Module HEAS40130: Evidence Based Clinical Management

Department: Health [Queen's Campus, Stockton]

HEAS40130: Evidence Based Clinical Management

Prerequisites

• None

Corequisites

• None

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None

Aims

• This module is designed as a Level 4 module and is the fourth in the proposed suite of Clinical Management programmes. It aims to enable staff to integrate evidence-based approaches to clinical practice, clinical work and organisational management with the content of the previous three modules.

Content

• The course has three main components. The first examines different beliefs about the nature of knowledge (positivistic, phenomenological/social construction and critical) and explores issues about what can be considered "evidence".
• The second component introduces the basic concepts of Evidence-Based Practice from a patient level perspective.
• The third component introduces basic concepts and data sources for a 'systems' approach to generating and using evidence. It presents theories of organisation to assist students to understand organisations as contingent systems of order whose make up and governance is subject to continuing processes of contestion and negotiation. Students will be prompted to recognise that the activities in which they engage (and the use of evidence in those activities) are not neutral in content or intent, and that conflict is inherent in the political processes that underlie all organisational processes.
• The implications of each component in a pluralistic work place and the problems that these pose for defining issues and work processes in clinical settings, devising strategies and interventions, implementing clinical management and overcoming barriers to implementation are examined.
• The unit marries knowledge and skills in generating and using evidence, analysis of organisational history, social analysis, constituting meaning, instituting new or changed routines and practices, and a range of political skills with clinical judgement for effective clinical management.

Learning Outcomes

• philosophical differences underpinning the meanings of 'knowledge' and 'evidence';
• basic components of quatitative and qualitative research techniques;
• concepts of evidence-based practice at a patient level;
• generation and use of evidence from a systems' perspective;
• interconnections between evidence, argument and politics in the management of contentious issues;
• the contested nature of health care organisations and their management;
• multifaceted nature of clinical management and the implementation of clinical improvement processes;
• students will have integrated the concepts and principles of governance, organisational management, economics and accounting, work process control, the generation of evidence, and the use of professional judgement that underpin clinical management.

• evidence-based practice at an individual patient level;
• critically appraising different sources of evidence and the methods employed to derive evidence in a specific organisational context;
• evidence-based practice on a systems level;
• recognising their own (and others') philosophical stance on the nature of knowledge and evidence and how this influences their selection of evidence in managing clinical environments;
• integrating the foundational concepts of clinial management;
• devising a program for developing and implementing an evidence-based clinical management strategy in their own place of work.

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• See Appendix 1 of the Programme Specification for further details.
• Teaching in this module will comprise; lectures, structured reading (as part of independent study), exercises, tutorials, group work, and written work.
• Lectures, individual study (including structured reading) provide the main means for communicating key concepts; written work provides the means for marshalling arguments and presenting them in a sound and convincing fashion.
• The practical exercises and group work will enable students to test their ability to use clinical data and their ability to integrate all the components of clinical management.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

See item 2.1 of the programme specification.

■ Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University