The University of Virginia (UVA) School of Nursing is offering a course on US healthcare, an appropriate and important topic at a time when many legislators are trying to repeal the Obama-era Affordable Care Act (ACA). The graduate course is titled, “Intro to the US Health Care System.”

The course will be taught by UVA nursing professor Rick Mayes, a Talbott Visiting Professor at the School of Nursing this fall and a former White House health policy adviser. UVA first developed a course on US healthcare in fall 2014 as a primer for nursing and medical students, but the course has evolved to acknowledge today’s rapidly changing healthcare landscape, making a fixed syllabus impossible so that the course can follow and discuss up-to-date news.

Mayes’ personal reservoir of knowledge will be combined with content from news sites and professional journals, providing diverse content to drive discussion. Due to high interest, Mayes was forced to cap the class at 60 students. The course is open to all graduate-level students and will include students from a wide array of programs including nursing, medical, business, education, public policy, and more. Mayes tells News.Virginia.edu:

“It’s such a prominent topic, maybe the most-discussed topic of our time. There are so many students who are touched by health care, who see its effects, and because of that, the class has gotten more popular – and more personal.”

Students in the class will be examining European and American health care systems with a focus on growing their understanding of how primary care prevents catastrophic health events and high medical costs down the line. The class will also hear from health care stakeholders including device manufacturers, occupational and physical therapists, and mental health professionals. Mayes cites the growing interest in his course as part of larger trend of student interest in health policy work as a career and non-clinical way to be part of health care change and progress.

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To learn more about UVA’s new course on US Health Care and ACA Repeal, visit here.

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