A growing body of evidence has demonstrated that ineffective communication at all levels of the healthcare system leads to poor patient outcomes, including serious illness and death, clinician dissatisfaction, and inefficiencies in the health system. Despite local and international recognition of the critical role communication plays in healthcare, and many excellent international policy initiatives to improve healthcare communication, there is little evidence that communication practices are becoming safer. In this course we introduce students to this relatively new field of healthcare communication research, accumulatively building up their qualitative and mixed methods research skills to undertake their own research project in this area. The lectures will detail both national and international evidence based research. The course will develop skills to firstly critically analyse features of effective and ineffective communication practices and then to translate these insights to the development of communication frameworks, models and training to improve clinical practice. Students will develop skills for analysing naturally-occurring healthcare interactions, and they will have the opportunity to develop their own research project using a method encountered in the course.
Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion, students will have the knowledge and skills to:
- demonstrate an understanding of both qualitative and mixed methods relevant to the investigation of issues and questions in healthcare communication research;
- describe and analyse naturally-occurring healthcare communication interactions using discourse analytic techniques;
- demonstrate an understanding of the processes of translating evidence based research into communication frameworks, protocols and training to improve practice; and
- carry out a research project using methods covered in the course.
Indicative Assessment
- Class Participation (10) [LO 1,3]
- Presentation - Thematic analysis presentation (10 minutes) (15) [LO 1,2]
- Report - Thematic analysis of interviews on patients'/ consumers' experience (1000 words) (25) [LO 1,2,3]
- Research project report (2500 words) (50) [LO 1,2,3,4]
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Workload
130 hours of total student learning time made up from:a) 35 hours of contact over 12 weeks: 2-hour lecture x 12 weeks; 1-hour tutorial x 11 weeks; and
b) 95 hours of independent student research, reading and writing
Inherent Requirements
Not applicable
Requisite and Incompatibility
Prescribed Texts
Not applicable
Fees
Tuition fees are for the academic year indicated at the top of the page.
Commonwealth Support (CSP) Students
If you have been offered a Commonwealth supported place, your fees are set by the Australian Government for each course. At ANU 1 EFTSL is 48 units (normally 8 x 6-unit courses). More information about your student contribution amount for each course at Fees.
- Student Contribution Band:
- 1
- Unit value:
- 6 units
If you are a domestic graduate coursework student with a Domestic Tuition Fee (DTF) place or international student you will be required to pay course tuition fees (see below). Course tuition fees are indexed annually. Further information for domestic and international students about tuition and other fees can be found at Fees.
Where there is a unit range displayed for this course, not all unit options below may be available.
| Units | EFTSL |
|---|---|
| 6.00 | 0.12500 |
Course fees
- Domestic fee paying students
| Year | Fee |
|---|---|
| 2022 | $3840 |
- International fee paying students
| Year | Fee |
|---|---|
| 2022 | $4980 |
Offerings, Dates and Class Summary Links
ANU utilises MyTimetable to enable students to view the timetable for their enrolled courses, browse, then self-allocate to small teaching activities / tutorials so they can better plan their time. Find out more on the Timetable webpage.
Class summaries, if available, can be accessed by clicking on the View link for the relevant class number.
First Semester
| Class number | Class start date | Last day to enrol | Census date | Class end date | Mode Of Delivery | Class Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4222 | 20 Feb 2023 | 27 Feb 2023 | 31 Mar 2023 | 26 May 2023 | In Person | View |
