Enrolments for 2020 have closed.
Optimising Interprofessional Practice for Healthcare Professionals
Postgraduate | ACU-HLSC673 | 2020
Course information for 2020 intake View information for 2024 course intake
- Study method
- 100% online
- Assessments
- 100% online
- Entry requirements
- Part of a degree
- Duration
- 13 weeks
FEE-HELP available
Optimising Interprofessional Practice for Healthcare Professionals
About this subject
On successful completion of this subject, students should be able to:
- Demonstrate advanced knowledge of health team processes, and effective communication skills to build and lead effective healthcare teams
- Critically analyse and discuss the advanced competencies and processes required for healthcare professionals to optimise the quality of interprofessional collaborative practice and education
- Critically appraise, and discuss personal and professional knowledge, skills, attitudes and practice in relation to the competencies associated with optimal collaborative practice and reflect on the impact of these on the student’s own interprofessional practice and team within which the student works, in order to determine and address areas of improvement
- Apply enhanced interprofessional competencies to practice and appraise personal and professional contribution in order to provide leadership to foster continuous improvement of collaborative discipline specific, intra-disciplinary, multi-disciplinary and interprofessional practice in contemporary healthcare
- Health team function and processes
- Definition and key principles of interprofessional practice including extended and advanced scope of practice
- Key policy and legislation guiding interprofessional practice
- Types of interprofessional teams and models of care
- Principles for optimal team function
- Discipline and interprofessional practice competencies
- Discipline and professional boundaries and risk management
- Analysis of teams and team dynamics
- Workplace culture
- Roles and responsibilities; including role of the client in collaborative care
- Interprofessional Teamwork interventions
- Effective communication in teams and skills for optimal interprofessional relationships
- Different forms of communication in healthcare and their role in interprofessional practice
- Facilitators and barriers to effective communication
- Conflict management
- Leadership
- Leadership styles and the influence on interprofessional practice
- Change management models
- Barriers and facilitators to change
- Managing change
- Interprofessional Education
- Definition and key principles of interprofessional education
- The role of IPE
- Factors impacting IPE
- Strategies to facilitate IPE
Collaboration between health professionals and consumers is essential to optimise person-centred care. Healthcare professionals looking to engage in leadership or supervisory roles, need advanced knowledge, skills and competencies of interprofessional practice to enhance their contribution to holistic care and optimise health outcomes.
Building on current practice knowledge, this subject will use collaborative processes and reflective activities, to enhance theoretical knowledge and interprofessional competencies in healthcare professionals. The role of various Healthcare professionals within the interprofessional context to optimise collaborative practice within the interprofessional context across all health care settings will be explored. Students will be encouraged to critically analyse their own interprofessional capabilities and competencies in order to critically evaluate interprofessional collaborative practice within the workplace. Students will subsequently propose and evaluate initiatives and strategies to optimise interprofessional collaboration.
This subject will enable students to develop and apply enhanced knowledge and skills in interprofessional practice to optimise the consumer-therapist and interprofessional relationships. This subject aims to support healthcare professionals to develop and provide leadership in collaborative multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches to health care, within current and future practice.
ACU-HLSC673 assessments have been purposefully designed to replicate authentic reflection on reasoning, thinking and problem solving within personal clinical practice. The assessments incorporate a broad range of tasks aligned to andragogic principles of adult learning, facilitating choice and self-direction for the post graduate student. Unit assessments tools have been designed from an “Assessment for Learning” approach in order to not only provide evidence for judgement of learning, but also to reinforce, facilitate and support learning and application of learning.
In the first assessment task students will be asked to reflect on current interprofessional practice within their work setting and communicate these reflections to inform areas for personal and professional development. Assessment tasks 2 and 3 are aimed to encourage students to identify an area within their work setting where interprofessional practice could be enhanced. Students will reflect on personal (Assessment task 3) and collaborative team (Assessment task 2) practice; and apply these learnings to inform future decisions related to improving personal and team collaborative practice; and the ability to communicate reflections, collaborative reasoning, decision making and innovations to practice, to management and peers. (Seminar-Video Conference)
The broad range of assessment activities encourages application of reflection and application of enhanced interprofessional competencies in practice. These assessments have been specifically timed to provide optimal enhancement for learning. Assessment has been aligned to the emerging complexities as students learn, assimilate and apply progressively advanced levels of professional and theoretical knowledge and enhanced critical analysis skills with the aim of optimizing each student’s ability to personally and professionally reflect, analyse and appraise practice. Scheduling of assessments will be equitable for both modes of delivery. Assessment tasks may be delivered and assessed locally with moderated according to University Policies and Procedures. All assessments will be submitted electronically.- Written critical reflection on current interprofessional practic (30%)
- Collaborative Educational Seminar with Critque (30%)
- Written critical evaluation personal and practice and application of learning (40%)
For textbook details check your university's handbook, website or learning management system (LMS).
Established in 1991 after amalgamating four eastern Australian Catholic tertiary institutes, Australian Catholic University now has seven campuses, from Brisbane to Melbourne and welcomes students of all beliefs. Specialising in arts, business, education, health sciences, law, theology and philosophy, ACU encourages its students to think critically and ethically and bring change to their communities and offer this online through Open Universities Australia.
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- QS Ranking 2024:
- 34
- Times Higher Education Ranking 2024:
- 29
Entry requirements
To enrol in this subject, you must be admitted into a degree.
Additional requirements
No additional requirements
Study load
- 0.125 EFTSL
- This is in the range of 10 to 12 hours of study each week.
Equivalent full time study load (EFTSL) is one way to calculate your study load. One (1.0) EFTSL is equivalent to a full-time study load for one year.
Find out more information on Commonwealth Loans to understand what this means to your eligibility for financial support.