Policy and Planning in Health Care

• • Public policy analysis and healthcare
  • - definitions and descriptions of policy
  • - types of public policies
  • - distinctiveness of public policy
  • - policy analysis
  • - policymaking process
  • - using digital technologies to support the policy process
  • Contemporary policies that impact on aspects of health service delivery:
  • - public and private hospital policies
  • - health insurance and funding policies
  • - consumer service provision policies
  • - health care policies, including digital health policies and ethical perspectives
  • - policy driven integration of digital technologies into healthcare
  • Policies impacting on the Australian healthcare workforce
  • - regulated workforce
  • - unregulated workforce
  • Health policies for disadvantaged groups, including
  • - social justice and equity perspective
  • - social determinants of health and healthcare utilisation
  • * Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
  • * people with mental health problems
  • * people with disabilities
  • * older people
  • Reforming health policymaking
  • - constraints on policymaking
  • - inclusion on the policy agenda
  • - improved policymaking and policymaking structures
  • - strengthening community and consumer participation
  • - values and equity
  • - key future trends

In order to enrol in this subject, you must be accepted into one of the following degrees:

Core

• ACU-LMH-MAS-2022
• ACU-LMH-MAS-2021

Elective

• ACU-HAD-GCE-2022
• ACU-GHA-MAS-2022
• ACU-HAD-GCE-2021
• ACU-GHA-MAS-2021

Additional requirements

No additional requirements

As an aspiring health care leader, it is essential for students to understand the contexts within which healthcare decisions are made including social, economic, political and technological contexts, among others. While many healthcare decisions are made at the local level, decisions made at policy level will have an impact on all levels of health care and on all practitioners working within the health care system. Accordingly, this subject supports students in developing the ability to plan, implement and evaluate policy-related strategies that promote effective, culturally safe health service administration in a variety of health settings and among diverse communities, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Students will also be supported to develop specialised skills in analysing and evaluating solutions to complex problems that are associated with policy development, planning and implementation as well as the consequential outcomes of policy decisions.

This subject provides the opportunity for students to analyse issues that relate to policy development, planning and implementation in health care service delivery in Australia. This subject is founded on a social justice and equity framework with a special focus on evaluating policies that impact on the health of disadvantaged people, as well as on strategies that will reform policymaking, delivery and financing of health care in Australia.

The aim of this subject is to provide opportunity for students to explore policy decision-making processes, to analyse underlying assumptions associated with policy decisions, to evaluate outcomes of policy decisions and to appraise potential issues for policy reform.

In order to pass this unit, students are expected to submit three graded assessment tasks. In addition, students must achieve a cumulative grade of at least 50% across all assessments. The assessment strategy used allows for the progressive development of knowledge and skills necessary for the student to be able to consider healthcare policy approaches that impact on health outcomes, particularly for disadvantaged population groups. In order to become effective at improving healthcare outcomes through effective policy and planning approaches, the student must first develop comprehensive knowledge of the Australian healthcare system and of policy making processes. This is demonstrated via their participation in class discussions with both their peers and with the lecturer resulting in development of a critical review of current policy, a critical evaluation of the underlying assumptions that led to the policy decision and a critical evaluation of the policymaking outcome/s. In the second assessment task, students are required to collaborate with peers in an online environment to evaluate some of the challenges facing healthcare policymakers as well as population groups and healthcare providers on whom policy decisions impact. The final assessment task involves writing an essay, report or proposal identifying a health-related issue in need of policy reform and to develop a policy aimed at addressing the issue, relevant to a disadvantaged population group. Students will be required to evaluate the potential impact of their policy decision on health outcomes for the identified population group.

• Written Research Policy Review - Enables students to critically analyse current health care policy. (30%)
• Group Work - Enables students to collaborate with peers in an online environment to evaluate the impact of policy decision making in a health care environment. (20%)
• Report / Proposal / Essay - Enables students to evaluate the potential impact of an identified area in need of policy reform. (50%)