Quality and Safety in Health Care

• • Quality and safety systems
  • - Emergence of the quality and safety movement
  • - Consumer movement, globalisation
  • - Integrated governance systems
  • - Risk and quality management
  • Best practice for a quality and safe workforce
  • - Clinical/digital guidelines/pathways/data standards
  • - Integrated patient clinical records/electronic health records (EHRs)
  • - The clinical workforce
  • - Performance development
  • Person-centred approach to quality and safety
  • - Incident management
  • - Complaint management
  • - Patient rights and ethical care
  • - Promoting participation and partnerships with patients/consumers

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

Additional requirements

No additional requirements

Adverse events and poor quality care can have a significant impact on health care costs and health system sustainability. This subject is essential for future leaders in health care who need to have specialised knowledge and skill in applying effective quality measures in a digital environment to administer culturally safe health services across a variety of healthcare contexts.

In this subject, students will explore the emergence of the quality movement and accreditation and safety standards that have been progressively driven by consumer expectations around safe, quality care, in preparing to become effective health care administrators. This foundational knowledge is required to enable interpretation and evaluation of paper based and digitally supported, quality and safety processes and to develop a repertoire of quality improvement tools used to create strategies that improve quality and safety processes.

The aim of this subject is to ensure that students can effectively promote quality and safety leading to better health outcomes as well as cost efficiencies in a variety of health care settings. Managing health care in this way ensures that safe, quality care is a transformative process of continuous improvement that respects the dignity of individuals and contributes to the common good. 

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. In order to reward students for engagement and performance, a final graded result will be awarded. The assessment strategy used allows for the progressive development of knowledge and skills relevant to quality and safety in health care which are necessary for the student to be able to demonstrate achievement of learning outcomes. To become effective in improving safety and quality in healthcare, the student must first develop comprehensive knowledge of factors that impact on quality and safety through a reflective writing process. Reflective, foundational knowledge is further developed through collaboration with peers in an online seminar presentation that supports the interpretation and evaluation of quality and safety processes enabling the student to develop a repertoire of quality improvement tools. The application of quality improvement tools is necessary for the student to create strategies that transform quality and safety processes in a variety of health care settings which will be demonstrated in a final essay/proposal or report.

• Discussion Forum participation and individually submitted brief Quality Assessment Report - Enables students to engage in peer learning to identify and analyse the impact of emergent health and safety management (20%)
• Individual ePoster - Enables students to evaluate quality and safety processes and quality improvement tools. (30%)
• Essay / Proposal / Report - Enables students to apply knowledge and skill in creating strategies that transform quality and safety processes in a variety of health care settings. (50%)

For textbook details check your university's handbook, website or learning management system (LMS).