 Most of the time, when students are interested in health professions, they primarily think of familiar career fields like medicine, dentistry, nursing, or pharmacy. And while those are very important professions, there are many other careers in health that you may not have considered. The School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, housed in the Ohio State College of Medicine, focuses on some of these. People who work in the health and rehabilitation field make up 60% of the total health care workforce. They provide a range of services, including diagnostics, therapy, and direct patient care that are critical to the other health professionals they work with and the patients they serve. There are a total of seven undergraduate majors available within HRS, athletic training, health information management and systems, health sciences, medical dietetics, medical laboratory science, which has two specializations, medical science and medical technology certification, radiologic sciences and therapy, which has three specializations, radiography, sonography, and radiation therapy, and respiratory therapy. The athletic training major prepares students to be licensed athletic trainers when they graduate with their Bachelor of Science degree. Athletic trainers are expert practitioners of sports medicine. They treat competitive athletes in professional college and high school sports, as well as other physically active people. They work side by side with physicians and they specialize in the prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation of athletic injuries. The athletic training major incorporates both classroom and clinical experience. In order to be licensed as an athletic training professional, you must pass a rigorous national certification exam. Once admitted to the major, students complete rotations with over 1,100 student athletes from 38 varsity level sports teams, and they have the opportunity to work with other health care professionals who are a part of the OSU sports medicine team. For more information about the profession of athletic training, we encourage you to visit the website for the National Athletic Trainers Association. The health information management and systems major provides students with education and training related to business and health care, so that they have the skills necessary to manage the people and systems used to collect, store, retrieve, interpret, and communicate health care data. Some of the curriculum topics include management principles, finance, ethical and legal issues, and professional and lab experience. Work environments include hospitals, managed care organizations, long-term care facilities, home health agencies, state and federal government, behavioral health care, insurance companies, and private practice offices. With an increasing emphasis on health care communication, specifically reducing medical errors and duplicative care, the role of the HIMS professional is vital to the health care industry. For more information about the profession of health information management, we invite you to visit the website for the American Health Information Management Association. The Health Sciences major provides students with a strong academic background in the field of health care generally. Unlike most of the other HRS majors, health sciences does not lead to certification or licensure in a particular profession. However, graduates are prepared for entry-level positions in health care or for graduate and professional school in areas such as medicine, dentistry, physical therapy, nursing, public health, occupational therapy, business, and more. The medical dietetics major prepares students to sit for the national registration exam in order to become registered dietitians. Registered dietitians assess a person's nutritional status and make recommendations about food choice, which can impact fitness, health, and disease treatment. Registered dietitians work in a variety of settings including sports nutrition, food service, and restaurants, hospitals, outpatient clinics, business and industry, private practice, government, colleges and universities, public health programs, and in research. Registered dietitians use their knowledge to provide education and information so that others can live healthier lives. The medical laboratory science major has two specializations, medical science and medical technology certification. The medical science track trains students in the pathophysiology of laboratory diagnostics without actually teaching the students to perform the laboratory procedures. This provides for more flexibility when scheduling other courses that may be electives or prerequisites for professional school. This is a great major for students who are strongly considering medical school or other graduate programs in the health professions such as nursing, physician assisting, veterinary medicine, dentistry, and optometry. The medical technology certification track prepares students to become certified medical laboratory scientists. When students graduate from the program, they have the opportunity to take the medical lab scientist certification exam. In preparation for this exam, students complete an internship in a clinical setting in which they get the opportunity to practice their lab skills. Medical technologists generally work in five primary areas of lab testing which include blood banking, chemistry, hematology, immunology, and microbiology. Some of the more common work environments include clinical laboratories, quality control, public health, environmental health, fertility clinics, forensic labs, research labs, and industry. The radiologic sciences and therapy major has three specializations, radiography, radiation therapy, and sonography. The radiography specialization trains students to use highly complex machinery to take quality x-rays and images of the internal parts of the body to be used by physicians for diagnostic interpretation. Radiographers may be involved in a variety of procedures including fluoroscopy, vascular imaging, computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, MRI, and mammography. The radiation therapy specialization trains students to record and interpret radiologic information and administer various forms of radiation treatment, which is primarily used to treat cancer. Radiation therapists are an integral part of the cancer treatment team. The sonography specialization trains students to use highly specialized equipment to create images of structures inside the human body that are used by physicians to make a medical diagnosis. The procedure itself uses sound waves to produce visual images of the organs, tissue, and blood flow inside the body. Sonographers may examine several parts of the body including the abdomen, breasts, female and female reproductive system, prostate, heart, and blood vessels. The respiratory therapy major trains students to perform cardiopulmonary diagnostic procedures, calculate and assess test results, and to participate in the development of a respiratory care plan. Respiratory therapists treat patients with disorders such as asthma, emphysema, trauma, bronchitis, cystic fibrosis, sleep apnea, and infant prematurity. Respiratory therapists use a variety of complex machines including ventilators, nebulizers, heart and lung machines, treadmills, and defibrillators. Some of the more common work environments include pediatric critical care units, cardiopulmonary rehabilitation centers, emergency departments, sleep disorder centers, community hospitals, and other types of clinics. Students who thrive in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences possess a variety of characteristics including a desire to help others, a desire to work in a health care setting, an interest in learning a specific technical skill set that can be applied immediately when entering the workforce, the ability to maintain ethical and legal responsibility towards patients in the health care profession, a desire to develop leadership, and an interest in being an integral part of the health care team. All of the majors within the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences have a competitive admissions process. They require a minimum merged GPA of 2.5 in order to be eligible for admissions. They require certain prerequisite coursework, which varies by major, to be completed before admission. And they require an application process, which in some cases includes observation hours, a personal statement, and or an interview with faculty members. Although 2.5 GPA is the minimum to be eligible, historically students who are admitted to these majors have an average GPA between 3.4 and 3.5. Applications are recommended during a student's first year if a student is eligible and has completed the admission prerequisite requirements. For some of the programs, applications will continue to be accepted during the second year. Most HRS majors have highly structured curricula, so it is important to decide on them early in your undergraduate career. If you're interested in one or more HRS majors, we strongly encourage you to consult with an advisor to determine the application cycle for your program of interest and make sure you're scheduling classes appropriately. With the exception of Health Sciences, all of the majors accept applications once per year, and for most of the programs, the curriculum in the major begins during the autumn term. Health Sciences admits for both autumn and spring. You can access the application through the Ohio State Professional Admissions website. In addition to the actual majors, the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences also has a pre-major option for interested students who are confident of pursuing an HRS major but not yet eligible to apply. Students who have a cumulative GPA of at least 2.5 and have completed at least 12 hours at Ohio State are eligible to switch into the pre-major. To change majors or meet with an HRS advisor, you must complete the online major information session available on the HRS website. As always, you are welcome to meet with any advisor in university exploration if you have follow-up questions. You can schedule an appointment with us by calling 614-292-0646 or by stopping by our office in 352 Denny Hall.