Year
2024Credit points
10Campus offering
Prerequisites
HLSC603 Organisational Culture and Management AND HLSC604 Quality and Safety in Health Care AND HLSC605 Leadership in Health Care
Unit rationale, description and aim
This capstone unit builds on previous units in the course that focused on organisational culture and management (HLSC603), quality and safety in health care (HLSC604), leadership (HLSC605) and workforce management (HLSC606). These are critical aspects for effective leadership in a healthcare environment. Understanding organisational culture is essential for leading staff in managing resources for innovative practice improvement and implementing change processes.
This unit is essential for students to be able to use advanced knowledge and skill to create strategies for organisational change founded on an evidence-base and critical application of change theory, collaborative communication, workforce management and effective leadership. As leaders in driving change, students will be supported in developing and applying the skills necessary to predict potential outcomes of change and the impact on workforce, organisational performance and safety and quality improvement.
The aim of this unit is to develop health care leaders who will demonstrate competencies necessary to address health service challenges and lead staff in opportunities for socially responsible change, capacity building and quality improvement in a complex, evolving environment from both a national and international perspective.
Learning outcomes
To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.
Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.
Explore the graduate capabilities.
| Learning Outcome Number | Learning Outcome Description | Relevant Graduate Capabilities |
|---|---|---|
| LO1 | Demonstrate an understanding of the significance of effective leadership and how this has an impact on achieving quality improvement in a health care setting through appraising different approaches to change | GC1, GC2, GC7, GC9, GC11 |
| LO2 | Critically analyse principles of effective governance in leading change from a national and international perspective | GC1, GC2, GC7, GC9, GC11 |
| LO3 | Apply change management and effective leadership techniques aimed at successfully leading staff through accreditation, management of a sentinel event, disaster/crisis response or other identified change process | GC1, GC2, GC4, GC7, GC8, GC9, GC10, GC11, GC12 |
| LO4 | Create a strategic, ethically based health service delivery plan underpinned by organisational values that has the potential to improve organisational performance | GC1, GC2, GC7, GC8, GC9, GC11 |
Content
Topics will include:
- Theoretical underpinnings
- Leadership theory
- Leading Change
- Developing leadership self-awareness
- Strategic thinking
- Effective communication
- Appraising political, social, technological and economic factors that influence health service delivery
- Leadership in Action
- Leadership processes
- Strategic workforce management
- Leading and managing change processes (for example, accreditation, sentinel events, disaster/crisis)
- Balancing supply and demand in equitable resource allocation
- Decision-making models and application to healthcare environment
- Developing intra and intersectoral alliances
- Organisational ethics and corporate social responsibility
- Evaluating Change
- Evaluation of the relationship between governance, organisational culture and impact on organisational performance and quality improvement
Learning and teaching strategy and rationale
ACU Online
This unit uses an active learning approach to support students in the exploration of knowledge essential to the discipline. Students are provided with choice and variety in how they learn. Students are encouraged to contribute to asynchronous weekly discussions. Active learning opportunities provide students with opportunities to practice and apply their learning in situations similar to their future professions. Activities encourage students to bring their own examples to demonstrate understanding, application and engage constructively with their peers. Students receive regular and timely feedback on their learning, which includes information on their progress.
Multi-mode
This unit includes significant face-to-face interactions with lecturers and peers to assist students in linking theory with application of knowledge and skill. Lectures and online learning activities are utilised to convey content while collaboration with peers in face-to-face mode will support students in applying leadership techniques aimed at successfully leading staff through a change process such as accreditation, a sentinel event, a potential disaster/crisis or other identified change that requires effective strategic leadership to achieve optimal outcomes. There is potential for interaction with industry practitioners and/or site visits.
Learning and teaching strategies will reflect respect for the individual as an independent learner. Students will be expected to take responsibility for their learning and to participate actively with peers.
Assessment strategy and rationale
In order to pass this unit, students are expected to submit two graded assessment tasks. In addition, students must achieve a cumulative grade of at least 50% across both assessments.
In this unit, to support students in being able to demonstrate unit learning outcomes and develop graduate attributes, a standards-based assessment is utilised, consistent with University assessment requirements. The assessment strategy allows for the progressive development of knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary for the student to be able to demonstrate an understanding of leadership theory and the requisite skills necessary to achieve optimal outcomes when leading staff through change in health service delivery. These assessments are required to build student knowledge, skills and attitudes to graduate as a healthcare professional who can effectively lead staff through organisational change processes.
Assessment tasks are used that assess students’ ability to: (i) demonstrate the leadership skills necessary to effectively lead staff through a significant change process, and (ii) apply knowledge and skill in leadership to develop a draft health service plan.
Overview of assessments
| Brief Description of Kind and Purpose of Assessment Tasks | Weighting | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|
Assessment Task 1: Written Essay Enables students to appraise elements of effective leadership and impact of change processes in healthcare. | 50% | LO1, LO2 |
Assessment Task 2: Health Service Plan Enables students to apply knowledge and skill in leadership to develop a plan that addresses an area requiring improvement in a health care organisation. | 50% | LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4 |
Representative texts and references
Barr, & Dowding, L. (2019). Leadership in health care (4th edition.). SAGE Publications.
Clegg, S., Pitsis, T., & Mount, M. (2021). Managing and Organizations: An introduction to theory and practice (6th ed.). Sage Publications.
Kouzes, J. M. & Posner, B. Z. (2017). The leadership challenge: How to make extraordinary things happen in organizations (6th ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Lussier, R. N., & Achua, C. F. (2016). Leadership: Theory, application, & skill development (6th ed.). Boston, MA: South-Western/Cengage Learning