HS5106 - Planning and Evaluation for Primary Health Care

Available to all postgraduate students in health science programs or by approval of the subject coordinator

Increasingly primary and community health care practitioners are planning and evaluating programs and services for their clients and communities. Furthermore they are being made accountable for the money spent on projects and programs. You may have heard of the "5 P's": poor planning precedes poor performance. How do you ensure your planning is appropriate and ensure you achieve the aims of your services, projects and programs? This subject will introduce students to program planning and evaluation and best practice specific to primary and community health settings. Students will be introduced to practical skills in community consultation and engagement including needs assessments and community mapping. As well as introducing a range of planning and evaluation frameworks and models, this subject will cover in-depth the Logical Framework Approach. Students will apply research techniques using quantitative and qualitative data collection tools and analysis to evaluation in primary health care and community settings. The subject will cover how to effectively report and disseminate evaluation outcomes as well as provide skills in critically assessing and commissioning evaluations. Students will acquire techniques to implement evaluation outcomes through the 'plan-do-study-act' cycle.

Learning Outcomes

• Demonstrate a critical understanding of a range of program planning and evaluation frameworks and models used in primary health care and community health settings;
• Undertake community consultation through community needs assessment, community mapping and other participatory techniques;
• Plan and evaluate a primary health care or community health program with different models;
• Apply research techniques such as quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis to evaluation in primary health care and community health settings;
• Critically assess and commission external evaluators in primary health care and community health settings; and Disseminate and report evaluation findings to a range of audiences and utilise evaluation findings in primary health care and community health practice.

Subject Assessment

• assignments (40%)
• conduct the program evaluation and provide a report (60%).

Special Assessment Requirements

Satisfactory completion of all assessment items and Contribution to the Discussion Board is a hurdle requirement.

Note: Minor variations might occur due to the continuous Subject quality improvement process, and in case of minor variation(s) in assessment details, the Subject Outline represents the latest official information.