POPLHLTH 300 Health Sector Professional Competencies - Course Outlines

Course Prescription

Develops core skills in areas of project management, financial management, communication, leadership, team development, and cultural competence. An integrated project development approach is used to expose students to the key principles in these areas and to enable them to build a development plan.

Course Overview

This practical, end-of-degree, capstone course develops the students' understanding of the importance of competencies in the health sector with particular attention being paid to leadership, communication, project planning and working as a part of a team. Throughout the course students critically reflect on their own competencies drawing on a range of national and international health sector competency frameworks.

The course is built around a common health sector process where funders like District Health Boards call for project proposals from providers in response to complex health challenges. The students work in teams to develop evidence-informed project proposals in response to a simulated request for proposal (RFP) process on a current real-world problem.

Course Requirements

Prerequisite: POPLHLTH 204

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course, students will be able to:

Plan, research and write a project proposal that persuasively presents an evidence-informed argument for a population-health intervention appropriate for a specified health context. (Capability 2.2, 3.2 and 3.3)
Work effectively within a collaborative group-project environment demonstrating skills in relation to working with others, including: the ability to provide constructive feedback to others; the ability to receive feedback from others; the ability to implement changes to your own behaviour in relation to feedback received. (Capability 2.3, 4.2 and 5.1)
Critically analyse your own level of competency in relation to the competencies expected of professionals working in the health sector and devise strategies for ongoing competency development. (Capability 2.3, 4.2 and 5.3)
Critically examine your strengths, values, preferred communication style, and preferred approaches to learning to prepare for participating in typical personal development planning processes utilised in health sector workplaces. (Capability 2.3, 4.2 and 5.3)
Demonstrate application of population health theories and frameworks (including change and risk management) to a real world health problem. (Capability 1.2, 2.2 and 3.2)
Evaluate and reflect upon your ability to present and defend an argument for a response to a population health problem. (Capability 2.3, 4.1 and 5.3)

Assessments

Assessment Type	Percentage	Classification
Assignment - competencies in health sector role descriptions	10%	Individual Coursework
Project scope	10%	Individual Coursework
Project proposal	30%	Group Coursework
Critical reflection on personal development	30%	Individual Coursework
Portfolio on competency development	20%	Individual Coursework
5 types	100%

Assessment Type	Learning Outcome Addressed
	1	2	3	4	5	6
Assignment - competencies in health sector role descriptions
Project scope
Project proposal
Critical reflection on personal development
Portfolio on competency development

Policy on late assessments

It is very important to get your assessments in on time.

If you are not able to meet the deadline for submission you must notify the course coordinator/lecturer, BEFORE the due date/time to avoid penalties resulting from not having an approved extension.

If circumstances prevent a student making an application before the assessment due date/time, the Academic Director will consider and may approve an application for late submission.

The School of Population Health policy on late assessments is as follows:

Due dates for assessments are strictly observed.

Extensions will only be given in exceptional and unavoidable circumstances, and if approved by the course coordinator/lecturer BEFORE the assessment due date. Penalties will be imposed for extensions (see below).

Late assessments where an extension has not been given will be penalised as follows:

Up to 2 weeks (including weekend days) late - 5% off the assessment total mark for each day late e.g.

if an assessment is out of 40 and is 1 day late, then 2 marks (5% of 40) will be deducted from the grade achieved

if an assessment is out of 40 and is 5 days late, then 10 marks (25% of 40) will be deducted from the grade achieved

More than 14 days late – the assessment will NOT be graded

Learning Resources

No textbook is prescribed for this course but most of the lectures have recommended readings. Students are expected to have perused these readings before the relevant sessions and to be prepared to discuss issues and questions arising from both. The readings have been designed to help students expand their reading on each topic and assist with assignment work. Students are, however, encouraged to read more widely. Student assignments are expected to go well beyond the references listed by staff.

Details of recommended readings will be distributed in the week before each lecture, with electronic copies posted on CANVAS where available.

Course Contacts

Andrew Lynch

Lecturer

andrew.lynch@auckland.ac.nz

Workload Expectations

This course is a standard 15 point course and students are expected to spend 10 hours per week involved in each 15 point course that they are enrolled in.

For this course, you can expect 2 hours of lectures, a 2 hour workshop, 2 hours of reading and thinking about the content and 4 hours of work on assignments.

Other Information

This course is held at The University of Auckland Grafton Campus. Lectures are 8-10 am on Friday except week starting 31st August when it is on a Tuesday 3-5 pm . Tutorials are on Friday 2-4 pm except week starting 31st August when they are on Tuesday at 1 - 3 pm

Digital Resources

Course materials are made available in a learning and collaboration tool called Canvas which also includes reading lists and lecture recordings (where available).

Please remember that the recording of any class on a personal device requires the permission of the instructor.

Academic Integrity

The University of Auckland will not tolerate cheating, or assisting others to cheat, and views cheating in coursework as a serious academic offence. The work that a student submits for grading must be the student's own work, reflecting their learning. Where work from other sources is used, it must be properly acknowledged and referenced. This requirement also applies to sources on the internet. A student's assessed work may be reviewed against online source material using computerised detection mechanisms.

Inclusive Learning

All students are asked to discuss any impairment related requirements privately, face to face and/or in written form with the course coordinator, lecturer or tutor.

Student Disability Services also provides support for students with a wide range of impairments, both visible and invisible, to succeed and excel at the University. For more information and contact details, please visit the Student Disability Services’ website at http://disability.auckland.ac.nz

Special Circumstances

If your ability to complete assessed coursework is affected by illness or other personal circumstances outside of your control, contact a member of teaching staff as soon as possible before the assessment is due.

If your personal circumstances significantly affect your performance, or preparation, for an exam or eligible written test, refer to the University’s aegrotat or compassionate consideration page: https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/students/academic-information/exams-and-final-results/during-exams/aegrotat-and-compassionate-consideration.html.

This should be done as soon as possible and no later than seven days after the affected test or exam date.

Student Feedback

At the end of every semester students will be invited to give feedback on the course and teaching through a tool called SET or Qualtrics. The lecturers and course co-ordinators will consider all feedback and respond with summaries and actions.

Your feedback helps teachers to improve the course and its delivery for future students.

Class Representatives in each class can take feedback to the department and faculty staff-student consultative committees.

Previous iterations of the course had two large group projects with quite different expectations on learning and assessment tasks. Some students thought this was too much group work, and did not give them enough opportunity to demonstrate their individual learning. It also meant there was a lot of content that the groups had to make sense of with each other related to the two different types of projects. We have now reduced the group work component to one assignment.

Some students have previously felt that they did not receive sufficient individual feedback on their learning, particularly in response to the new area of personal development learning in relation to competency development. The introduction of the new electronic portfolio on competency development will provide a series of opportunities to tailor specific feedback to the students in line with a number of the learning outcomes of the course.

Student Charter and Responsibilities

The Student Charter assumes and acknowledges that students are active participants in the learning process and that they have responsibilities to the institution and the international community of scholars. The University expects that students will act at all times in a way that demonstrates respect for the rights of other students and staff so that the learning environment is both safe and productive. For further information visit Student Charter (https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/students/forms-policies-and-guidelines/student-policies-and-guidelines/student-charter.html).

Disclaimer

Elements of this outline may be subject to change. The latest information about the course will be available for enrolled students in Canvas.

In this course you may be asked to submit your coursework assessments digitally. The University reserves the right to conduct scheduled tests and examinations for this course online or through the use of computers or other electronic devices. Where tests or examinations are conducted online remote invigilation arrangements may be used. The final decision on the completion mode for a test or examination, and remote invigilation arrangements where applicable, will be advised to students at least 10 days prior to the scheduled date of the assessment, or in the case of an examination when the examination timetable is published.

Capability 1:	Disciplinary Knowledge and Practice
Capability 2:	Critical Thinking
Capability 3:	Solution Seeking
Capability 4:	Communication and Engagement
Capability 5:	Independence and Integrity

POPLHLTH 300 : Health Sector Professional Competencies

Medical and Health Sciences

2020 Semester Two (1205) (15 POINTS)