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An online PhD in Health and Safety from an accredited school is an excellent choice for students who want to serve the public good. This online doctorate will qualify you to serve in many different health and safety related fields, or to teach others how to service the public health and safety. Choosing a career in health and safety indicates that a student cares about his or her community, and an online PhD in this field will help them live out that caring attitude while earning more than ever before.

Online PhD in Health and Safety Requirements

An online doctorate in health and safety usually requires the applicant to have a master’s degree in a relevant field, then to take 90 to 109 credit hours, depending on the online doctoral program. In most cases, about a third of those credit hours should be devoted to researching and writing the dissertation or thesis.

Those wishing to earn an online health and safety PhD should have a master’s degree in one of the following general areas of health and safety:

• Social work
• Nursing
• Health administration
• Community safety
• Occupational health and safety
• Environmental health and safety
• Human services
• Public health administration
• Nursing

Students seeking an online doctoral program in health and safety often come from community health fields such as social work or public health, clinical practices such as nursing or physicians’ assistants, or health administration fields such as medical office managers or hospital administrators.

Online PhD in Health and Safety Education

Health and safety education, especially for those who’ve earned an online PhD, is a growing field full of opportunity and the chance to help others. Some sources, such as Environmental Health and Safety Magazine say that it’s only going to grow as a field as the population and its health care needs continue to expand. That’s a perfect reason to start taking online PhD classes.

Information on Health and Safety Courses

Some courses you might be expected to take include:

• Biostatistics. This course teaches students how to take scientific information, specifically health-related information, and to interpret it in such as way that it suggests future courses of action.
• Environmental health. A course in environmental health teaches students what issues must be addressed in order for a community to live in a healthy and health-promoting environment.
• Epidemiology. Any student studying health and safety must be deeply aware of his diseases are contracted, how they are spread, and how they can be prevented. Almost any area of health and safety students work in will require this information.
• Health behavior. This course will address human behaviors and the health consequences attached to them. It will include consideration of how to promote healthy behaviors and modify destructive ones.
• Health systems organization. Students who wish to pursue administration or management need to be aware of the unique challenges of management in a health and safety related field, and this class will help them explore those issues.

Specializations and Concentrations

Health and Safety is such a broad area of study that most students choose to specialize or concentrate in an area that holds particular interest for them. Not all PhD programs offer all of these specializations, but most will offer several of them. Some of these areas of concentration include:

• Health education
• Disease prevention
• Public health
• Nursing
• Counseling
• Health administration/health management
• Human services
• Social work
• Environment, safety and health
• Health promotion/behavior
• International health
• Occupational health and safety

Some of these specialties require additional certifications as well, but an online doctorate will open allow the student to climb to the highest levels of any of these professions.

Careers in Health and Safety

Careers in health and safety mirror the specialties listed above, but with a doctorate in health and safety, someone with a PhD can rise to the top of his or her profession. Here are just a few career choices for a student who holds an online doctorate in Health and Safety.

• Professor
  Completion on an online PhD program qualifies you to teach in a college or university setting, passing on your skills and expertise to others. College professors in health subjects average from $55,852 to $94,274, according to Payscale.com.
• Health care administrator
  Health care administrators can work in either hospitals or public health settings. They average from $43,221 to $73,967.
• Lobbyist
  A lobbyist advocates for health and safety causes with lawmakers and policymakers. Lobbyists’ salaries vary widely, but a senior lobbyist can make anywhere from $68,060 to $121,207.
• Community health educator
  A community health educator helps people learn how to care for themselves and the general state of well-being in their communities. They make a salary ranging from $32,395 to $48,158.

An online PhD from a top school will qualify service-minded students to go further in their chosen careers and to expand their skills. The training you receive in your doctorate program will help you preserve the health and safety of those in your care better than ever.