcare Careers
Students will demonstrate an understanding of healthcare careers by describing healthcare career pathways and explaining the educational and certifications requirements for jobs in healthcare.
The Healthcare Industry
Students will demonstrate an understanding of the healthcare industry by comparing healthcare settings, explaining models for paying for healthcare, and explaining the evolution of healthcare.
The Human Body
Students will demonstrate an understanding of the human body by describing body functions and structures, explaining how the body moves, and applying terminology related to the human body.
The Cycle of Life
Students will demonstrate an understanding of the cycle of life by explaining stages of development and their associated healthcare needs across the lifespan and critiquing popular growth and development theories.
Health and Wellness
Students will demonstrate an understanding of health and wellness by assessing health risks, explaining health risks, and applying healthy habits.
Communication in Healthcare
Students will demonstrate an understanding of communication in healthcare by describing effective communication strategies, explaining barriers to effective communication, and applying skills for effectively communicating medical information.
Healthcare Laws
Students will demonstrate an understanding of healthcare laws by describing patients’ legal rights and explaining healthcare professionals’ rights and responsibilities in the workplace.
Ethics in Healthcare
Students will demonstrate an understanding of ethics in healthcare by describing workplace ethics and explaining how advancements in technology affect ethics in the workplace.
