23 FREE ONLINE COURSES FOR HEALTH PROFESSIONALS

Online courses for health professionals are a great way to learn about a new topic. It has many benefits which can be listed as follows:

• It’s easy to access.
• You can take the course at your own pace.
• You don’t have to travel anywhere or make any special arrangements.
• The learning experience is more personal and engaging
• Its less expensive

In this blog, we will try to see the overview of 23 free online courses offered by big and renowned international institutions.

Health Equity Research Methods

Johns Hopkins University via Coursera Help

• Coursera Help
• Free Online Course (Audit)
• English
• Paid Certificate Available
• 5 weeks long, 15 hours’ worth of material
• 20th Feb 2023

Intended for students who have completed the introduction to health equity research course and/or have previous experience working in this area.

This course will cover innovative methods, practical tools, and skills required to conduct rigorous health equity research and translate evidence-based strategies into practice and policy.

Covers topics ranging from conceptual frameworks for stakeholder engagement and behavioral intervention development, to adapting interventions for socially-at-risk populations,

and research methods in healthcare services and social epidemiology.

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Qualitative Research Methods

King’s College London and Birzeit University via FutureLearn

• FutureLearn Help
• Free Online Course (Audit)
• English
• $44.00 Certificate Available
• 4 weeks long, 5 hours a week
• Self-paced
• Intermediate

There is a prevalence of ill mental health due to conflict and war-affected populations worldwide. Yet, we lack locally relevant and reliable mental health information as research capacity and resources are insufficient.

This four-week course will expose you to various research methodologies, skills and resources. You will develop the qualitative research skills needed to explore these intersections and design your own research project.

This course is designed for those working in the field of mental health and psychosocial support.

It will be particularly helpful for mental health and psychosocial researchers and practitioners working in different parts of the world which are affected by war and conflict.

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Social Determinants of Health

University of Minnesota via Coursera

• Coursera Help
• Free Online Course (Audit)
• English
• Paid Certificate Available
• 5 weeks long, 18 hours’ worth of material
• 6th Feb 2023
• Beginner
• English

These online courses for health professionals examine the methodological approaches and research tools that inform our understanding of best practices in working with science teams, communities, and with data.

The topics of this course include:

1. Community-Based Participatory Research
2. Team Science
3. Community-Level Data
4. Informatics and the Social Determinants of Health: Knowledge Management
5. Data Applications: ANOVA Analysis and Line Graph Visualization

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Understanding Medical Research

Offered by yale university.

• Flexible deadlines
• Reset deadlines in accordance to your schedule.
• Shareable Certificate
• Earn a Certificate upon completion.
• 100% online
• Start instantly and learn at your own schedule.
• Beginner Level
• Approx. 17 hours to complete.
• English

How can you tell if the bold headlines seen on social media are truly touting the next big thing or if the article isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on?

Understanding Medical Studies will provide you with the tools and skills you need to critically interpret medical studies, and determine for yourself the difference between good and bad science.

The course covers study-design, research methods, and statistical interpretation. It also delves into the dark side of medical research by covering fraud, biases, and common misinterpretations of data.

Each lesson will highlight case-studies from real-world journal articles.

By the end of this course, you’ll have the tools you need to determine the trustworthiness of the scientific information you’re reading and, of course, whether your Facebook friend is wrong.

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Introduction to Food and Health

Stanford Medicine Free Certificates & CME Credit

• Online Course, Stanford, CA
• Estimated Time to Complete: 2.5 hours.
• Registration Fee: FREE

We find ourselves facing global epidemics of obesity and diabetes. To address these public health crises, we urgently need to explore innovative educational strategies for physicians and the general public.

Physicians who eat a healthy, balanced diet and who understand what that entails, are more effective at counseling their patients to improve their health behaviors.

This CME activity provides a practical approach to supporting healthy eating for a variety of medical needs. Using didactic videos, animated cases, and interactive activities course participants will gain proficiency in recommending well-established nutritional practices and assessing barriers to healthy eating for patients and physicians alike.

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Unconscious Bias in Medicine

Stanford Medicine Free Certificates & CME Credit

• Online Course, Stanford, CA
• Estimated Time to Complete: 1.00 Hour
• Registration Fee: FREE

This CME activity provides education on unconscious bias in the academic medicine workplace.

Existing research on unconscious bias will provide a science-based view of this seemingly non-science topic.

Case studies with examples of unconscious bias, self-assessment opportunities, and exploring bias busting strategies will enable learners to understand how to bring the content into their own unique environments.

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Health Across the Gender Spectrum

• Stanford Medicine Free Certificates & CME Credit
• Online, self-paced, EdX
• Tuition: $0.00

This course offers an intimate, story-based introduction to the experiences of six transgender children and their families.

Through illustrated stories and short teaching videos, learners will gain a better understanding of gender identity and the gender spectrum.

Stanford physicians, K-12 educators, and transgender faculty members offer practical tips for parents, teachers, healthcare providers and anyone who wants to help create a more gender-expansive environment – one in which all people can live authentically.

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So, you want to be a nurse?

Open University Free Courses

• Duration & workload: 6 hours’ worth of material
• Sessions: On-Demand
• Level: Beginner
• OpenLearn Help
• Free Certificate
• English
• Certificate Available

This free course, so you want to be a nurse? A brief introduction to nursing, provides an overview of what nursing entails.

Focusing on nursing in the UK specifically, but also looking at its place globally, you will learn about the four fields of nursing in the UK, what nurse training involves, as well as what makes a great nurse.

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Psychological research, obedience and ethics

The Open University

• OpenLearn Help
• Free Certificate
• English
• Certificate Available
• 5 hours’ worth of material
• On-Demand
• Beginner

In this free course, psychological research, obedience and ethics, you will learn about the importance of ethics in research that is undertaken by psychologists.

You will read about the famous study on obedience conducted by Stanley Milgram and watch two psychologists talk about their research with meerkats and chimpanzees.

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COVID-19 Contact Tracing

Johns Hopkins University

• Provider: Coursera Help
• Free Online Course 
• English
• Paid Certificate Available
• Duration & workload: 1 weeklong, 6-7 hours’ worth of material
• Sessions: 6th Feb 2023                                                                  
• Beginner

The COVID-19 crisis has created an unprecedented need for contact tracing across the country, requiring thousands of people to learn key skills quickly.

In this introductory course, students will learn about the science of SARS-CoV-2, including the infectious period, the clinical presentation of COVID-19, and the evidence for how SARS-CoV-2 is transmitted from person-to-person and why contact tracing can be such an effective public health intervention.

Students will learn about how contact tracing is done, including how to build rapport with cases, identify their contacts, and support both cases and their contacts to stop transmission in their communities.

The course will also cover several important ethical considerations around contact tracing, isolation, and quarantine. Finally, the course will identify some of the most common barriers to contact tracing efforts along with strategies to overcome them.

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COVID-19 Training for Healthcare Workers

Stanford University

• Provider: Coursera Help
• Free Online Course (Audit)
• English
• Paid Certificate Available
• 1 weeklong, 8-9 hours’ worth of material
• Sessions: 27th Feb 2023                                                                                                                                   

COVID-19 is rapidly spreading across the globe and all providers must be prepared to recognize, stabilize and treat patients with novel coronavirus infection.

Following completion of this short course physicians, nurses, and other healthcare professionals will have a unified, evidenced-based approach to saving the lives of patients with COVID-19, including those who are critically ill. Learning modules are broken into short videos presented in a richly illustrated and compelling manner.

Topics include symptoms and signs in patients with COVID-19, early stabilization of patients, preventing the need for intubation, and ventilator management.

The best evidence and guidelines are summarized while accompanying handouts provide written learning points and links to online resources. Simple infographics are available for providers to utilize within their care facilities to educate and promote optimal care across their entire institution.

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Understanding multiple sclerosis

University of Tasmania

• Provider: independent
• free online course
• English
• certificate available
• 6 weeks long, 2 hours per week
• Session:13th march, 2023

This course is a free online course that aims to improve understanding and awareness of MS.

Members of the public will increase their knowledge of MS-related issues and those in the MS community will be empowered to create and contribute to personalized MS management plans.

The course is designed for anyone with an interest in MS including:

• People living with MS, their families and carers
• Medical and nursing professionals
• Allied health professionals
• Advocates, service delivery staff, support workers

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Understanding traumatic brain injury

University of Tasmania

• Provider: independent 
• free online course
• English
• certificate available
• 5 weeks long, 2 hours a week
• Sessions: 27th March 2023

Understanding TBI is a massive open online course (MOOC), offering university-quality education about TBI covering the spectrum from mild concussion through to severe injury.

This course is designed to be accessible and is suitable for anyone with a personal or professional interest in learning more about TBI, including:

• Sporting coaches and sports association members
• Professional and amateur sports people
• Teachers and school administrators
• Risk and safety professionals
• Health policy makers
• Anyone interested in brain health and neuroscience.

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Introduction to Marburg Virus Disease 

OpenWHO

• Provider: OpenWHO Help
• Free Certificate
• English
• Certificate Available
• Sessions: On-Demand

This course introduces Marburg Virus Disease and outlines the signs, symptoms, diagnosis, transmission routes and epidemiology of the disease. It also discusses prevention and control strategies.

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Infection Prevention in Maternal Care

OpenWHO

• Provider: OpenWHO Help
• Free Certificate
• English
• Certificate Available
• Sessions: On-Demand

An increased number of women are attending health facilities for antenatal care, labor, childbirth and neonatal care.

One in ten deaths associated with pregnancy and childbirth is due to sepsis with more than 95% of deaths due to maternal sepsis occurring in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

Caesarean section is the single most important risk factor for maternal infection after childbirth.

Among hospital-born babies, infections are responsible for 4% to 56% of all causes of death in the neonatal period and three in ten deaths due to neonatal sepsis are attributable to resistant pathogens.

Therefore, there is an urgent need for strengthened training strategies, more specifically, on improving successful infection prevention and control (IPC) implementation and country capacity building.

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Influenza prevention and control

OpenWHO

• Provider: OpenWHO Help
• Free Certificate
• English
• Certificate Available
• Sessions: On-Demand

This course focuses on tools that can be used to prevent and control influenza. These tools include seasonal influenza vaccines, diagnostics, and therapeutics.

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Reducing antimicrobial resistance

OpenWHO

• Provider: OpenWHO Help
• Free Certificate
• English
• Certificate Available
• Sessions: On-Demand

The aim of this course is to improve the prevention, detection, treatment and cure of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and other reproductive tract infections (RTIs) in settings serving pregnant women and their families.

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Rabies & One Health

OpenWHO

• Provider: OpenWHO Help
• Free Certificate
• English
• Certificate Available
• Sessions: On-Demand

Despite being fully preventable, dog-mediated human rabies kills tens of thousands of people every year, especially in rural and impoverished areas in Africa and Asia.

This course provides participants with knowledge about the biology and epidemiology of this Neglected Zoonotic Disease, the current “Zero by 30” rabies elimination strategy, and how to prevent rabies in people and dogs by taking a One Health approach. The learning package consists of seven modules, which include downloadable video-lectures by global experts and professionals confronted with rabies in the field.

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Recognizing and managing anaphylaxis

OpenWHO

• Provider: OpenWHO Help
• Free Certificate
• English
• Certificate Available
• Sessions: On-Demand

Anaphylaxis is a severe, immediate allergic reaction. Symptoms that can be life-threatening can occur within seconds to minutes, rarely hours, after contact with the allergenic substance including medicines and vaccines.

The course Recognizing and managing anaphylaxis provides practical guidance to the frontline health care providers and vaccinators key information on its identification, differentiating it from other clinical conditions such as fainting and other stress related responses. It also provides step by step guidance on the case management at the site of the event and the process of referral.

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The Joint Risk Assessment (JRA OT)

OpenWHO

• Provider: OpenWHO Help
• Free Certificate
• English
• Certificate Available
• Sessions: On-Demand

Activities to manage and reduce risks from zoonotic diseases benefit from coordination and collaboration between ministries. In this course, participants will explore the 10-step process for setting up and conducting a joint qualitative risk assessment at national and/ or subnational levels.

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SARS-CoV-2 antigen rapid diagnostic testing

OpenWHO

• Provider: OpenWHO Help
• Free Certificate
• English
• Certificate Available
• Sessions: On-Demand

All personnel performing SARS-CoV-2 antigen rapid diagnostic tests (Ag-RDT) need to understand how to safely perform testing, ensure quality testing and interpret results.

This course was developed by WHO and FIND, the global alliance for diagnostics, to provide theoretical knowledge on SARS-CoV-2 Ag-RDT testing. The learning package consists of 10 modules, which include recorded presentations and videos.

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Clinical management of COVID-19

OpenWHO

• Provider: OpenWHO Help
• Free Certificate
• English
• Certificate Available
• Sessions: On-Demand

This course of the Clinical Management of Patients with COVID-19 course series provides an overview of the management strategies in caring for patients with mild, moderate, and severe COVID-19. Investigations and diagnostics are discussed with ‘Laboratory considerations in COVID-19’ and three modules dedicated to ‘Imaging in COVID-19.’

Administration of oxygen is given dedicated attention with ‘Oxygen therapy via nasal cannula and face masks.’ Management is addressed with the modules ‘Management of mild and moderate COVID-19,’ ‘Management of severe COVID-19’ and ‘Co-infections and use of antimicrobials in COVID-19.’ Please note there is a separate course covering Therapeutics and Prophylactics for COVID-19, which complements this course.

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Understanding Dementia

University of Tasmania

• Provider: independent
• free online course and certificate
• English
• certificate available
• 7 weeks long, 3 hours per week
• Session: 7th Feb 2023

The 7-week curriculum is divided into three units: ‘the brain’, ‘the diseases’ and ‘the person’. It covers a range of topics including basic brain anatomy, pathology, dementia research, risk factors, the difference between normal ageing and dementia, diagnosis, medical management, living with dementia, progression and staging, palliation, behavioral and psychological symptoms, therapeutic approaches, dementia friendly communities and more. Participants will have an opportunity to engage with the material via video clips, activities, games, scenarios and quizzes. Furthermore, they will have an opportunity to meet an international network of peers online to discuss the key issues surrounding dementia.

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