Tasmanian Graduate Trainee Program

The Scholarship Program

The Tasmanian Graduate Trainee Program is an initiative that seeks to address the issue of recruitment and retention of health management personnel within the health care industry in Tasmania. It offers academic and experiential training over a two year period. Trainees are university graduates who have a commitment to undertaking a health management role in Tasmania. During the program trainees undertake placements of up to 6 months in Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) facilities to develop their management skills and a parallel academic program leading to a Graduate Diploma of Health (Executive Development).

Broad Aims

Attract highly-motivated and talented graduates from a diverse range of professional disciplines
Offer a combination of academic and experiential exposure to support participants develop a passion for the challenges and issues confronting health services and their communities
Facilitate the development of skills and knowledge necessary to manage, plan and develop healthcare services
Develop leadership that is committed to the health sector.

Overall Program Goals

To gain an understanding of the issues facing communities and health services management in relation to accessing health services
To gain an understanding of basic management skills
To develop knowledge of the health system and their relationship with DHHS
To gain an understanding and knowledge of key stakeholders in the health system
To be employable in health management or policy role upon completion of the Program.

Education requirement

The graduate trainee program includes an educational requirement to undertake and successfully complete the University of Tasmania’s new Graduate Diploma of Health (Executive Development) for two years (with Graduate Certificate exit point) and may be credited towards either a Master of Health or a Master of Business Administration (Health Management). It provides a clear pathway of progression to a formalised qualification through the development of context-relevant team leadership, workplace-based project management and executive development knowledge and skills.

Graduate Outcomes

Graduates will be equipped with the knowledge and skills to successfully assume a range of leadership roles in health services in a wide variety of settings
Health Managers will be able to take a pro-active role in advancing the organisation

Course objectives

Graduate Certificate

To encourage health management personnel to engage critically with issues and trends in the delivery of contemporary health services.
To create awareness of the increasing contribution of multidisciplinary work practices to health services.
To foster an awareness of the growing importance of effective health services management, governance and leadership.
To manage health services’ projects effectively.

Graduate Diploma

To equip health management personnel with the knowledge and skills to successfully assume a range of leadership roles in health services in a wide variety of settings.
To equip executive health management personnel with the ability to recognise the need for and implement new organisational improvement projects.
To capitalise on opportunities to implement health services improvement projects.

Course structure

The Graduate Diploma will be offered part time over two years and requires completion of four core units and four specialist electives including two work place based units. Units are offered in flexible delivery mode delivered through online learning.

The core units provide the opportunity for participants to develop the strong theoretical and practical understanding of health services necessary for executive management. Units explore contemporary models of healthcare, project management for health services, leadership and supervision and financial and business acumen.

Specialist electives allow an opportunity for specialisation according to professional requirements that can be taken from another institution of choice (eg Harvard Business School) and include two workplace learning units.

Workplace learning units are a specific feature of this course. Participants undertake a semester of self-directed supervised workplace-based study that integrates theory and practice. They build on knowledge in project management gained through the unit Project Management in Health Services by undertaking a related workplace-based project negotiated with and supported by a designated supervisor.

Grad Cert

Grad Dip

Core

Sp/Elec

Core

Sp/Elec

Sample Program: Graduate Diploma in Health (Executive Development)

	Core Units	Specialist Elective Units
Grad Cert	· The context of practice in the Australian health system · Project management for health services	Workplace Learning Unit 1 One other elective of choice (including external)

Grad Dip	Previous units plus: · Legal and ethical Issues in health care · Risk management and governance	Workplace Learning Unit 2 One other elective of choice (including external)

Specialist electives could include:

Financial Reporting and Analysis
Human Resource Management
Managing eBusiness
Organisational Behaviour
Marketing and Media for Management
Positive Psychology and Leadership
Supervision and Leadership: theory, process and practice
Change Management and Diffusion of Innovation
Data Information and Knowledge
Health Information Systems
Electronic Health Records
Other, including external

Core Unit Descriptions

The context of practice in the Australian Health system

This unit provides an overview of the Australian health system in the context of health management. On completion, participants should:

(i) have a sound appreciation of the complexities of Australian Healthcare Agreements and other funding mechanisms and be able to critique the strengths and weaknesses of the current health system and systemic change options that could deliver more appropriate care and improve efficiency;

(ii) have an understanding of the health status of Australians in comparison to other countries, and a comparison of the investment in health compared to the country's overall health status;

(iii) be able to identify the challenges associated with rising costs of healthcare, sustainability of health services, demands on health services, distribution and shortages within the health workforce, and changing demographics.

Making linkages between emerging issues, participants will form a contextual understanding of the impact of identified challenges on health management. The focus then moves to developing strategies (including clinical services re-design, changing models of care and workforce role reforms) to ensure the present and future health needs of the diverse Australian population are met.

Project Management for Health Services

Project Management for Health Services provides the foundation for the Workplace Learning units (project-oriented study) that are a specific feature of this course. A Project brings about change and involves a group of inter-related activities that are planned and then executed in a certain sequence to create a unique product or service within a specified timeframe. Project Management is a formalised and structured method of managing change. On completion, participants will have a comprehensive understanding of PM terminology, an overview of the phases in the life of a health services project and experience in using templates for project management plans for each phase of a workplace-based project. Participants will also be introduced to the key elements that need to consider no matter what the complexity or size of a health services project.

Legal and ethical issues in health care

This unit explores the legal and ethical issues arising within clinical and health services decision-making in the contemporary health care environment. Issues to be explored include duty of care and negligence, security, privacy, and confidentiality. The unit draws on relevant codes of ethics to explore these concepts from different stakeholder perspectives. Particular attention will be given to legal and ethical aspects of an increasing online health care environment. Current national and international legislation and initiatives to address these issues are considered in the context of health services. On completion, participants should be able to define the parameters within which the unique ethical mandate of the supervisor are expressed and discuss some of its practical outcomes.

Risk management and governance

This unit examines current concepts, trends and barriers in risk, risk management and clinical governance. In particular it explores the content and relationship between medico-legal issues; medical error; consumer rights and services; occupational health systems; quality of service strategies; the systems and structures for the management of the law/medicine interface; and clinical governance. On completion, participants should be able to demonstrate an understanding of the drivers behind the evolution of clinical governance and devise implementation strategies to implement clinical governance.

Contacts

Academic enquiries toProfessor Judi Walker UTAS

Judith.Walker@utas.edu.au Ph: 03 6430 4561 M: 0418 508 680

Australasian College of Health Service Management (ACHSM) to Anne-Marie Stranger

AnneMarie.Stranger@dhhs@utas.edu.au Ph 0362 33 4855

DHHS enquiries to Ryanda Mee or Nick Goddard

Ryanda.Mee@dhhs.tas.gov.au ph 03 6233 2901 or Nick.Goddard@dhhs.tas.gov.au ph 036230 7721

‘Continuous leadership development is as important as continuous professional development. There is a need to ensure that leadership learning is integrated into our organisational culture’

Tasmanian Department of Health & Human Services Secretary David Roberts22/10/2008