PUN450 Disaster Risk Management in Health and Community Services

Unit Outline: Semester 1 2025, Kelvin Grove, Internal

Overview

Health and community services are affected by emergencies and disasters. It is critical that managers of these services are able to assess the risk and plan for business continuity. In this unit you will explore the types, nature and impact of disasters and emergencies on communities in local, national and international contexts. You will also apply approaches to disaster risk management and building resilience in health and community services.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit you will be able to:

1. Critically analyse contemporary issues in disaster and emergency risk management.
2. Analyse data from a range of publicly available databases, including those related to climate change, disasters, emergencies and demographics.
3. Assess risk to health, communities and associated services from climate change, disasters and emergencies.
4. Create and communicate business continuity plans for healthcare and community services during emergencies and disasters that is culturally safe and inclusive.

Content

Learning Approaches

In this unit, you will learn by engaging in the following:

• tutorials – actively engage and interact with peers and teaching staff in scenario-based learning (on-campus and synchronous online)
• guest presentations by real world practitioners
• online readings and learning materials

Tutorials will engage you in activities designed to further build your skills in preparation for your assessments, including embedded writing support. You will have the opportunity to actively engage with your peers, real-world industry practitioners and teaching staff to apply and consolidate your learning through creative problem-solving and teamwork activities, role plays, scenarios and critically analysing contemporary real-world case studies.

All on-campus learning activities are recorded and posted in the Canvas site.

Feedback on Learning and Assessment

You will receive feedback on your learning in a variety of ways, including:

• Informal formative feedback will be provided by peers and teaching staff during tutorials and online
• Formal written or recorded feedback will be provided on the assessment tasks, in addition to the grade on the Criterion Reference Assessment

Assessment

Overview

Unit Grading Scheme

7- point scale

Assessment Tasks

Assessment: Critical analysis of study material

You will critically analyse contemporary debates in disaster and emergency risk management and discuss these with your peers. Your analysis will draw on the study material within Weeks 3, 5, 8 and 10. Within each of these four weeks, you will be provided with a prompt for discussion based on the module's materials. 

You will use a Gen AI tool such as Microsoft Copilot to generate an initial response. You will use your critical analysis skills to evaluate the relevance and accuracy of the Gen AI output. You will use your understanding of the topics and your critical thinking skills to Improve the Gen AI tool output. Based on your analysis you will develop an improved response to be posted onto the discussion board.

Assessment: Risk Assessment

You will be given a scenario. In the scenario you will take on the role of a health or community service manager to conduct a risk assessment for an organisation or department. You will need to consider the risks and vulnerabilities to business continuity in the case of disasters and emergencies. Your risk assessment will be informed by data, literature, theoretical principles and relevant frameworks, including the Sustainability Development Goals, the Sendai Framework and the Sphere Standards.

This assignment is eligible for the 48-hour late submission period and assignment extensions.

Assessment: Business Continuity Plan

Following on from the scenario explored in Assessment 2, you will create and communicate in a presentation a business continuity plan for your organisation or department. The plan will build on the risk assessment, to plan for ways to ensure your services continue in the case of disasters or emergencies. You will need to consider diverse groups in your planning and develop an inclusive approach. Your plan will include a rationale informed by data, literature, theories and frameworks.

In week 10 you will participate in a Tutorial where you will get a chance to showcase your draft presentation and get feedback.

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.

Requirements to Study

Requirements

Nil

Costs

There are no additional costs associated with this unit.

Resources

Resource Materials

Prescribed text(s)

FitzGerald, G., Tarrant, M., Aitken, P. and Fredriksen, M. (2016). Disaster Health Management: A Primer for Students and Practitioners (1PstP ed.). London & NY: Routledge.

Risk Assessment Statement

You are advised to back-up your digital files on a regular basis to ensure work is not lost if there is a hardware failure. Information about the free file storage provided by QUT for students is available on the Storing your files page.

There are no out of the ordinary risks associated with this unit.

Standards/Competencies

This unit is designed to support your development of the following standards\competencies.

ACHSM Master Health Service Management Competency Framework 2022

A.a): Action - Communication

1. 
   Relates to: Critical analysis of study material, Risk Assessment, Business Continuity Plan

A.b): Action - Relationship Management

1. 
   Relates to: Business Continuity Plan
2. 
   Relates to: Business Continuity Plan
3. 
   Relates to: Risk Assessment

A.c): Action - Business Literacy - Talent Management

1. 
   Relates to: Business Continuity Plan

A.f): Action - Risk Management and Clinical Governance

1. 
   Relates to: Risk Assessment

E.a): Enabling - Health Leadership and Ethical Behaviour

1. 
   Relates to: Business Continuity Plan
2. 
   Relates to: Business Continuity Plan

E.b): Enabling - Impact and Influence

1. 
   Relates to: Critical analysis of study material, Risk Assessment
2. 
   Relates to: Critical analysis of study material, Risk Assessment

E.c): Enabling - Health Systems

1. 
   Relates to: Business Continuity Plan

E.e): Enabling - Professionalism

1. 
   Relates to: Risk Assessment
2. 
   Relates to: Critical analysis of study material, Risk Assessment, Business Continuity Plan

Course Learning Outcomes

PU60 Graduate Diploma in Public Health

1. Apply knowledge of public health principles to current public health issues in diverse local and international contexts
   Relates to: Critical analysis of study material
2. Critically analyse and synthesise the specialised knowledge, theories and frameworks of public health practice
   Relates to: Risk Assessment, Business Continuity Plan

PU77 Graduate Diploma in Health Management and Leadership

1. Apply operational management skills to plan, organise and supervise internal organisational processes required for achieving high performance.
   Relates to: Business Continuity Plan
2. Critically analyse research to inform ethical, evidence-based health management and policy decisions.
   Relates to: Critical analysis of study material, Risk Assessment, Business Continuity Plan
3. Formulate strategies for culturally safe and inclusive approaches that optimise health system design and service delivery.
   Relates to: Business Continuity Plan

PU86 Master of Public Health

1. Apply advanced knowledge of public health principles to complex, current public health issues in diverse local and international contexts
   Relates to: Critical analysis of study material
2. Critically analyse, synthesise and apply the specialised knowledge,theories and frameworks of public health practice
   Relates to: Risk Assessment, Business Continuity Plan

PU87 Master of Health Management and Leadership

1. Apply operational management skills to plan, organise and supervise internal organisational processes required for achieving high performance.
   Relates to: Business Continuity Plan
2. Critique and engage in research to inform ethical, evidence-based health management and policy decisions.
   Relates to: Critical analysis of study material, Risk Assessment, Business Continuity Plan
3. Formulate strategies for culturally safe and inclusive approaches to optimise health system design and service delivery.
   Relates to: Business Continuity Plan