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Opetussuunnitelma: Master’s Degree Programme in Global Health Care, 90 ECTS

Master of Health Care, Master of Social Services

This Master’s Degree Programme is suitable for candidates with genuine interest in disaster management and emergency preparedness in health care settings. The programme equips students for demanding national and international tasks in leading, planning and developing positions. Our graduates will be trained in four professional competence areas including

  • evidence based global health, ethics and values
  • global health research and development
  • global health policies and actors
  • incident and emergency condition work.

Global Health Care is a joint degree programme between Diaconia University of Applied Sciences (Finland), Arcada University of Applied Sciences (Finland) and University of Eastern Africa, Baraton (Kenya).

The degree is 90 ECTS in extent and can be completed in 1,5 years.


Structure of studies

Study Unit 1, Health Promotion and Disease Prevention in Global Health (20 ECTS)

Module 1 – Fundamentals of global health, introductory course (5 ECTS)

This course introduces the students to global health and the terminology used in the field. The students learn about the meaning of globalization and development in relation to the central aspects of health, and they also learn to analyze the importance of human rights and gender equality in global health discussion. The course also explains various global health strategies and the role of nursing and allied health sciences in delivering health care.

Module 2 – Basic epidemiology and health situation in a globalizing world (10 ECTS)

The aim of this intensive course in global health is to familiarize the students with epidemiological concepts. These concepts include the basics concepts such as incidence, prevalence and mortality. The students are familiarized with Leininger’s theory of transcultural nursing, among other theories. This basic course presents various approaches to global health research in order to enable the students to conduct community analyses, learn the local situation, then compare the local situation to the global health situation.

Module 3 – HIV/AIDS prevention and management (5 ECTS)

This course is designed to assist the students in developing indepth knowledge of various issues regarding HIV/AIDS and the care of affected persons. The aspects covered include the epidemiology of the disease, role of voluntary counseling, prevention of mother-to-child transmission, antiretroviral therapy, home-based care, policies and legislation on HIV/AIDS prevention, management of tuberculosis and other opportunistic infections, and positive living with these diseases. The World Health Organization guidelines, policies and advocacy levels are highlighted.


Study Unit 2, Global Health in Emergency and Disaster Management (15 ECTS)

Module 4 – Emergency, disaster Preparedness and management (5 ECTS)

This course helps the students analyze the factors behind global interdependences, development and future prospects by using theories of globalization. The course also teaches the students concepts such as disaster preparedness and response and rapid assessment as well as the basic approaches, ethical principles and legal bases applied in humanitarian action. Current humanitarian crises often take place in complex situations. Climate changes and political tensions between countries and regions create new types of disasters, which demand disaster preparedness at the national and local levels. Disaster response demands specific preparedness among health professionals. In humanitarian crisis settings, health professionals are required to have strong interpersonal skills, to be able to work in inter-professional teams and contexts, and to have a strong professional basis for their actions.

Module 5 – Global health policies and actors on the global arena (5 ECTS)

This course familiarizes the students with the main international organizations in the field of global health. The course helps the students become conversant with health policies at different levels. It also introduces the students to different Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and faith-based organizations as well as their roles in the field of global health.

Module 6 – Crises, globalization and health care (5 ECTS)

This module builds a basis for a professional humanitarian response in health-related issues. The students will gain the awareness, understanding and skills essential for an effective health-related response in a humanitarian crisis. The students will understand the various aspects of effective disaster management and the specialized process of building mental health services in humanitarian settings. The students will also gain the knowledge required to master the supportive methods of psychology to help disaster victims.


Study Unit 3, Management, Leadership and Ethics in Global Health (10 ECTS)

Module 7 – Administration, management, leadership and professional development (5 ECTS)

This course is designed to enable the students to develop the knowledge, skills, confidence and competence to effectively function in leading and administrative duties. They will be able to analyze local and international trends in global health care to enhance specialist practices, set and evaluate standards to enhance the quality of health services, and apply constructive methods of leadership in solving health problems.

Module 8 – Global health ethics and values (5 ECTS)

The overall objective for this course is to give the global health students the opportunity to realize their full selves as professionals and discuss the meaning of ethical values in the global health context. Furthermore, the students are taught how to identify and analyze human rights violations, enabling them to apply human rights perspectives in solving global health problems.


Study Unit 4, Research, Development and Innovation (10 ECTS)

Module 9 – Biostatistics in global health (5 ECTS)

This research module is implemented as a part of an intensive learning symposium. The course introduces the students to statistics in research. It covers descriptive and inferential statistics, normal distribution, probability distribution, t and f distributions, estimations and tests of hypothesis and the chi-square test. It also covers data tabulation, analysis of variance, linear correlation and regression. The analysis of data in qualitative research, and parametric and non-parametric survival analyses are also taught.

Module 10 – Research and project methods (5 ECTS)

The aim of this course is to provide the students with in-depth knowledge about different qualitative and quantitative methodologies in global health research and the abilities to independently carry out research and develop projects for the benefit of their communities.


Study Unit 5, Master’s thesis (30 ECTS)

Modules 11, 12 and 13 – Master’s thesis project (30 ECTS)

Master’s thesis studies are divided into three different study units: Master’s thesis I (5 ECTS), Master’s thesis II (10 ECTS)S and Master’s thesis III (15 ECTS). The overall objective for the MT I, II and III is to provide the students with skills for planning their research, conducting their projects and producing their scientific research reports in the form of final master’s theses.


Elective Studies (5 ECTS)

Module 14 – Elective studies

The aim of the elective studies is to offer the students an opportunity to deepen their knowledge in optional fields of their own interest. These studies may be either theoretical or practical. The elective studies may be taken at any of the partner universities, at other universities, through Finnish Online University of Applied Sciences, or at Kenyan Universities. The elective study modules available may vary per year.