POPLHLTH 101 Health Systems I Course Staff

POPLHLTH 101 Health Systems I
Course Staff
Lecturer
Dr Laura Wilkinson Meyers
Health Systems
School of Population Health
Senior Tutor
Monique Palaone-Smith
Health Systems
School of Population Health
Course Email: poplhlth101@auckland.ac.nz
What is the course about?
Relatively rich countries such as New Zealand generally spend a large proportion of their resources
on health care. But does spending more on health lead to better health? For individuals, the answer
is often ‘yes’, but more resources for health won’t necessarily mean that the whole population is
healthier. Whether or not spending on health leads to a healthy population depends largely on the
way a country’s health system is organised.
This course introduces you to the basic concepts necessary to understand how health systems work.
You will learn important tools for navigating your way through the complexity of health systems,
including:
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The different ‘arenas’ within health (primary care, hospitals, public health)
Different organisational types
Professions and occupations in the health sector
The economics of health and healthcare
Evaluating and comparing different health systems
With this basic understanding of who’s who and what’s what, the course will offer some
understanding of how all these different elements interact. In the second half of the course you will
learn some basic tools to assess how healthy the New Zealand health system actually is and what
options there are for change.
What skills will I develop?
For many students in this course, it will be one of the first experiences of reading and writing
academic material. The development of necessary academic skills is a process that lasts the whole of
your degree. During this course you will begin to acquire these skills in a systematic way.
The key skills you will begin to develop while you are studying this course include:
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Note-taking
Comprehension of academic sources
 How to make sense of academic literature
Academic essay writing
 How to structure research and ideas in the form of an academic essay
 How to integrate academic source material into an essay
 How to correctly reference academic source material
Independent research
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 How to find academic literature relevant to a topic
Writing short exam and test answers
The University has many useful resources specifically designed to help you develop these skills. If
you haven’t found out about them already, the two most important resources are the Library
(www.library.auckland.ac.nz) and the Student Learning Services
(http://www.library.auckland.ac.nz/student-learning/ ). Both these parts of the University run
courses on particular aspects of research and essay writing. We will be working with the SLC and the
Tamaki Library staff this semester to provide opportunities for additional support with these skills.
What materials will I need for this course?
This course does not have a prescribed textbook as there is not one book published that covers the
topics in this course at first year level.
The 2 key resources you will need are:
1. CECIL/LMS – where you can access lecture slides, additional readings, information about the
course throughout the semester, and your marks.
https://lms.auckland.ac.nz/courses/POPLHLTH.101/T.S1.2014/SitePages/First%20Page.aspx
2. The Course’s Web Page on the library’s web site which contains links to all your required
readings and other useful research cites:
https://coursepages.library.auckland.ac.nz/poplhlth/101/
How is this course organised?
There are two one hour lectures and one hour tutorial each week (except for weeks 1 and 6). The
content of this course is organised into 5 modules. Each module will consist of 3 or 4 lectures. Please
see the course schedule at the end of this document.
How is this course assessed?
Course Assessment:
2 written assignments
10 tutorial quizzes
1 mid-term test:
1 final examination:
40% (20% each)
10% (1% each)
10%
40%
There are two assignments for this course. Each assignment assesses the students’ understanding of
the topic spanning at least one course module. It is expected that all assignments completed in
POPLHLTH 101 will be:
• researched using good quality, academic resources
• written in an appropriate academic essay style, and
• Referenced using APA style guidelines.
There are 10 tutorial quizzes which will be based on specific readings for that tutorial as well as
material covered in class. The quizzes consist of 5 Multi Choice Questions. At least TWO questions
will be based on the readings assigned for that tutorial.
2014 Course Schedule
Lecture
Intro
1
MODULE 1:
2
Health Systems
3
4
5
6
MODULE 2:
7
Organisations
8
9
10
Module
MODULE 3:
The Health
Professions
11
12
13
14
MODULE 4:
The
Economics of
Health
15
16
17
18
19
20
Review
Tutorial
No Tutorial
1
Elements of Health
Systems
2
Assignment One
3
NZ Health System
Organisations
4
Professions in Health
Care
Midterm Test During Lecture
Professions in the Health Sector
Mid Semester Break April 14-26
Relationships between the dominant players
Taking a Population Health Perspective: New Roles
and Players. New Approaches.
Introduction to Markets in Health
Market Failure
Film
Film
Government Intervention
Economic Evaluation
No Tutorial
5
Integration in Health
care
6
Assignment Two
7
Markets In Health
Care
8
Government
Interventions
What Indicators of Success Should We Use? Comparing
Health Systems Internationally
How well does the NZ health system perform? Why does
NZ do?
9
Assessing Health
Systems
23
What would need to change in order to do better?
How easy is it to make changes?
10
24
Wrap Up, Evaluation & Exam Review
Exam Review and
Prep
21
MODULE 5:
Comparing
Health Systems
Topic
Introduction to the Course (Admin)
Intro to Health Systems and Healthy People
The Basic Elements of Health Systems
Primary Health Care/ The New Zealand Story
Ownership of organisations
Functions of organisations
Overview of NZ health system organisations
The changing organisational landscape
The Changing Face of Health Work
The Traditional Players in the Game of Health: Doctors,
Nurses & Managers
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