Health Education as a Valuable Field
Health education is an important, growing, and rewarding field. Many Americans suffer poor health because they lack health education. The National Center for Health Statistics reports high incidences of obesity, tobacco use, cholesterol issues, and other lifestyle-related health conditions. Those chronic conditions account for up to 90% of the trillions of dollars Americans spend on healthcare. Increasingly, healthcare providers, insurance companies, government agencies, and other employers in health-related fields see public health education as the answer to improving health and reducing healthcare costs. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects the health education field to grow by about twelve percent in the next decade, much faster than most other occupations. In short, you chose wisely when pursuing a health education degree for a career as a community health educator, certified health education specialist, or other public health educator.
Health Education Career Requirements
To pursue that career, though, you'll very likely need to complete your degree program and an internship or on-the-job training. You may also need or want to obtain certification as a health education specialist. If you face misconduct, professionalism, failure to progress, or similar issues completing your degree, internship, or training, or obtaining certification, retain national education attorney advisor Joseph D. Lento and the Lento Law Firm Student Defense Team to help you address and resolve those issues. Don't give up on a rewarding health education career.
Health Education Degree Programs
Health educators, especially certified health education specialists, must generally complete a four-year college degree program in health education. Some employers accept other degrees with majors in related health fields. One prominent national website ranks the leading bachelor's degree public health education programs to include the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Kansas State University, University of North Carolina, Stephens College, the University of South Dakota, and the online programs at Arizona State University and Touro University. Some employers require a graduate degree in health education for preferred positions. Top master's in health education programs include California State University-Northridge, Concord University, Nebraska Methodist College, Loma Linda University, and the University of Florida. No matter the location or level of your health education program, get the national education attorney help you need to favorably resolve your school issues. Don't let allegations of academic misconduct, Title IX or other sexual misconduct, failure to progress, professionalism issues, or other issues delay or spoil your health education career.
Certification
Employers also tend to favor candidates who have earned a health education specialist's certification. The two main credentials are the Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES), the National Commission for Health Education Credentialing offers, and the Certified Diabetes Care and Education Specialist (CDCES), the Certification Board for Diabetes Care and Education offers. The CHES credential requires passing a three-hour, 150-question multiple-choice test administered online, among other education requirements. The CDCES credential requires passing a four-hour, 200-question multiple-choice test and accumulating 1,000 hours of practice, among other education requirements. Both certification systems discipline and reject candidates for misconduct, like the CHES disciplinary policy. Both certifications also offer an appeal process through which a failing candidate can challenge the scoring or other results. If you face certification issues involving alleged failure to qualify for the exam, exam misconduct, or other irregularity preventing your certification, retain national education attorney advisor Joseph D. Lento to help you favorably address those issues.
Health Education Program Accreditation
Chances are that the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs accredits your health education program. Accreditation concerns can influence the outcome of your health education program issue. The Commission likely accredits both your school and your specific health education program within your school. When resolving student misconduct, failure to progress, professionalism, or similar concerns, health education program administrators look over their shoulders at their accreditation standards. Health education programs cannot simply do as they please, resolving or refusing to resolve student issues without risking their accreditation, as the Commission's periodic action reports reflect. Your program must instead meet the Commission's standards, like those for Educational Programs in Recreational Therapy. Those standards require things like frequent and consistent student evaluations, student outcome reports, and records demonstrating student competency in knowledge, clinical skills, and ethics. Any favorable resolution your retained national education attorney advisor negotiates with your school must satisfy the school that it meets these standards.
Health Education Program Academic Standards
Making the grade is generally a health education student's first concern. Academic standards are the core of a health education program. The program at the University of North Carolina Greensboro, for instance, requires students to complete 120 credit hours for the bachelor's in health education degree. At least 36 of those credits must be at or above the 300-course level. Students must also maintain a cumulative GPA of at least 2.50 / 4.00 to progress and graduate or face dismissal from the program. Students also get only two chances at earning the required C grade in core health education courses or face program dismissal. These UNC Greensboro academic policies are in addition to the university's satisfactory academic progress (SAP) requirements for financial aid.
Appealing Health Education Program Academic Dismissal
UNC Greensboro and other health education schools do, though, maintain grade appeal and SAP appeal procedures for students who fail to meet the program's academic standards. These appeals are not as simple as they may sound. Your school may require you not only to demonstrate an extenuating circumstance excusing your failure and to document that excuse but also to show a sound remediation plan. Students do not generally have the academic administrative experience to invoke those appeal procedures, discern the excuses school officials will generally accept, acquire the necessary documentation, and demonstrate achievable remediation plans. Retain national academic attorney advisor Joseph D. Lento to help you articulate and document the best possible appeal to preserve your investment in your health education program. Get the special academic administrative attorney assistance you need for the best outcome.
Health Education Program Academic Misconduct
Other health education students face academic misconduct issues. Academic misconduct allegations can include things like exam cheating, plagiarizing papers, unauthorized collaboration on assignments or projects, and even falsifying research data or clinical hours. Academic misconduct allegations are serious matters. Discipline for academic misconduct can result not only in reprimand but in suspension or even dismissal. Louisiana State University's School of Allied Health Professions, for instance, maintains an Academic and Professional Conduct Policy prohibiting the above forms of academic misconduct and many other forms while authorizing sanctions up to dismissal. If you do not respond promptly and appropriately, you could lose everything for which you have worked because of academic misconduct allegations and charges.
Defending Health Education Program Academic Misconduct Charges
Fortunately, health education programs like the one at Louisiana State University's School of Allied Health Professions generally maintain detailed academic administrative procedures for challenging academic misconduct allegations. LSU's academic misconduct procedures, like those at other schools, include a preliminary administrative review of the allegations, notice to the accused student, referral to a hearing panel, administrative hearing of the charges, and the opportunity to appeal adverse decisions. These formal procedures can intimidate and confuse the accused student, who benefits from skilled and experienced education attorney advisor representation. Informal opportunities at resolution may also exist outside of these formal procedures and even if you have lost all formal hearings and appeals when you retain national education attorney advisor Joseph D. Lento. Get the special academic administrative representation you need to defend against academic misconduct charges in your health education program.
Health Education Program Behavioral Misconduct
Other health education students face behavioral misconduct issues in their degree programs. Health education programs generally require students to comply with their school's student code of conduct. The bachelor's degree program in health sciences at Stephens College, qualifying graduates for certified health education specialist (CHES) certification, is an example. Students in that program must comply with the conduct policies in the school's Student Handbook. Those policies include restrictions on alcohol, tobacco, and drug use; weapons possession; use and misuse of school computers; unauthorized access to facilities; student threats, violence, or other endangerment; false alarms or damage to fire safety equipment; theft of or damage to other school or student property, and a wide range of other forms of behavioral misconduct. Health education program officials can take behavioral misconduct just as seriously as, or more seriously than, academic misconduct because of its potential threat to public health and safety in the clinical setting. Sanctions at Stephens College and elsewhere can certainly include expulsion.
Defending Health Education Program Behavioral Misconduct Charges
When a health education program charges a student with behavioral misconduct, the school will ordinarily offer the student certain protective procedures, like the disciplinary review procedures at Stephens College. Those procedures generally include a preliminary review of the allegations, formal written notice of the charges to the accused student, informal conferences to attempt resolution, a formal hearing before an independent panel for disputed charges, and the accused student's opportunity to retain counsel to assist in presenting evidence and arguments in exoneration or mitigation of the charges. Appeals to another school official for unfair, unsupported, or biased decisions are also generally available. But these academic administrative procedures can be complex, confusing, and daunting. Don't attempt to navigate them without the special academic administrative attorney representation you need for your best possible outcome.
Health Education Program Sexual Misconduct
Federal law, commonly identified as Title IX, requires colleges and universities receiving federal funding to prohibit specific forms of sexual misconduct on campus and in school programs. Your health education program very likely maintains a Title IX policy like the one applicable to the health education program at Arizona State University. Arizona State's Title IX policy prohibits sexual assault, sexual harassment in both the quid pro quo and hostile environment forms, domestic and dating violence, stalking, and retaliation for reports of sexual misconduct, just as Title IX requires. Many schools also prohibit other non-Title IX forms of sexual misconduct like voyeurism or other invasions of sexual privacy, sexual blackmail, prostitution, and solicitation. Sexual misconduct is among the most serious of school disciplinary charges, potentially affecting not only school enrollment and degree completion but also other interests. Title IX charges can have alarming collateral consequences.
Defending Health Education Program Sexual Misconduct Charges
The same Title IX regulations that require schools to prohibit the above forms of sexual misconduct also require schools to offer protective procedures through which an accused student can defend the charges. Arizona State University, for instance, offers a typically detailed Grievance Process for Formal Complaints of Title IX Sexual Harassment. Those procedures guarantee the accused student not only written notice of the charges and the opportunity to review the school's investigation report and supporting evidence, but also the right to have a retained attorney advisor attend the formal hearing to cross-examine adverse witnesses. That right of cross-examination can be the single most important procedural protection to expose false or exaggerated allegations when you retain skilled and experienced Title IX defense attorney representation.
Health Education Program Professional Misconduct
Professional misconduct is another concern of health education programs. Professional misconduct generally involves violating the professional standards that ensure the safe and orderly delivery of health education services in the public or clinical setting. The Professional Conduct policy at Louisiana State University's School of Allied Health Professions, for example, prohibits endangering conduct, conduct that disrupts the learning environment, and conduct that violates any Health Science Center rule governing the school's licensed professionals. Those rules commonly include national provisions like the National Commission on Health Education Credentialing's Health Education Code of Ethics. Breach of patient confidentiality, insubordination toward clinical supervisors, and other mistakes or insensitivities could rise to the level of professional misconduct charges. Schools typically resolve those charges through administrative procedures like those in LSU's policy.
National Education Attorney Advisor Available
Retain national education attorney advisor Joseph D. Lento and the Lento Law Firm Student Defense Team for your best outcome to health education program issues. Attorney Lento has successfully represented hundreds of students nationwide on all kinds of issues. Call 888-535-3686 now or use the online service.
