Health Care Management – Canadian Context Graduate Certificate

Program Overview

This Canadian healthcare administration program prepares students to lead interprofessional teams and navigate the evolving healthcare landscape. It emphasizes Indigenous perspectives, offers a work-integrated learning experience, and provides a foundation in business, leadership, and healthcare-specific topics such as health equity and change management. Graduates are equipped for careers in nursing administration, health services management, and other healthcare leadership roles.

Program Outline

Outline:

Semester 1

• Communication Skills in Healthcare Leadership (HLTH 446): Learn about the critical role of effective communication in the Canadian healthcare context.
Explore strong, empathic leadership styles and how they create a culture of safety where errors are reported and continuous improvement is encouraged.
• Concepts in Health Care (HLTH 65): Obtain an overview of the Ontario Healthcare System.
Examine the interdisciplinary role of healthcare professionals. Participate in discussions about current issues and trends impacting the Ontario healthcare system, within the context of sustainability.
• Introduction to Canadian Health Care Operations (HLTH 428): Provides an introduction to critical components of healthcare operations.
• Introduction to Indigenous Studies (INDG 49): This course introduces the study of Indigenous (First Nations, Metis, and Inuit) peoples in Canada.
Explore the complex historical and contemporary relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples. Understand the diversity and depth of Indigenous societies, worldviews, and knowledge through a multi-disciplinary lens.
• Introduction to Law & Ethics for Canadian Health Care Leaders (HLTH 426): Provides an introduction to the legal foundations of healthcare administration in a provincial and national context.
Emphasize establishing and maintaining legal compliance in an administrative and occupational setting. Investigate the role of ethics and sound decision-making in healthcare leadership and administration.
• Introduction to Leadership & Communication in Canadian Health Care Administration (HLTH 427): Explore leadership and management approaches in Canadian healthcare organizations.
Focus on developing effective people management strategies, professional communication, planning, decision-making, conflict resolution, effective team building, and navigating change. Analyze relevant legislation and healthcare policies and their impact on health equity/inequity. Examine historical and current policies, practices, and legislation impacting health outcomes for Indigenous Peoples.

Semester 2

• Communication Strategies for Health Care Leaders (HLTH 430): Enhance your understanding of leadership and management approaches in Canadian healthcare organizations.
Develop effective people management strategies, professional communication, planning, decision-making, conflict resolution, effective team building, and navigating change.
• Health Care Financial Management (HLTH 432): In-depth exploration of management accounting in healthcare, focusing on tools and techniques for developing analytical skills in finance.
Implement financial management skills through the use of theory, practical problems, and mini-cases.
• Health Care Policy, Quality, Safety, and Risk Management (HLTH 431): Gain knowledge and skills to lead quality and patient safety improvement initiatives.
• Health Equity and Sustainability (HLTH 435): Gain a deeper understanding of the role of social determinants of health in patient care.
Learn how healthcare leaders can mitigate negative impacts and increase equity in healthcare at the program development and care delivery levels. Underpin everything with self-reflection and experiential learning to develop a cultural competence component to foundational skills.
• Health Informatics and Intro to Data (HLTH 434): Analyze how data is generated, used, and why ensuring data quality is important.
Understand the benefits and risks of electronic medical records, business intelligence tools, and predictive analytics. Gain knowledge of how technology can enhance clinical care and healthcare decision making.
• Leadership in Health Care Administration (HLTH 429): Explore leadership and management theories and frameworks by applying them to real-world scenarios and case studies.
Leverage and enhance leadership competencies to achieve strategic and operational goals of an organization. Implement various tools and technologies to maximize operational efficiencies and support successful stakeholder interaction.
• Management of Operations for Health Care Leaders (HLTH 433): Develop leadership decision-making skills on operational effectiveness.
Utilize case studies to understand the multiple challenges faced by current front-line managers, including environmental factors that affect operational planning, implementation, and metrics. Apply critical thinking, resourcefulness, and decision-making to management and leadership challenges in healthcare environments.
• Principles of Project Management (MGMT 312): Provides an introduction to effective project management based on PMI principles.
Investigate the diverse types of analytics and how healthcare leaders can use data to understand patterns of care delivery, organizational behaviour, and patient outcomes. Gain insight into future trends and directions of AI and data.
• Critical Thinking and Problem Solving for Health Care Leaders (HLTH 436): Develop your capacity for analyzing and solving real-world challenges and complexities of national, provincial, and regional healthcare landscapes.
Analyze relevant legislation and ethical frameworks to consider how they impact decision-making at the leadership level.
• Decision-making and Governance (HLTH 437): Provides an overview of common governance structures in health care and the reporting and organizational structures that underpin them.
Utilize case studies with real-world examples of common issues to gain an in-depth understanding of the legislative frameworks that guide formal board and Ministry reporting in various healthcare settings. Understand the role of physicians and other key stakeholders in governance and how these structures can enhance or limit quality improvement and change management activities.
• Health and Human Resources Management (HLTH 441): Provides a foundational overview of the fundamentals of HR management and looks in-depth at the health human resource workforce in Canada.
Includes an overview of the regulated health professions and their governing bodies and the various pieces of legislation and healthcare policy that shape the ways in which healthcare workers practice in Canada. Covers hiring, supervising, and managing employee performance and development. Develop psychologically safe workplaces and advance practices for leaders to nurture healthy work environments.
• Innovation, Partnership, and Collaboration in Community Health Care (HLTH 440): Explore the role of innovation, partnership, and collaboration in health care to improve health for individuals and populations.
Understand the importance of forming coalitions, managing change in a partnership context, and how funding opportunities and challenges can impact collaboration. Analyze external factors that can help or hinder collaboration opportunities.
• Managing Change (MGMT 188): Identify and manage internal and external change processes.
Create the proper documentation to ensure the achievement of project objectives, including the principles of Agile Project Management.
• Truth and Reconciliation in Health Care (HLTH 439): Analyze historic and current components of the Canadian and Ontario healthcare systems to address systemic inequalities in the healthcare system because of colonization.
Integrate Indigenous perspectives, values, and history to support cultural safety in healthcare. Develop self-reflection, prepare a major paper or project, and intensive onsite experiential learning components.

Semester 4

• Integration of WIL & Preparation for Employment (HLTH 445): Integrate theory and knowledge from previous core courses and build on this with new knowledge related to the WIL experience.
Develop professional competencies and be evaluated according to organizational standards. Build a portfolio and establish core professional competencies.
• Preparation for Work-Integrated Learning (HLTH 443): Prepare WIL students to be successful.
Focus on new learning to support individual external practicum project requirements through a combination of applied lab practice activities, article reviews, student research, and other experiences. Engage in mentorship and/or routine performance check-ins through onboarding activities for WIL students.
• Work Integrated Learning in Health Care Administration Management (HLTH 444): Synthesize, integrate and apply learning in a professional environment.
Define a workplace project or placement through a community partner, employer, or institution. Collaborate with WIL employers to set learning goals, monitor progress, and take advantage of networking and mentorship opportunities to maximize the benefit of WIL experiences.

Careers:

• Nursing Administration
• Management in Occupational Therapy
• Management in Physical Therapy
• Health Services Management
• Homecare Management

Other:

• The program is firmly rooted in a Canadian and provincial healthcare context, with a strong focus on Indigenous perspectives.
• It is designed to prepare you to become a partner in care, lead interprofessional healthcare teams, and be adept in the ever-changing landscape of the Canadian healthcare system.
• The program offers a work-integrated learning experience in the form of a capstone project or work placement.
• You will gain business and leadership fundamentals and foundational knowledge in finance, human resources, health equity, and change management.