Our program is headed by Mary Salazar, EdD, COHN-S , Associate Professor and Director, Occupational Health Nursing. Other faculty involved in the program are Marcia Killien, Randy Beaton , and Michelle Kom Gochnour, who does the internship and clinical placements for our program. Occupational Health Nursing focuses on the promotion and preservation of the health of populations at risk in the workplace. Interdisciplinary courses and team work with environmental health disciplines provide the skills and knowledge essential for occupational health and safety professionals. Graduate students complete a minimum of two quarters of clinical experience in addition to selected site visits during the course of their program.
Clinical experience is an integral part of the occupational health nursing component.
Students participate in selecting sites for practice from a large number of available sites in a variety of industrial settings. The purpose of these experiences is to provide the student with an opportunity to synthesize the theories and concepts which they have been examining throughout their program and to develop an understanding of how they can be applied in the work setting. This specialty applies community health nursing concepts to the administration of programs aimed at health promotion in the occupational health settings based on prevention of illness and injury. Students select clinical experiences from a variety of industries and are precepted by expert occupational health nurses. This subspecialty of the Primary Health Care program applies theory and practice of health assessment and health maintenance to the work environment.