Abstract
The University of Victoria has the only program in Canada offering a Bachelor of Science
degree in Health Information Science. To meet the requirements of the degree, students
must complete 60 units of course work (normally 40 courses) and 4 CO-OP work terms
over 4.3 years. The School admits approximately 30 students each year. Seventy-five
percent of the students come from British Columbia, ranging in age from 18 to 50 years
with the average age being 26 years. In addition to recent high school graduates,
over 40% have previous degrees or diplomas, and 65% have over 5 years of work experience.
The School’s teaching team consists of 4 full-time faculty, 2 professional staff,
2 clerical staff, 7 adjunct faculty and a variable number of sessional teaching staff.
The majority of the faculty have health backgrounds, totalling 150 person-years of
health care experience. As of November 1995, the School had 168 graduates 75% of whom
are employed in British Columbia, 17% in other parts of Canada and 8% outside the
country. Sixty-five percent of the graduates work in government departments including
community health agencies; 10% work in hospitals, 20% work for management consulting
firms, software houses, or computer hardware firms, and 5% are otherwise employed.
Almost 100% of the graduates are gainfully employed in professional positions in which
their health information science degree is valued. They work as systems analysts,
system designers/developers, consultants, research assistants, health-care planners,
information system-support staff/trainers and client-account representatives. Some
are already in senior management positions.
Keywords
Health Information Science - Health Informatics - Computers in Health Care - Curriculum
- Education - Training
