(Col 1) remote units

This unit provides health leaders with an introduction to financial management in health and aged care settings as a basis for understanding the impact of leadership decision-making on financial outcomes and how financial decision-making impacts on clinical service delivery. Content includes an overview of health economics and economic evaluation, health care funding models, the principles, practices and tools for financial planning and management, basic accounting principles and financial terminology and using financial information and reporting for negotiating financial plans, tracking and evaluating financial performance and using financial information in decision-making within the clinical environment.

Planning occurs at all levels within all health organisations, government, non-government and in the private sector. There is a hierarchy in planning health services with some global overarching policy documents, national agreed priorities which affect corporate and regional plans as well as local services and projects. Planning focuses on future directions for health, is value based and resource allocation driven. The process of health planning will be outlined including how to conduct a needs analysis, develop an evidence based approach, consult with stakeholders including the community, document an implementation plan and evaluate outcomes.

This is a flexible learning unit looking at Human Resource Management as a strategic activity of health organisations especially as workforce shortages pose significant challenges to the health, welfare and aged care sectors. The workforce, with appropriate knowledge and expertise, is essential to the efficient and effective delivery of quality health services. Successful organisations shape their workforce to anticipate current and future business directions and goals. Workforce planning is a crucial element of this approach and its success.

Most professions in the health sciences need to read and interpret statistics relating to individual health status, interpret health risks in communities, and engage in the evaluation of interventions, or impact of health policies or programs. Many public health practitioners are actively involved in surveillance, quantitative research and/or evaluation. This unit provides students with the fundamental skills they need to analyse and interpret results from quantitative data collections. Content includes descriptive statistics, undertaking comparisons between groups, quantifying associations between variables, and statistical power. The unit is highly applied with the main focus being on interpretation and appraisal of statistical results and conducting analyses using statistical software.

Epidemiology is the study of the distribution and determinants of disease and other health-related conditions in populations, and the application of this study to the control of health problems. Epidemiology encompasses a broad range of activities fundamental to the health sciences. The course is aimed to equip students with the ability to understand and critically appraise evidence from the health sciences used in the formulation of clinical interventions, assessments of population disease burden, and development of health policy. Students will be taught the fundamental concepts and principles of epidemiology and will be given the opportunities through exercises and tutorials to apply these concepts and principles to case studies from current epidemiological research and practice.

This unit will provide an understanding of the key elements of the National Health Reform in Australia. There will be a strong focus on the management of delivering public hospital services under the evolving reform. The unit will cover the establishment of service level agreements, outlining the purchaser – provider model and exploring its impacts and deliverables. The unit will also explore how performance should be monitored and reported. Finally, it will examine the clinical and business governance models that facilitate implementation of such major reforms. Links between quality and performance will also be explored.

This unit examines the nature of public health and develops a systemic understanding of various public health policy frameworks and issues. The unit provides the context and history for understanding public health approaches, explores the cultural and social dimensions of health and illness and the economic and political environment in which health policies and strategies are developed and implemented. The unit advocates a view of health that includes an implicit recognition of the physical, social and economic environment, affirms the importance of social justice and equity in health care, and emphasises the importance of inter-sectoral collaboration.

By investigating and addressing the multilevel determinants of health outcomes and inequalities, health promotion initiatives aim to improve the health and wellbeing of individuals and societies. In this unit, we will nurture an understanding of concepts and models of health promotion, evaluate the relative successes of recent and classic initiatives within Australia and overseas, and critically engage with debates concerned with the most appropriate strategies for tackling health inequalities in the context of major societal challenges (e.g. population ageing, urbanisation and climate change). Core competencies are nurtured (e.g. Plan and evaluate an intervention) to prepare students for practicing and further study in the field of health promotion.

In this unit postgraduate students develop a proposal for a research study in an area of interest, drawing upon their knowledge and experiences from other units in their program of study. Students learn how to apply research methods to a variety of research situations and questions; to understand how research questions are developed and answered empirically through suitable choice of research methodology, design and method; and how research findings are validated and communicated.

This unit is designed to allow high achieving students to comprehensively explore a relevant topic of interest to them, either through a minor supervised research project or industry-based project. This unit’s flexible delivery offers a unique experience specific to each project and student. Students in this unit will develop extensive skills through project-based learning essential for employment and/or higher degree studies.