Master of Science in Health Science

Earn the Master’s Degree for Healthcare Professionals.

Online | Under 2 Years | Earn Your Master’s

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Online

Concentration Tracks

Top-tier Faculty

Semesters

MSHS Program Highlights

Advance Your Health Science Knowledge

Help improve the quality of life for individuals of all ages. Deepen your knowledge and skills so that your clients or patients get the best care and interaction possible. Delve into rehabilitation, sport performance, wellness coaching, functional nutrition, healthcare leadership, or healthcare education.

Designed for Working Professionals

Earn your Master’s of Health Science while you work. Our program is designed for working professionals. Most of our students are full-time working professionals with very busy schedules.

Advance Your Career

Earning a master’s degree can help you reach your professional and educational aspirations. Advance your career in sports performance, rehabilitation, nutrition, or health and wellness coaching. You can also advance your career in healthcare education or administrative settings.

Become a Certified Health & Wellness Coach

Our Health & Wellness Coaching track prepares you to sit for the National Board Certification Exam, allowing you to become a nationally-recognized Health & Wellness Coach. As a Health & Wellness Coach, you’ll have the knowledge and skills to help people move toward healthier and more fulfilled lives.

Prepare to Earn Your Doctorate

By earning your master’s degree, you are prepared to go on for further education. Continue on and earn your doctorate. Easily transition into our PhD in Health Sciences program, which has concentration tracks in Health Promotion & Wellness, Athletic Training, Orthopedic Sports Science, Integrated Health Sciences, Healthcare Leadership & Administration, Healthcare Professions Education, Human & Sport Performance, Neurologic Rehabilitation, and Pediatrics. Transfer 9 credits directly to the PhD.

CONCENTRATION TRACKS

Functional Nutrition

Healthcare professional with experience in functional nutrition with clientFunctional Nutrition

The MSHS Functional Nutrition track focuses on integrated, holistic nutrition. This track is intended for individuals to learn to better use food as a natural medicine while addressing physical performance and functioning. The curriculum is designed to increase the student’s abilities to identify how nutrients influence the genome and their relationship to health and wellness, while also learning about the changing nutritional needs throughout the lifespan.

This interdisciplinary track is designed for a variety of health professionals including individuals with an undergraduate in dietetics who need to complete their master’s degree alongside their dietetics internship. This track is also extremely valuable as further nutrition training for clinicians and other health professionals.

There are two options to complete the Functional Nutrition track: a capstone project or a master’s thesis. The capstone project is completed and defended during the fifth semester, and the master’s thesis is completed over the fifth and sixth semesters of the program. The oral defense of the capstone can be completed online or onsite. The oral defense of the thesis must be completed onsite.

Health Promotion & Wellness

A health & wellness coach coaches a client

Become an expert in coaching approaches as a Nationally-Certified Health and Wellness Coach. Prepare for a career as a health and wellness coach in private practice or as part of a team in settings such as physician practice or corporate wellness. Develop an understanding of the rationale and the psychological and physiological mechanisms underlying coaching techniques and client responses. Facilitate positive, sustainable behavior change.
Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions is an approved program by the National Board for Health and Wellness Coaching (NBHWC).  After students successfully complete the 3 coaching courses and the required practice sessions students are eligible to sit for the National Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach (NBC-HWC) exam. The prerequisites for the exam are as follows:

  1. Successfully complete the courses, WE 710, and WE 711 including all synchronous hours.
  2. Pass the Coaching Practical Examination at the end of WE 711.
  3. Complete all other requirements set forth by the ICHWC, which currently includes completion and documentation of 50 coaching sessions after passing the practical exam in WE 711 and paying the application/exam fees.
  4. As ICHWC requirements are subject to change, students should refer to the website,  for the most updated information.

 

Healthcare Leadership Administration

Healthcare administrator stands with other administrators

Healthcare Leadership Administration

Prepare to lead teams in modern healthcare organizations. Learn current best practices for healthcare leadership and administration. Delve into healthcare leadership, ethics, and business principles for dynamic healthcare environments. Explore organizational skills, behavior management, group dynamics, and more. Focus on proven methods for improving healthcare delivery in ways that improve outcomes while decreasing costs.
You can choose to complete a capstone project or a master’s thesis.

Healthcare Professions Education

Healthcare professions educator teaches


HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONS EDUCATION

Become an evidence-based educator in healthcare education, community healthcare education programs, or clinical healthcare education venues. Design online, blended, and face-to-face learning deliveries. Focus on learner-centered instructional strategies. Learn a holistic, evidence-based approach to course design, instructional delivery, and assessment for both didactic and clinical education. Explore best practices for teaching and education so you can become an engaged and successful instructor.

Rehabilitative Science

Rehabilitation science specialist with injured client

REHABILITATIVE SCIENCE

Advance your health science knowledge as you dive deep into biomechanics, movement analysis, preventative measures, and more. Focus on evidence-based approaches to athletic training, physical therapies, injury prevention and recognition, and other areas of healthcare. Prepare to become a researcher, educator, and leader in the area of rehabilitation science and to contribute to the development of rehabilitation practice, research, and policy. Increase your ability to identify best practices built on evidence-based decision-making. Build expertise in sports nutrition, exercise physiology, sports injury prevention, diagnosis, and management.
You can choose to complete a capstone project or a master’s thesis.

 

Sport Performance

A sport performance specialist works one-on-one with an athlete

 SPORT PERFORMANCE

Increase your exercise science knowledge with a focus on strength and conditioning or sport performance. Dive into sport performance program design. Grow your abilities to identify best practices built on evidence-based decision making. Delve into an interactive environment focused on designing health learning for individuals across the human lifespan.
You can choose to complete a capstone project or a master’s thesis.

Curriculum

Our curriculum is designed to help you advance your career as a health professional in rehabilitation, wellness, nutrition, performance, education, or administration. We prepare you so you can make a bigger difference in your patients’ or clients’ lives and in the field.

 

Sports performance specialist speaks with client in a gym

Concentration Tracks

Choose to concentrate your studies in your specialty area of choice. Become a content expert within Health & Wellness Coaching, Functional Nutrition, Rehabilitative Science, Sport Performance, Healthcare Professions Education, or, Healthcare Administration.

Thesis

Choose an area in which to become an expert as you incorporate best practice and knowledge.

Health Science Foundation

Build a deeper foundation based on exercise physiology, strength and conditioning, nutrition, injury prevention, recognition, rehabilitation, and performance training. Prepare yourself to move into healthcare administration or education. Dive deeper into health science with a master’s-level education.

Evidence-Based Practice

Dive deep into evidence-based practice and applied clinical reasoning. You’ll learn how to implement evidence-based practice, how to evaluate and apply medical literature, and more. Become an evidence-based professional.

Semester Starts

Summer 2024

Priority Application Deadline

3/11/2023

Final Application Deadline

4/15/2023

Semester Start

5/6/2023

Fall 2024

Priority Application Deadline

7/8/2024

Final Application Deadline

8/12/2024

Semester Start

9/3/2024

ADMISSION REQUIREMENTS

  • Bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution
  • Resume or curriculum vitae
  • Minimum 3.0 cumulative GPA

Clinical Rotation Requirements including required vaccinations: Admitted students to Rocky Mountain University who will be completing a clinical rotation will receive vaccination forms regarding required vaccinations. Not all vaccinations or proof of immunity are required at the beginning of the program but will be prior to the first clinical rotation. The University allows for vaccination exemptions and more information about the University’s position on vaccination can be reviewed at https://rm.edu/vaccination-statement/

RMU requires the following items prior to starting any clinical rotations (these are subject to change depending upon public health concerns and specific clinic requirements):

  • MMR
  • Varicella
  • Hepatitis B
  • TB
  • Tdap
  • Annual Influenza
  • COVID 19
  • HIPAA certification
  • OSHA certification
  • CPR certification

Faculty

Darrin Smith

Darrin Smith

PhD, LAT, ATC, PES

Program Director, Master of Science in Health Science

Denise Pickett-Bernard

Denise Pickett-Bernard

PhD, RDN, LDN, IFMCP, IFNCP

Functional Nutrition Concentration Track Director

Manuel Romero

Manuel Romero

PhD, ATC, CSCS, PES, CES

Faculty, Master of Science in Health Science

Lori Thein Brody

Lori Thein Brody

PT, PhD, SCS, LAT

Faculty, Doctor of Philosophy & Master of Science in Health Sciences

Andrew Doyle

Andrew Doyle

PhD, LAT, ATC, CSCS, Astym-Cert.

Faculty, Master of Science in Health Sciences

Jason Edsall

Jason Edsall

PhD, ATC, CSCS

Faculty, Master of Science in Health Science

Kim Barber Foss

Kim Barber Foss

MS, ATC, LAT

Faculty, Master of Science in Health Science

Ed LeCara

Ed LeCara

PhD, DC, ATC, CSCS, MBA

Faculty, Master of Science in Health Science

Mike T. Nelson

Mike T. Nelson

PhD, MSME, CSCS, CISSN

Faculty, Master of Science in Health Science

Evan Osar

Evan Osar

DC, CMT, PES, CSCS

Faculty, Master of Science in Health Science

Kimberlee Ann Shibinski

Kimberlee Ann Shibinski

EdD

Faculty, Master of Science in Health Science

UNIVERSITY ACCREDITATION

Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (8060 165th Avenue NE Ste 100, Redmond, WA 98052-3981), an institutional accrediting body recognized by the Secretary of the US Department of Education.

ASSOCIATION RECOGNITION

The National Strength and Conditioning Association officially recognizes Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions Graduate Studies Program for successfully meeting established criteria.

NBHWC Approval

Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions has achieved “Approval Status” from the National Board for Health and Wellness Coaching (NBHWC), which means that students who complete the 3-course sequence below, are eligible to sit for the exam to become a National Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach.

  1. Successfully complete the courses, WE 710, and WE 711 including all synchronous hours.
  2. Pass the Coaching Practical Examination at the end of WE 711
  3. Complete any other requirements set forth by the NBHWC, which currently includes, completion and documentation of 50 coaching sessions after passing the practical exam in WE 711,  and paying the application/exam fees.
  4. As NBHWC requirements are subject to change, students should refer to the website, https://nbhwc.org/hwc-certifying-examination-application/ for the most updated information.

Tuition & Financial Aid

There are many ways you can pay for your education and receive aid. See how our Financial Aid Office can help you fund your education.

Cost of Attendance

The cost of attendance (COA) is the cornerstone of establishing a student's financial need, as it sets a limit on the total aid that a student may receive. Learn more...