Welcome to Integrated Health Studies

The Integrated Health Studies (IHS) secondary major provides a liberal arts foundation in humanities, social sciences, and scientific reasoning, with opportunities for integrated learning and individual application in a capstone experience. It can be valuable to those interested in a variety of career fields and pathways, with particular connection to a pre-health track.

Students planning on a career in health care need a strong science foundation for their professional programs. But equally important is knowledge of the social context of health, skills for navigating the multi-dimensional nature of health problems, and other practical, patient-centered health care practices.

Why IHS?

Interdisciplinary learning
Health and health-adjacent career readiness
Healthcare and wellness
Multicultural awareness
Holistic care
Ethical reasoning
Integrated reflection

The Integrated Health Studies secondary major is appropriate for any student who wants to work in healthcare and is on a traditional pre-health track.

This program is also appropriate for students interested in health-related careers. A student who majors in social work and wants to work in a hospital will develop ethical and scientific reasoning skills necessary for solving complex individual and societal health problems. Biomedical engineering can also be paired with IHS as a way to combine the analytical skills associated with engineering with the ethical and interpersonal skills of IHS. IHS is a way to explore passions related to science, people and ethics alongside any major of choosing.

IHS supplements primary major requirements to provide students with a foundation in:

Interpersonal skills grounded in humanistic and social scientific understanding of health.
Ethical and scientific reasoning skills for solving complex individual and societal health problems.
Multicultural competence critical for dealing with diverse patient populations in the U.S.
Integrated learning culminating in a capstone experience.

Declare Integrated Health Studies

Please fill out this Qualtrics survey if you would like to add or drop the secondary major in Integrated Health Studies.

Learn from our IHS students:

Spring 2025 Capstone Projects

Ethical Concerns and the Social Dimensions of Care

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Fall 2024 Capstone Projects

Spring 2024 Capstone Projects

Programmatic Learning Outcomes:

The Integrated Health Studies secondary major offers students a multidisciplinary perspective on health and healthcare, drawing from the biological sciences, social sciences, and humanities. Designed to complement a primary field of study, this program prepares students to engage with complex health issues in diverse contexts, promoting a holistic understanding of health across populations, systems, and environments.

Social & Humanistic Dimensions of Health: Students will evaluate the social dimensions of health
Ethics in Health Science: Students will analyze the ethical issues that arise in the application of science in health practice and policy and will be able to articulate ways to address them
Multicultural Awareness: Students will evaluate and articulate how cultural, racial, and ethnic diversity in the US and globally intersects with health practice and outcomes
Scientific Reasoning: Students will apply scientific reasoning to health questions and evaluate the implications of the same

Hear from our first graduating cohort:

Inaugural graduating class of IHS

The College of Arts and Sciences graduated the inaugural class of Integrated Health Studies May 14, 2022. Eight students completed the secondary major with a capstone class that required them to complete and document an individualized project that helped prepare them for acceptance into graduate or professional school.

“My Integrated Health Studies secondary major has helped me gain a lot of new and varied perspectives on health that my primary major of Life Science could not,” said Elise Trill, senior. “It was so interesting to take classes through different [programs] and look at health and healthcare from a point of view that was different from what I was accustomed to.”

Integrated Health Studies is a new program in the College of Arts and Sciences that provides a liberal arts foundation in humanities, social sciences and scientific reasoning, with opportunities for integrated learning and individual application in a capstone experience.

“We are thrilled that these students chose to add courses in ethics and multicultural awareness, among others, to their already rigorous majors,” said Alison Wheatley, Assistant Dean of Students in the College of Arts and Sciences. “We are confident that this secondary major will enhance their work in healthcare.”

Ken Sisley, Integrated Health Studies program director, stated that each of the senior students had exceptional research projects or health-care experiences that met the end of program student learning outcomes and provided valuable insight into the challenges of being a health-care provider.

“The courses have allowed me to question current practices in healthcare and see the larger impacts of health and medicine on us as a society,” said Trill, senior. “With this secondary major, I am more well-rounded as a pre-health major and my concept of healthcare is more holistic.”

The College of Arts and Sciences is proud of and excited for these students and what they will do in the future. The following students graduated in the inaugural Integrated Health Studies class:

For information, contact:

Kaela Urquhart, Assistant Director of Interdisciplinary Programs
Email kaelaurquhart@ksu.edu
785-532-6904