Master's Programme in Health Sciences - specialisation in Public Health Nursing Programme description

The master’s programme is designed to be comprehensive, and the academic content and educational tools are interlinked, showing a clear context between learning outcome descriptions, learning activities and forms of assessment.

The Master’s Degree Programme in Health Sciences has three or four compulsory common courses, depending on the chosen specialisation. In addition to these, there are at least two compulsory specialisation courses for each specific specialisation, and a master’s thesis worth either 30 or 50 ECTS credits, depending on the specialisation. The students can also choose one or more elective courses depending on their chosen specialisation.

The courses in the programme description build to some extent on each other to ensure progress, with increasing requirements for knowledge and understanding within each specialisation. The courses are mainly taken over the course of the semester, with start-up at the start of the semester and examinations towards the end. The exceptions are certain compulsory specialisation courses that include external supervised practical training. For a full overview, see the tables below showing the normal structure of the programme for each specialisation.

The academic year is 40 weeks long, and the expected workload for a full-time student is 40 hours per week. This includes scheduled activities, students’ own study activity and examinations. The course descriptions provide more details about learning outcomes, work methods, coursework requirements and examinations. Tables 1 and 2 below show the course organisation for normal study progress for full-time students writing a master’s thesis worth 50 and 30 ECTS credits, respectively. The tables are read from left to right.

Content of compulsory common courses

The programme includes a compulsory common course MAVIT4100 Quality Improvement and Implementation of Evidence-based Practice, 10 ECTS credits. The purpose of this course is to enable students to actively contribute to promoting safe and high-quality health and care services. By health and care services is meant both public and approved private services, as well as health promoting work in the public and private sectors. The course introduces students to the organisation and management of health and care services. It also gives students experience of interprofessional quality improvement cooperation. Through the course, the students will learn about different quality improvement models and the interaction between user knowledge, experience-based knowledge and research-based knowledge in clinical decision-making processes.

There are also three common courses in the theory of science and research methods: MAVIT4050 Theory of Science and Research Methods, 10 ECTS credits, MAVIT4060 Qualitative and Quantitative Research Methods, 10 ECTS credits and MAVIT4070 Research Design and Project Description, 10 ECTS credits. These courses aim to help the student to read, understand and critically assess research literature, to critically assess various sources of knowledge that form part of clinical decision-making processes, to acquire in-depth knowledge of qualitative and quantitative research methods, and lead up to the development of a project description for their master’s thesis.  

In the first course, MAVIT4050, the students are introduced to theory of science and research methods, research ethics and formal requirements for conducting research projects. 

The second course, MAVIT4060, provides students with a deeper understanding of qualitative and quantitative research methods. These two courses are compulsory for all students taking the programme.

The third course, MAVIT4070, is compulsory for students who choose to write a master's thesis worth 50 ECTS credits, and students taking the Specialisation in Psychomotor Physiotherapy. Here, the students will work more thoroughly with their chosen method and develop a project description for their master’s thesis. This is to ensure that the students get to grips with work on their master’s thesis at an early stage.

Master’s thesis – 30 and 50 ECTS credits

The master’s thesis in the programme is worth 50 ECTS credits (MAVIT5900) or 30 ECTS credits (MAVIT5910), respectively. Whether the students are able to choose the scope of their master’s thesis depends on the specialisation they have been admitted to. Students writing a thesis worth 50 ECTS credits will develop a project description as part of the course MAVIT4070 Research Design and Project Description, 10 ECTS credits. Students writing a thesis worth 30 ECTS credits normally develop their project description as part of the course MAVIT5910 Master’s Thesis, 30 ECTS credits, but start their preparations no later than the semester before writing the thesis itself. Regardless of the scope of the master’s thesis, the project description is developed with the support of the lecturer, who quality assures the project with respect to scope and degree of difficulty.

The same requirements apply to scientific and research-related work regardless of the length of the thesis. Students can choose to write the master’s thesis individually or in pairs. Students can also apply to write the master’s thesis with students from other specialisations, provided that the scope of the master’s thesis is the same. On application, interdisciplinary innovation projects can be written in groups of up to four students. Students are encouraged to contact potential supervisors about possible project ideas.

Elective courses

In the course of the master’s programme, the students can choose one or more elective courses depending on their chosen specialisation. These courses can be selected to form part of all specialisations and cover a broad area of the health sciences. Students must apply for a place on elective courses no later than the semester before, subject to specific deadlines. There will be an upper limit for places on each elective course. Students are therefore asked to rank the elective courses that form part of their course of study according to their wishes, and are guaranteed a place on one of their ranked courses. The elective courses will only be run if there are enough applicants.

The following courses are elective for all students taking the Master’s Degree Programme in Health Sciences:

• MAVIT4400 Innovation within Healthcare, 10 ECTS credits. (AUTUMN)
• MAVIT4600 Supervision / Counselling, 10 ECTS credits (AUTUMN)
• MAVIT4700 Food, Health and Sustainability, 10 ECTS credits (AUTUMN)
• MAVIT4800 Personalised Nutrition, 10 ECTS credits (SPRING AND AUTUMN)
• MAVIT4900 Quality of Life, 10 ECTS credits (SPRING)
• MAVIT5000 Advanced Education in Psychological Support for Adolescent and Young Adult Patients with Acquired Diseases, 10 ECTS credits (AUTUMN)
• MAVIT5100 Health communication 10 ECTS credits (AUTUMN)
• MAVIT5200 The Health and Welfare of Migrant Populations, 10 ECTS credits (AUTUMN)
• MVAIT5300 Knowledge Translation, 10 ECTS credits (AUTUMN)
• MAVIT5400 Alliance and Shared Decision Making, 10 ECTS credits (AUTUMN)
• MAVIT5500 Adolescent Health, 10 ECTS credits. (AUTUMN)
• MAVIT5600 Physical Activity and Exercise in a Life Course Perspective and with a Special Focus on Aging, 10 ECTS credits (AUTUMN)
• MAVIT5700 Pain – Multidimensional Assessment and Health Professional Interventions, 10 ECTS credits (AUTUMN)

Students can also choose some compulsory specialisation courses from other specialisations as elective courses. This is on condition that the student meets the prerequisite requirements given in the relevant course description and that there is a place on the course. This applies to:

• MAEMP4100 Public Health, Empowerment and Health Promotion, 10 ECTS credits (AUTUMN)
• MAEMP4200 Health Pedagogy, 10 ECTS credits (SPRING)
• MAHAB4100 Coping and Participation in the Rehabilitation Process, 10 ECTS credits (AUTUMN)
• MERG4100 The Knowledge Base for Occupation and Participation, 10 ECTS credits (AUTUMN)
• MAERN4100 Energy and Nutrients, 10 ECTS credits (AUTUMN)
• MABU4100 Physiotherapy for Children and Adolescents - Part 1, 10 ECTS credits (AUTUMN)
• MAELD4100 Physiotherapy for Home-dwelling Older Adults, 10 ECTS credits (AUTUMN)
• MAELD4200 Physiotherapy for Older Adults with a Disability, 10 ECTS credits (SPRING)
• MAMUS4100 Physical Therapy for Musculoskeletal Conditions – Part 1, 10 ECTS credits (AUTUMN)
• MAMUS4200 Physical Therapy for Musculoskeletal Conditions – Part 2, 10 ECTS credits (SPRING)
• MAKLI4200 Practical Ethics, 10 ECTS credits (SPRING)

Study progress                                                                   

The following progress requirements apply to the programme:

• All courses in the programme must be passed before the student can submit their master's thesis for assessment.
• Some courses may have separate progress requirements; see the individual course descriptions.

See the course descriptions for MAHEL4100, MAHEL4200, MAHEL4300 and MAHELPRA10 for a more detailed description of the content of the specialisation courses.