The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s online master’s program in health communication (HCOM) extends health communication research and theory to professionals in a variety of healthcare fields.
HCOM learning outcomes fall under three areas: mass (social/mediated) communication for health, interpersonal communication regarding health, and organizational communication in the delivery of healthcare services. Students are oriented to the broadest definitions of health communication, and taught to use health-services research findings.
Since its inception in 2010, the program holds a 95% graduation rate. Students who complete the HCOM program ...
• consider the interaction between humans and non-human technologies in the creation of practical understandings of health processes.
• understand and use healthcare-services research to help practitioners and patients engage in the most effective delivery of healthcare messages and information.
• can identify the effectiveness and limitations of persuasion strategies used to inform and influence the audience’s adoption of health care information and behaviors.
• understand interpersonal communication behaviors that affect the adoption of healthful behaviors in healthcare settings, and in private and public life. This outcome applies to social support and health outcomes, patient provider communication, and family and support group communication.
• are familiar with organizational settings in which health communication takes place, particularly inter-professional communication, managerial communication, and policies that guide healthcare services.
• recognize the role of theory in understanding health-communication processes, and use theoretical frameworks to explain breakdowns in health communication and solve communication problems.
Since 2010, 128 students have taken part in the HCOM program; 91 have graduated, and 35 are active in the program.
The HCOM program requires 32 credits of course work in a one-course-at-a-time sequence, culminating after two years in a capstone course.
The program also offers an online health communication conference, HCB3, to be held February 28–March 2. Visit conferences.illinois.edu/hcb3 to register for the HCB3 conference, or hcom.illinois.edu to learn more about the HCOM program.
The views, opinions and positions expressed within these guest posts are those of the author alone and do not represent those of Becker's Hospital Review/Becker's Healthcare. The accuracy, completeness and validity of any statements made within this article are not guaranteed. We accept no liability for any errors, omissions or representations. The copyright of this content belongs to the author and any liability with regards to infringement of intellectual property rights remains with them.