Page 38 - Academic Report FINAL VERSION WEB

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS

SCHOOL OF BUSINESS

Department of Health Services
Administration

The Department of Health Services Administra- 3rd place: Social Mobility: Contraceptive Use in
tion engaged in a host of initiatives and activities in Teen Pregnancy.
the 2018-2019 academic year for both faculty and stu-
dents in the department. One area in which the department takes pride
is its engagement in experiential learning. Assistant
Health Services continued establishing, engaging, Professor Whitney Hamilton has worked diligently to
connecting, and serving in our student organization improve this process. Because of her diligence, the
the American College of Health Executives, known as department has been able to offer three experiential
MGAACHE. This organization sponsored a toy drive learning courses to promote student reflection, re-
for families in need, the Pen Pal Military Initiative a.k.a. tention, and knowledge application. For example, as
Adopt A Veteran, a food drive for families in need and a course assignment, students have interviewed and
a spring 2019 career fair. spoken with professional leaders in their field of inter-
est as well as completed ongoing reflection activities.
The department and the student health care club
also participated in building relationships with local Health Service Administration also collaborates
healthcare organizations and had several speakers with departments within the School of Health Scienc-
from these organizations to help students focus on es. For example, Dr. Melissa Jordan and Dr. Kinzie Lee
career development and educational advancement. from the Nursing Department planned, organized,
In the spring of 2019 the group sponsored speaker and implemented academic workshops for faculty in
Tim Slocum, a past American Health Care Executives the School of Health and Natural Sciences. One work-
president. He spoke on the skills needed for success- shop focused on creating and gathering quantitative
ful employment. data and then having it analyzed. This workshop also
had guest speaker Dr. Cynthia Clark giving a presen-
Community engagement is a significant factor tation titled “Fostering Civility and Healthy Academic
within the department. Senior faculty member Bill Work Environments.”
Hervey founded and organizes the annual Middle
Georgia Senior Expo, a community meeting attended Finally, the Health Service Administration Depart-
by approximately 450 senior citizens, guest speakers, ment has teamed up with Respiratory, Nursing and
and over 50 service providers. Hervey also founded Rehabilitation Science to develop an interdisciplinary
and organizes the annual grant-supported Hertwig collaborative, student and faculty simulation project
Lecture Series on End of Life Care, which features na- called TeamSTEPPS®. This endeavor allows students
tionally recognized experts and is attended by pro- from each discipline to work together as a team to
fessionals from the hospice industry. provide comprehensive patient care.

Departmental and community collaborative ef- Faculty continue to engage in scholarly activities
forts continue as faculty secured internship sites and such as publications, speaking engagements, profes-
employment opportunities for our students. More- sional organizations, and conferences.
over, our department engaged in projects that served
the community in collaboration with the American
Red Cross. Led by Dr. Darcy Sun, MGA collected 79
pints of blood at two different blood drives, meeting
the goals for collections set this year.

Other department initiatives include the initiation
of faculty-led research collaborations with students
for potential publication and student conference at-
tendance and participation in the MGA Spring 2019
Poster Showcase. The poster showcase enables stu-
dents to obtain experience presenting their posters
on researched topics as well as gain experience par-
ticipating in a professional conference poster presen-
tation. Poster topics that were the award winners for
the showcase include:

1st place: Do Incentives and Rewards Influence
Customer Satisfaction?

2nd place: How can one improve Emergency
Room Wait Times?

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