PUQ632 Leadership in Healthcare
To view more information for this unit, select Unit Outline from the list below. Please note the teaching period for which the Unit Outline is relevant.
| Unit code: | PUQ632 |
|---|---|
| Equivalent(s): | PUN632, PUZ632 |
| Assumed Knowledge: | PUN106 or equivalent is assumed knowledge. |
| Credit points: | 12 |
| Timetable | Details in HiQ, if available |
| Availabilities |
|
| CSP student contribution | $2,174 |
| Pre-2021 CSP student contribution | $1,703 The pre-2021 commonwealth supported place (CSP) contribution amount only applies to students enrolled in a course prior to 2021. To learn more, visit our Understanding your fees page. |
| Domestic tuition unit fee | $3,576 |
| International unit fee | $5,472 |
Unit Outline: Session 2 2026, QUT Online, Online
| Unit code: | PUQ632 |
|---|---|
| Credit points: | 12 |
| Equivalent: | PUN632, PUZ632 |
| Assumed Knowledge: | PUN106 or equivalent is assumed knowledge. |
| Coordinator: | Paula Bowman | paula.bowman@qut.edu.au |
Overview
In the challenging environment of the contemporary health system, managers will be required to provide organisational leadership to ensure that services continue to evolve to meet the changing community needs and the changing service delivery challenges. Such leadership requires the acquisition of knowledge and the development of competencies in leadership that may enable the future manager to address the current and future challenges. The unit develops skills in addressing contemporary problems in public health related to the management of health services and prepares students to consider the strategic importance of leadership throughout all public health areas. You will be challenged to critically evaluate your leadership capabilities and philosophy.
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this unit you will be able to:
- Critcally analyse key theories and current concepts of leadership as these apply to public and private health, aged care and disability settings.
- Examine the evidence for the impact of strategic leadership on sound governance, organisational culture and performance.
- Identify and apply methods, concepts and tools for leading transformational change and innovation in the health, aged care and disability context.
- Discuss strategies to collaborate with a diverse range of stakeholders in the design and delivery of health services.
- Assess your own leadership and managerial style to identify further professional development needs.
Content
The unit will address the issues of importance in the strategic leadership and management of health organisations. It will include:
- Leadership, including interdisciplinary and interprofessional teamwork
- Healthcare contexts
- Governance including clinical governance
- Organisational performance and evaluation
- Media and communications
- Strategic policy, planning and evaluation for sustainable services
- Community and staff engagement with diverse groups, including First Nations communities
- Career development
- Change management and innovation.
Learning Approaches
In this unit, you will learn by engaging in an active learning environment, undertaking regular online activities, guided through the learning process by expert teaching staff who provide regular feedback. On average, you will need to dedicate 12-15 hours each week for your learning that includes readings, discussions with peers and assignments.
Feedback on Learning and Assessment
You will receive feedback on your learning in a variety of ways, including:
- Informal formative feedback will be provided via quizzes, self-assessment tools, peer feedback and through individual or whole of class feedback, the debriefing of learning activities or via comments in online communities.
- Formal written or recorded feedback will be received on both formative and summative assessment tasks, in addition to the grade on the Criterion Reference Assessment sheet.
Feedback on your formative assessment task will be received prior to the submission of your summative assessment task.
Assessment
Overview
There are three assessments in this unit.
1. Essay - This will draw on key understandings about healthcare leadership to respond to healthcare management based questions.
2. Discussion Facilitation - This will provide the opportunity to explore one healthcare leadership topic in-depth from inter-professional perspectives.
3. Professional Plan - This brings together the concepts and strategies presented in the unit materials to analyse health leadership in a real world context.
Unit Grading Scheme
7- point scale
Assessment Tasks
Assessment: Essay
You will respond to four questions about leadership approaches in diverse settings providing services to diverse client groups, including people with disability, and First Nations communities. Each question will require a response of approximately 500 words. You will need to provide reference to relevant literature to support your responses.
This assignment is eligible for the 48-hour late submission period and assignment extensions.
Assessment: Discussion Facilitation
You will work in groups to facilitate and lead a discussion on a selected health leadership topic during the teaching period. In the discussion, you will facilitate interdisciplinary and inter-professional discussion about your topic. You will complete both a self and group evaluation to reflect on the process of working in a group.
Assessment: Career Plan
You will develop a plan to prepare yourself to apply for a strategic leadership job in response to a job advertisement. Your plan will include some background research and critical analysis of the employing organisation to identify the challenges the leadership job might possess. You will review the job description and required competencies, and compare and contrast these with leadership theories. The plan will also include your responses to selection criteria and you will develop a career plan for professional development to improve your leadership skills.
A week before submission, you will be given an interview question to prepare a response to and this will be submitted with your plan.
This assignment is eligible for the 48-hour late submission period and assignment extensions.
Academic Integrity
Academic integrity is a commitment to undertaking academic work and assessment in a manner that is ethical, fair, honest, respectful and accountable.
The Academic Integrity Policy sets out the range of conduct that can be a failure to maintain the standards of academic integrity. This includes, cheating in exams, plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion and contract cheating. It also includes providing fraudulent or altered documentation in support of an academic concession application, for example an assignment extension or a deferred exam.
You are encouraged to make use of QUT’s learning support services, resources and tools to assure the academic integrity of your assessment. This includes the use of text matching software that may be available to assist with self-assessing your academic integrity as part of the assessment submission process.
Breaching QUT’s Academic Integrity Policy or engaging in conduct that may defeat or compromise the purpose of assessment can lead to a finding of student misconduct (Code of Conduct – Student) and result in the imposition of penalties under the Management of Student Misconduct Policy, ranging from a grade reduction to exclusion from QUT.
Risk Assessment Statement
There are no out-of-the-ordinary risks associated with general participation in this unit. Workplace Health and Safety protocols associated with computer use will apply.
You are expected to communicate in ways that are professional and respectful of others in all interactions. Please refer to QUT guidelines on communication.
Course Learning Outcomes
This unit is designed to support your development of the following course/study area learning outcomes.PQ77 Graduate Diploma in Health Management and Leadership
- Design innovative and strategic responses to health leadership and management challenges to improve consumer, community, organisational and system level outcomes.
Relates to: Essay , Discussion Facilitation, Career Plan - Critically analyse research to inform ethical, evidence-based health management and policy decisions.
Relates to: Essay , Discussion Facilitation - Formulate strategies for culturally safe and inclusive approaches that optimise health system design and service delivery.
Relates to: Discussion Facilitation - Plan ways to communicate, collaborate and negotiate with stakeholders from diverse backgrounds to co-design equitable outcomes and sustainable performance in healthcare.
Relates to: Discussion Facilitation - Apply reflective practice to professionally develop self and others.
Relates to: Career Plan
PQ87 Master of Health Management and Leadership
- Design innovative and strategic responses to health leadership and management challenges to improve consumer, community, organisational and system level outcomes.
Relates to: Essay , Discussion Facilitation, Career Plan - Critique and engage in research to inform ethical, evidence-based health management and policy decisions.
Relates to: Essay , Discussion Facilitation - Formulate strategies for culturally safe and inclusive approaches to optimise health system design and service delivery.
Relates to: Discussion Facilitation - Communicate, collaborate and negotiate with stakeholders from diverse backgrounds to co-design equitable and sustainable healthcare.
Relates to: Discussion Facilitation - Apply reflective practice to professionally develop self and others.
Relates to: Career Plan
Unit Outline: Session 4 2026, QUT Online, Online
| Unit code: | PUQ632 |
|---|---|
| Credit points: | 12 |
| Equivalent: | PUN632, PUZ632 |
| Assumed Knowledge: | PUN106 or equivalent is assumed knowledge. |
| Coordinator: | Paula Bowman | paula.bowman@qut.edu.au |
Overview
In the challenging environment of the contemporary health system, managers will be required to provide organisational leadership to ensure that services continue to evolve to meet the changing community needs and the changing service delivery challenges. Such leadership requires the acquisition of knowledge and the development of competencies in leadership that may enable the future manager to address the current and future challenges. The unit develops skills in addressing contemporary problems in public health related to the management of health services and prepares students to consider the strategic importance of leadership throughout all public health areas. You will be challenged to critically evaluate your leadership capabilities and philosophy.
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this unit you will be able to:
- Critically analyse key theories and current concepts of leadership as these apply to public and private health, aged care and disability settings.
- Examine the evidence for the impact of strategic leadership on sound governance, organisational culture and performance.
- Identify and apply methods, concepts and tools for leading transformational change and innovation in the health, aged care and disability context.
- Discuss strategies to collaborate with a diverse range of stakeholders in the design and delivery of health services.
- Assess your own leadership and managerial style to identify further professional development needs.
Content
The unit will address the issues of importance in the strategic leadership and management of health organisations. It will include:
- Leadership, including interdisciplinary and interprofessional teamwork
- Healthcare contexts
- Governance including clinical governance
- Organisational performance and evaluation
- Media and communications
- Strategic policy, planning and evaluation for sustainable services
- Community and staff engagement with diverse groups, including First Nations communities
- Career development
- Change management and innovation.
Learning Approaches
In this unit, you will learn by engaging in an active learning environment, undertaking regular online activities, guided through the learning process by expert teaching staff who provide regular feedback. On average, you will need to dedicate 12-15 hours each week for your learning that includes readings, discussions with peers and assignments.
Feedback on Learning and Assessment
You will receive feedback on your learning in a variety of ways, including:
- Informal formative feedback will be provided via quizzes, self-assessment tools, peer feedback and through individual or whole of class feedback, the debriefing of learning activities or via comments in online communities.
- Formal written or recorded feedback will be received on both formative and summative assessment tasks, in addition to the grade on the Criterion Reference Assessment sheet.
Feedback on your formative assessment task will be received prior to the submission of your summative assessment task.
Assessment
Overview
There are three assessments in this unit.
1. Essay - This will draw on key understandings about healthcare leadership to respond to healthcare management based questions.
2. Professional Plan - This brings together the concepts and strategies presented in the unit materials to analyse health leadership in a real world context.
3. Question on notice - To further the real world application, you will participate in a short interview based on your professional plan.
Unit Grading Scheme
7- point scale
Assessment Tasks
Assessment: Essay
You will respond to two questions about leadership approaches in diverse settings providing services to diverse client groups, including people with disability, and First Nations communities. Each question will require a response of approximately 1000 words. You will need to provide reference to relevant literature to support your responses.
The ethical and responsible use of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools is authorised in this assessment. See the relevant assessment details page for specific guidelines.
This assignment is eligible for the 48-hour late submission period and assignment extensions.
Assessment: Career Plan
You will develop a plan to prepare yourself to apply for a strategic leadership job in response to a job advertisement. Your plan will include some background research and critical analysis of the employing organisation to identify the challenges the leadership job might possess. You will review the job description and required competencies, and compare and contrast these with leadership theories. The plan will also include your responses to selection criteria and you will develop a career plan for professional development to improve your leadership skills.
The ethical and responsible use of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools is authorised in this assessment. See the relevant assessment details page for specific guidelines.
This assignment is eligible for the 48-hour late submission period and assignment extensions.
Assessment: Questions in response to professional plan
You have been successfully shortlisted for the position you applied for in assessment two Professional Plan. You have been invited to an interview and will need to respond to a series of questions based on your submission. To replicate a real world situation, the response will be delivered in a synchronous online setting.
The use of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools is prohibited during this assessment.
This assignment is eligible for the 48-hour late submission period and assignment extensions.
Academic Integrity
Academic integrity is a commitment to undertaking academic work and assessment in a manner that is ethical, fair, honest, respectful and accountable.
The Academic Integrity Policy sets out the range of conduct that can be a failure to maintain the standards of academic integrity. This includes, cheating in exams, plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion and contract cheating. It also includes providing fraudulent or altered documentation in support of an academic concession application, for example an assignment extension or a deferred exam.
You are encouraged to make use of QUT’s learning support services, resources and tools to assure the academic integrity of your assessment. This includes the use of text matching software that may be available to assist with self-assessing your academic integrity as part of the assessment submission process.
Breaching QUT’s Academic Integrity Policy or engaging in conduct that may defeat or compromise the purpose of assessment can lead to a finding of student misconduct (Code of Conduct – Student) and result in the imposition of penalties under the Management of Student Misconduct Policy, ranging from a grade reduction to exclusion from QUT.
Risk Assessment Statement
There are no out-of-the-ordinary risks associated with general participation in this unit. Workplace Health and Safety protocols associated with computer use will apply.
You are expected to communicate in ways that are professional and respectful of others in all interactions. Please refer to QUT guidelines on communication.
Course Learning Outcomes
This unit is designed to support your development of the following course/study area learning outcomes.PQ77 Graduate Diploma in Health Management and Leadership
- Design innovative and strategic responses to health leadership and management challenges to improve consumer, community, organisational and system level outcomes.
Relates to: Essay , Career Plan, Questions in response to professional plan - Critically analyse research to inform ethical, evidence-based health management and policy decisions.
Relates to: Essay , Questions in response to professional plan - Formulate strategies for culturally safe and inclusive approaches that optimise health system design and service delivery.
Relates to: Questions in response to professional plan - Plan ways to communicate, collaborate and negotiate with stakeholders from diverse backgrounds to co-design equitable outcomes and sustainable performance in healthcare.
Relates to: Questions in response to professional plan - Apply reflective practice to professionally develop self and others.
Relates to: Career Plan
PQ87 Master of Health Management and Leadership
- Design innovative and strategic responses to health leadership and management challenges to improve consumer, community, organisational and system level outcomes.
Relates to: Essay , Career Plan, Questions in response to professional plan - Critique and engage in research to inform ethical, evidence-based health management and policy decisions.
Relates to: Essay , Questions in response to professional plan - Formulate strategies for culturally safe and inclusive approaches to optimise health system design and service delivery.
Relates to: Questions in response to professional plan - Communicate, collaborate and negotiate with stakeholders from diverse backgrounds to co-design equitable and sustainable healthcare.
Relates to: Questions in response to professional plan - Apply reflective practice to professionally develop self and others.
Relates to: Career Plan