Online DHA - 12 months - $15k

I would have to disagree , career student far from it. I just continue going if I can I’m young in my late 20s and I am very good with using my prior education to transfer credits around to build a new degree. Nothing wrong with that just being creative. Now as far as MPH I would do it after the DHSc at EVMS it’s an investment I’m willing to make $45k is not bad and the MPH would be in the future. I like to cover all aspect in something I am interested in. My long term goal would be to be a director of a nursing home or nursing home administrator hence why I also wrote I would what an associates in Nursing. It seems like I’m all over the everything spins off on each other. I got a masters degree in public administration : urban affairs which helps with government / not for profit organization management. Maybe I get into a city or state ran hospital in the future who knows. I agree a good MPH school will help but I want to find the right program that has a curriculum I am interested in.

 

So most everyone here on DI is a current student or lifelong learner so wasn't meaning to offend but just offer a perspective as a hiring manager.

So if you really want to be a nursing home administrator (which is something that has interested me as well) again you might want to look to programs that offer that coursework in that area (i.e. see USC -> https://online.usc.edu/programs/gerontology-ms/ & https://online.usc.edu/programs/aging-services-management-ms/) . Again I'm biased but U of Minn has a Center on Aging Studies that used to offer a graduate certificate and now is re-offering a Graduate Minor to complement a MPH or other graduate degree. Again adding a top rank MPH I think will help you more than another doctorate.
https://www.sph.umn.edu/research/centers/chai/education/academic-programs-courses/

https://www.youtube.com/user/UMSPH

 

There are doctorates that are actually applied. They require you to do a practicum/internship, case study, solve a problem, teach real classes, and/or research at your job, another organization, with patients, or at a school. I thought VUL's practicums would be...practicums. Talking to classmates, giving presentations to classmates, and writing a literature review as a group are not practicums. Those are normal parts of many graduate and undergraduate programs.

In my doctoral program, which is definitely not applied, I actually taught undergraduate students, I went to a sheriff's department to research the cause of a turnover issue, and I assisted professors with the research they were doing for articles and to consult law enforcement agencies. Some other students got to run the law enforcement training center on campus while others were monitoring school safety issues. There are online programs that require you to go to a physical location, but since there are COVID restrictions at many places, some programs have students meeting with organizations by video. I don't see how staying in the classroom only interacting with classmates and professors makes a program more applied.

I get it. The degree is fast and cheap, and you'll get the doctor title. But, there aren't many people in executive positions who have doctoral degrees because they didn't need them.

 

These things could have been knocked out in one program. I don't know what your state requires, but this is what my state requires for nursing home administrators.

• Have at least a bachelor's degree in any subject from an accredited college that's approved by an accrediting association recognized by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.
• Complete a minimum of 15 academic credit hours in long-term care administration or its equivalent that encompasses all National Association of Boards of Examiners of Long Term Care Administration Inc. (NAB) domains.
• Complete a minimum of 1,000 hours in an administrator-in-training (AIT) internship with a DADS-approved preceptor in a licensed nursing facility with a minimum of 60 beds.

 

To be honest the vast majority of professional doctorates (excluding EdD) don't have a teaching component. Personally, I'm not a big fan of the teaching practicum as I think it is sort of a waste as I really would like the see the program be more in line with the NCHL's competency model. I've done practicums and have 30+ years of work experience so I really don't need more on-site training but for others, this might be an important experience. And you're right the overwhelmingly vast majority of people I interact with at work have don't doctorates and many don't have masters either (and some are even c-suite executives). VUL is a checkbox activity for me the same way it was in my former pursuing of a DBA at Trident. In a perfect world, I would have continued my graduate education by doing a PhD at Minnesota but I had other commitments (like putting kids thru college). I make great money already and hope to retire in the next decade and earning a PhD or other doctorate from a school that costs 3X as much isn't going to be a great ROI for me at this point in my career. I'm not going to apologize for picking VUL but I will provide suggestions for them to improve as I complete the program. This program is not a top-tier research (or applied) doctorate nor does it pretend to be either. However, I have 2 cohort members that both received promotions (one is now CEO of a non-profit and the other is now CNO of a hospital) so the program is helping open doors for many. I have a feeling the program will evolve for the better so growing pains are to be expected.

Lastly a great many in the program are short of the 90 total units required beyond a bachelor's and are thus required to complete an additional externship which requires working with an outside healthcare organization to satisfy the hours that are short of the 90. So for those taking part in the Externship they indeed are getting that on-site hands-on mentoring experience.

 

Hey everyone has their own plan and the way to achieve it. I get it typically most people in the field do not have degrees that's fine but I did get out my own plan there are a few other things I did not mention that I will do. Can't put all your personal plans out there...

 

Qualifications

• be at least 21 years of age;
• be of good moral character and suitability;
• hold a Bachelor's (or higher level) Degree from an accredited educational institution, including (or supplemented by) 15 credit hours of specific education;
• complete an Administrator-In-Training (AIT) Program (Internship) OR qualifying field experience;
• complete a course in nursing home administration;
• receive a passing score on the Nursing Home Administrator Licensing Examination.

Experience Required

• Two or more years of service as the full-time Administrator-of-Record of an out-of-state nursing home within the last five years OR
  
• Three or more years of full-time service as a Director of Nursing Services at a qualifying nursing home within the last ten years

The internship and field experience requirements may be substituted or reduced based on your experience and/or education, as follows:
Field Experience

• An internship at a qualifying nursing home completed as part of an accredited educational institution degree requirement. You must have graduated from the respective degree program and document that the internship was equivalent in length and content to the internship requirement in New York State and was successfully completed. OR
• An internship at a qualifying nursing home completed as part of the nursing home administrator licensure requirements of another state licensure board. You must have been granted a nursing home administrator license in that state and document that the internship was equivalent in length and content to the internship requirement in New York State and was successfully completed OR

Education:

• Master's Degree which included the five courses required to satisfy Qualification 3 or is supplemented by completion of a Long-Term Care Administration certificate program.
  
  

Now the problem is being selected with just the basic qualifications is difficult with no experience... Education can offset some of it
https://www.health.ny.gov/professionals/nursing_home_administrator/licensure_program/qualifications.htm

 

Hello Futuredegree,

My suggestion is after the DHA you enroll in an accelerated 2nd bachelor's BSN/RN program. Having a professional license in a healthcare field is more important for you right now than a 4th master's degree or 2nd doctorate! WGU.edu offers a hybrid program to those that reside in certain states. I mentioned it because your "future degree plan" shows an RN. With that said, there are other healthcare fields that you may be interested in as well. PM me if you need to chat.

 

Again you might want to consider a graduate Gerontology program as that might help with getting access to a LTC facility for training and a foot in the door for your career.

Since you are in NY you might want to look at Hofstra as both the Masters and Certificate program will give you the required course and internship requirement to meet the state requirement.

https://www.hofstra.edu/population-health/gerontology-healthy-aging.html

 

So, it looks like it would be more beneficial for you to earn a master's (or doctorate) from a program that focuses on long-term care administration. Earning a DHSc and/or a generic MPH will not move you closer to your goal.

https://www.nabweb.org/nab-accredited-colleges-and-universities

 

Interesting that you mention nursing home administration. I actually wrote a draft of a post about how VUL's program might have been able to find a niche providing preparation for this field. I didn't end up posting it because when I was researching, I found out that to get a Nursing Home Administrator license in Iowa (where I live now), you need to have an undergrad or graduate degree in health administration - or a number of other fields - from an RA school. So TRACS will not satisfy this requirement, unfortunately.

Edit: Also, more generally I agree with others who note that you'd be better off doing a strong MPH and then completing the DHA/DHSc afterwards rather than trying to do the reverse. The MPH will allow you to enter the field of public health and the doctorate will bolster those credentials. Your resume may look a little lopsided if you go from the DHA to the MPH and then down to the Associates.

 

Here's a case where NA and RA degrees are accepted. Program Manager of Criminal Justice.
https://www.hocking.edu/careers?gnk=job&gni=8a78839f7b97e358017bac1b22950f11&gns=elephantjobs&lang=en

 

• "Degree must be from a regionally or nationally accredited institution recognized by the U.S. Department of Education or the Council for Higher Education Accreditation or equivalent as verified by a member of the National Association of Credential Evaluation Services, Inc."

Well written with a friendly invitation to apply! As a side note, I applied today at a state university for an adjunct faculty position. VUL was not identified on the drop-down list so I manually entered it and fully disclosed "TRACS accredited." The RA schools really want an RA degree but I'm glad to see some schools have a broader acceptance policy. Thanks for sharing!

 

In response to your question, I can only give the details of what I went through. With that said, my understanding is the program may be making changes. The last semester had all three practicums delivered with one practicum lasting 16 weeks with the second running the first 8 weeks and the third the second block of 8 weeks. It was a very challenging semester with a cohort model relying on 4 others to equally do their fair share of the work. If one person procrastinates, the others had to pick up the slack to meet the deadlines. It's the same in the "real world" of hospital administration working with team members and deadlines to ultimately complete the mission! Add this to those who have less than 90 graduate credits and the need to take an externship, the program can easily go past three semesters. Hope this helps. Alpine

 

So yes another area that VUL needs to work on is communicatingng the exact requirements of the Externship. I have two masters along with credits from I gained for partially completing a DBA program at Trident so I never had a doubt that I was excluded from this requirement. For others however this semester there has been lingering confusion over the exact number of hours required as it's based on a formula pending the number of hours a student is short of 90. So yes for a few it may extend more than one semester.

 

My understanding is one semester hour of credit requires 45 hours of supervised externship. One extra semester of 16 weeks at 45 hours a week full-time externship would earn you 16 credits. Basic math! In other words, I would be very skeptical if someone earned more than 16 credits of externship in a semester. The formula you are suggesting sounds like quarter to semester credit transfer adjustments. Schools like WaldenU still have programs that use the quarter credit system. BTW, my doctoral transfer credits or master credits were not posted on my official transcript. Does anyone know if this is a common practice?

 

VUL doesn't accept transfer credits outside of what's calculated for the externship requirement. So I wouldn't expect to see any credits show up on your transcript.

Also, some of the confusion stemmed from who had to do how many hours. The school really should provide this information upfront before the start of the program instead of students still in limbo at the start of the final term. Again this hopefully is just growing pains and can be fixed going forward.

 

It's pretty basic math. If you come in with less than 54 graduate credits, you will need to enroll in an externship.

 

That part is easy and a no-brainer for most. It's the calculation of actual practicum hours needed and getting an approved site to perform the externship that's been a challenge for some. Again I don't have this requirement but from those that are in the 811 course some have vented to me frustration around the lack of clarity on these issues. This is an example of a growing pain issue that VUL needs to address in order to improve the program.

 

Sounds like the school needs a coordinator for externships. There appears to be an add/drop request for 811 under registration. The course is then added to your moodle homepage with instructions. If I recall correctly, a journal is kept to log all 45 hours and the preceptor fills out a form. The rotation seemed flexible as long as it wasn’t your actual paid duties on your job. There are countless types of leadership in healthcare. You basically are someone’s side kick. Getting formal approval from the organization is the real challenge as healthcare organizations may have other requirements like ppd test, background checks, HIPPA training, ID issuing for students, etc. I think the course/experience has the potential to be a great opportunity through multiple externships in a variety of settings. From shadowing a nurse manager or pharmacy director to externing with a c-suite executive. Perhaps you have an interest in externing with an HR director or financial officer or a clinical education director or county health department public health physician. Be creative when looking for opportunities! You are now a Doctor of Healthcare Administration candidate! Make it happen and don’t expect to be spoonfed for every step of the journey.