School of Health and Human Services Blog

The Department of Community Health , led by Chair Dr. Tyler Smith , announced an important initiative to make it easier for students in the department to find and land that all important internship in their public health and health care administration programs.  Scripps Mercy Physicians Partners have hundreds of physicians under their umbrella that will participate.    The plan is to develop an online portal for internship positions to be posted and applied to in a one stop shopping approach.   Stay tuned for upcoming details.   The story has been widely covered in the media. Click on the links below for the whole story. NU Official Press Release San Diego Business Journal   NBC San Diego  

In May our Vets2BSN Project students, faculty and staff were treated to a wonderful tour of the USNS Mercy by our gracious hosts, LTJGs Leland Comer and Anthony Waite.  These U.S. Navy Nurse Corps officers are both mentors for our Military Student Nurse Mentoring Organization (MSNMO) which matches currently enrolled Vets2BSN Project BSN students with an active duty or civilian nurse mentor throughout his or her program.  Mentors serve as a resource to the student checking in on a weekly basis on classes, provide additional content knowledge, identify areas for improvement and growth, and help with networking and career development. The USNS Mercy is essentially the U.S. Navy’s floating hospital ship.  It was originally built as an oil tanker in 1976 and was later converted to a hospital ship in 1984. Its primary mission is to provide rapid, flexible, and mobile acute medical and surgical services to support Marine Corps Air/Ground Task Forces deployed ashore, A...

U.S. Representative Maxine Waters and Dean McNeal (center) and other local leaders cut the ribbon. “This is such an exciting day for us,” said Dr. Gloria McNeal, Dean of National University’s (NU) School of Health and Human Services (SHHS) last month at the grand opening of the National University Nurse-Managed Clinic.  The clinic will be community based in the Los Angeles area and is the result of a $1.5 million grant from the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) to the SHHS .  The effort is based out of NU’s LA campus and is connected through telehealth technologies to five community sites in the area.  The public launch event was held at one of the sites, the Tree of Life Missionary Baptist Church in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles. NU faculty, staff, and administrators were on hand to tour the site along with local, state, and federal leaders.  The grant allows funding for nurse practitioners from NU and other healthcare organizat...

“Bridge the Gap in Health, No Matter What the Wealth” SHHS Students help run the Health Fair open to the public [Photo credit to Phil Oels] For the second year in a row, National University (NU) School of Health and Human Services (SHHS) recognized and celebrated National Public Health Week (NPHW). To assist in reaching the NPHW goal of “Healthiest Nation 2030”, the SHHS Center of Excellence Community Engagement Core launched a multicultural health and career fair. Understanding that bridging the gap in health will require efforts and collaboration from many sectors, NU faculties partnered with community health students, nursing students, the NU library, NU student services, NU career services, and key members from the community in order to deliver an event, which celebrated both diversity and health. The event included health promotion activities such as integrated health, focusing on equine therapy, providing instruction on “Hands Only CPR”, career services, kids zone pr...

SHHS Faculty member Dr. David Lemberg's newest book is out!  The 96 page book, Entitled Taking Care at the End of Life: Five Steps to Writing a Meaningful and Practical Advance Directive is a guide through the process of designing and creating an important health document.  As the U.S. and world population continues to age well, the issue of how to properly prepare you and your loved ones for a time when you can no longer make decisions for yourself is critically important.  Each chapter of the book ends with a personal reflection and action steps to help the reader properly prepare an advance directive.  Dr. Lemberg has been an Associate Faculty Member for over 8 years in the Department of Community Health.  He has taught numerous courses in the SHHS including Statistics, Healthcare Law & Ethics, and Legal/Ethical Issues & Health Promotion.  Dr. Lemberg is the founding editor of Bioethics Today and has given numerous speeches and interviews to...

On an unusual rainy day in San Diego, talk show host, actor, producer, and philanthropist Oprah Winfrey gave an address to the National University Community.  Students were front and center for the address given at the Sanford Center on April 7th. The talk was streamed live to our California campuses and to the web.  Born into poverty to a single mother in rural Mississippi, Winfrey later moved to Milwaukee and then to Tennessee.  There she was offered an on-air job at a local radio station.  Winfrey later moved to Baltimore to co-anchor the news and start a talk show which was soon renamed The Oprah Winfrey Show and broadcast nationally. Her show remains to this day the highest-rated talk show in American television history.  Ms. Winfrey remains a powerhouse in the media, maintaining an intimate talk show format and an active website and magazine.  Oprah took questions from students after an hour talk on living your best life for the greater.