Online Hospital and Health System Preparedness Graduate Certificate
This 15-credit online graduate certificate provides students with the knowledge and skills to protect the critical infrastructure of hospitals, medical facilities, and emergency management systems. The effective protection of this critical infrastructure will allow these systems to remain functional in the midst of natural disasters and intentional and unintentional events.
Graduates may be employed by hospitals and health care facilities, military and law enforcement, public health, and emergency management services. The certificate is intended for students who seek to further a career in:
- facility management and services
- health care administration and management
- emergency management and services
- health care quality and safety
- infection control and response
The Penn State Difference
Penn State's College of Medicine and the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center offer this unique certificate as part of the online Homeland Security program. Based on a partnership of six colleges, the Penn State Homeland Security portfolio is one of the nation's most respected and comprehensive HLS programs, designed to educate professionals and prepare leaders to make societies more secure in a global era of evolving threats in an all-hazards spectrum.
The certificate may serve as an avenue into Penn State's online master's in homeland security program. You can apply the 15 credits you earn in the certificate toward the master's in homeland security with an option in public health preparedness, if you apply and are accepted into the program.
Hospital and Health System Preparedness Curriculum
The program curriculum will emphasize a systems-based and all-hazards approach to preparedness. Graduates will be experienced in development and revision of an emergency operations plan, both at the facility and community levels, and be proficient in exercises that test and evaluate those plans. Graduates will be expected to understand and use an evidence-based approach in designing emergency operations plans and procedures.
