I kept seeing an ad for the Doctor of Health Sciences on Facebook. There are two required in-person residencies.
I initially figured it must be for PAs, but it says, "Those who have previously earned a master’s degree in any discipline can complete the DHSc program with 45 credit hours." Huh!
It's a degree in health care management with a couple of specializations. (Education Leadership or Healthcare Leadership.) I don't see anything that would require a healthcare background. I do like this: What is the difference between a Ph.D. and a DHSc? Both the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) and Doctor of Health Sciences (DHSc) are doctoral degrees, the terminal degree in the field of health sciences. The goal of a Ph.D. program is to train students for careers in research and so Ph.D. curriculum is generally very methods and analysis oriented. The DHSc is an advanced professional degree which aims for students to develop advanced leadership and management skills. (Emphasis mine.)
Most health science programs are basically healthcare administration programs. It's a misleading degree title; there's not much science in it. Out of curiosity, I looked at the difference between the health science and healthcare administration undergraduate programs at Texas State University. The health science program integrates science prerequisites that might be needed for graduates applying to medical, pharmacy, dental, physician assistant, or veterinary school. But, at the graduate level, if you want to boost your MCAT or other test score, the degree to get is medical science or biomedical science because master's degrees in health sciences are mostly administration/management programs. I wish colleges and universities would just standardize. There are not a million different names for computer science, and there are only a few names for business administration. Healthcare administration or health care administration (both are used) has healthcare management, health care management, health services management, health services administration, health administration, healthcare policy, health sciences, health systems management, health or healthcare leadership, health management & policy, and probably a few others I can't think of. WGU changed the name of its Master of Health Leadership to a Master of Healthcare Administration. There's supposed to be a difference between all of these programs, but there really isn't. This particular DHSc program, depending on the concentration you choose, is either healthcare management or health education, in essence.