Our Academic Approach
The Oxley College of Health Sciences is TU’s newest college, bringing together programs in the School of Nursing, Department of Kinesiology and Rehabilitative Sciences, and Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders. Additionally, the college houses the Faculty of Community Medicine, Institute of Health Care Delivery Sciences, and the Schweitzer Fellowship. The college enjoys partnerships with the Laureate Institute of Brain Research (LIBR), the University of Oklahoma and St. John Medical Center.
Curriculum and Unique Features
Interdisciplinary study is key to the Oxley College of Health Sciences. Faculty collaborate with colleagues in other academic units within the college in research, classroom teaching and clinical opportunities.
Each program in the college requires a significant amount of clinical experience. In health-related fields, learning the content in the classroom is not enough to make a good practitioner. Aspects of the clinical requirements for each of the programs make them distinct.
- Nursing students have five semesters of clinical rotations in a variety of local healthcare agencies, including the three major hospitals in Tulsa.
- RN to BSN students take a practicum in each of the program’s three semesters to allow application of advanced learning in real-life situations.
- Athletic Training students have block scheduling of courses which allows for clinical immersion opportunities in a wide variety of practice settings.
- Exercise and Sports Science students enroll in two required internships during the senior year with internship sites tailored to the career objectives of the student.
- Undergraduate Speech Pathology students have opportunities to observe speech-language therapy sessions and to have a clinical assignment during the senior year. Many undergraduate programs do not offer direct clinical opportunities.
- Graduate Speech Pathology students take three courses of graduate clinical practicum, which includes working with the cleft palate clinic, the cochlear implant support group and the aphasia support group. Additionally, there are offsite practicum assignments in both public school and hospital or rehabilitation settings.
- Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) students benefit from faculty-arranged clinical preceptors and scheduled clinical rotations.
The clinical opportunities included in each of these degree plans prepare students for the work they will do in their careers upon graduation.