Healthcare is an exponentially booming industry and is often a source of great controversy. Many people believe healthcare lies primarily in politics and legislation, however, I see there is a great need for change within established healthcare infrastructures. No matter what changes on the political side of healthcare, it is meaningless if the practitioners fail to change their practices. Therefore, I am deeply interested in diving into the healthcare system and gaining insight to the change that needs to occur on individual institutional levels. Creating specific programs or incentives to practice medicine a certain way is what we need to slowly change healthcare into a more accessible and affordable system, however, we need collaboration with nurses, physicians, techs, nursing aides, etc to make that happen. Policy and administration is just one small part in the bigger picture.
Creating this major at St. Olaf is ideal because St. Olaf allows me to gain a wide perspective. I am able to study philosophy, religion, economics, accounting, and countless other topics and relate them all back to my prospective career. Additionally, as I have been involved with the nursing program here, I have been able to go into facilities (Northfield Hospital, Three Links, and HealthFinders) in order to more closely study the inner workings of healthcare systems close to home. St. Olaf also offers a vast network of alumni that I can contact in order to make connections within public health and to potentially interview for a senior research project.
Public Health Policy&Administration, especially on the global level, is extremely multi-dimensional. Religion, culture, spirituality, gender, and so much more plays into the way in which patients receive healthcare and how professionals give healthcare. Studying this topic at the undergraduate level demands an integrative education. One must be familiar with the concepts of philosophy, religion, maths, economics, etc and one must also be an active and independent thinker. Using critical thinking skills developed through a liberal arts education will be pertinent to assessing and progressing healthcare.
Our Mission. St. Olaf College challenges students to excel in the liberal arts, examine faith and values, and explore meaningful vocation in an inclusive, globally engaged community nourished by Lutheran tradition.
The mission statement at St. Olaf deeply correlates with my intended major. When thinking about the direction I want my studies to pursue, I am consistently drawn towards the global level of healthcare dynamics. Attempting to understand and work within the global relationships of healthcare through different types of medicine and practices is a critical part within my academic goals. Assessing my own values and beliefs throughout my education and onward will be an ever-changing foundation of which to base my career on. Not only will I need to be constantly assessing my own values and beliefs, but those of the people around me. Although healthcare is generally universal in some sense, it is extremely intimate in it’s delivery and methodology to different groups of people. Educating myself about faith and values, both locally and globally, will be fundamental in my undergraduate education and in life.