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AIC Is the Smart Choice for Health Programs

Learning Experience

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As the population grows and ages, and the need for quality healthcare services grows, so too does the need for highly trained professionals to provide such care.

American International College has emerged as a regional leader in the ongoing work to not only train individuals for careers in healthcare, but fully prepare them to succeed in this ever-changing, increasingly challenging sector.

This is an assignment, or commitment, that the college approaches with a passion, a word chosen carefully by Cesarina Thompson, PhD, RN, ANEF, dean of the School of Health Sciences. It’s a passion for serving the community and for helping a diverse population of individuals — many of them first-generation college students — achieve their dreams of providing compassionate care and working on the cutting edge of medicine.

Cesarina Thompson

Cesarina Thompson

“We have a very distinctive collection of programs within the School of Health Sciences,” Thompson noted. “And they’re all under one roof, which makes us very unique.”

AIC has been adding to this roster of programs in recent years, and more additions are planned, she went on, because changing demographics and growing need for specific types of healthcare are demanding such steps — and the college is committed to meeting that demand.

“Students can come here and prepare themselves for a number of fields in health,” said Thompson, “from working with people when they’re healthy to keep them healthy, to working in the broad realm of sports, to direct, hands-on care, such as that provided by nurses and physical and occupational therapists.”

AIC’s programs include bachelor’s and master’s programs in Nursing (the nursing school was recently ranked among the top 50 in New England by Nursing Schools Almanac), a bachelor’s program in Public Health, a master’s program in Occupational Therapy, and a doctoral program in Physical Therapy.

New for this fall is an OTD (Occupational Therapy Doctorate) program, while programs in Exercise Science will be added in the fall of 2017, and a program in Athletic Training will be added in 2018.

“These are the fields that will be seeing growing demand for qualified professionals in the years to come, and advanced degrees will be needed to succeed in these fields,” Thompson noted. “AIC is committed to meeting these needs.”

And this commitment is what sets AIC apart!

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A Unique Approach to Learning — Inside and Outside the Classroom

At American International College, it’s not just what students learn that’s important when it comes to preparing them for careers in healthcare — but how.

Indeed, Thompson noted that students are exposed to what she called the ‘continuum of care,’ meaning all facets of healthcare, not simply the specific field they’ve chosen, such as nursing or physical therapy.

“And this is very important,” she noted, “because, as technology advances, it is ever more important for professionals across a wide array of healthcare disciplines to communicate with one another and, yes, work with one another to provide needed care at the various stages of a patient’s life. Interprofessional work and interprofessional collaboration are a big focus today.”

At American International College, a diverse population of students is taught under one roof, with a decidedly hands-on approach to learning that enables students to learn not only the skills they will need to succeed in their chosen field, but to understand the various professional ‘languages’ used by others across the broad health spectrum.

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At AIC, students across various fields are brought together in myriad ways so they can understand the continuum of healthcare, what other professionals do, and how they work with others.

“The focus is on learning what each of us does, what each person’s role is in caring for that patient, and what value each professional brings to the process of caring for a patient,” Thompson explained.

Also, healthcare providers and the populations they serve are becoming ever more diverse. AIC helps prepare individuals for this environment through an extremely diverse student population and outside-the-classroom work in one of the most diverse regions in the country.

This unique approach to learning is one of many factors that sets AIC’s programs apart and makes the school a regional leader in training the individuals who will provide quality healthcare for decades to come.

AIC is the right course for
those pursuing health careers.

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