Overview
This six-credit course (available duration of eight months for funded students and 12 months for self-funded) encompasses work experience linked to study in health administration to assist students to synthesize and apply their learning from other courses taken in the health administration program. The field placement provides opportunities for students to learn about and practice skills associated with operational, administrative, and managerial aspects of the health-care system within a health facility or health-related organization. The practicum requires the completion of a minimum of 240 hours, under the direct supervision of a preceptor, during the active time in the course contract. For some students this may be a full-time experience completed in approximately three months’ time, and for others without full-time availability (or when the host organization prefers a part-time arrangement) it could take the entire amount of time accessible within the learning contract (extensions are permitted, per the AU extension policy). Placements for the practicum are typically located in the student’s area of residence and arranged in collaboration amongst the student, the host organization, pertinent university staff, and the program coordinator. This transition-to-practice course is expected to help alleviate the well-documented unease that new graduates feel as they move from student to practitioner or from staff to administrator, or when experienced administrators are transitioning from unrelated fields into the realm of health care or into a new role within the health field.
The roles, responsibilities, and functions of health administrators are very diverse. Health administrators might have specific responsibilities for policy decisions, budgets, department management, or human resources, or these responsibilities may be encompassed by one job description. Ideally, when students are doing their practicum, they spend time with health administrator preceptors who are charged with day-to-day decisions, and those responsible for long-term business strategies. With the guidance of and in collaboration with these preceptors, students will strengthen their understanding of the breadth and depth of health administrator roles, responsibilities, and challenges, and thereby enhance their own administrative and managerial skills and competencies.
During the HADM 435 practicum, in addition to enhancing their knowledge, skills, and competencies in health administration in general, students are required to work on a specific independent project, which must be approved by the preceptor and the course tutor. This project will entail some analysis of a contemporary problem or need in the area of leadership, human resource planning, operational planning, organizational design, stakeholders and governance, quality assurance and risk management, or various other aspects of health administration.
Evaluation
To receive credit for HADM 435, students must spend a minimum of 240 hours completing a health administration practicum project under the direct supervision of a preceptor, and complete all course assignments. The passing mark for each component is D (50 percent), and the passing grade for the course is D (50 percent). The weighting of each assignment is as follows:
| Activity | Weight |
| Assignment 1: Learning Plan and Contract (includes project proposal) | 25% |
| Preliminary Report | Pass/Fail |
| Assignment 2: Midterm Report | 10% |
| Assignment 3: Activity Journal | 10% |
| Preceptor Evaluation of Practicum | Pass/Fail |
| Assignment 4: Oral Presentation | 20% |
| Assignment 5: Final Project Report (external to the 240-hour minimum) | 35% |
| Total | 100% |
To learn more about assignments and examinations, please refer to Athabasca University’s online Calendar.
Materials
This course either does not have a course package or the textbooks are open-source material and available to students at no cost. This course has a Course Administration and Technology Fee, but students are not charged the Course Materials Fee.
Challenge for credit
Overview
The challenge for credit process allows you to demonstrate that you have acquired a command of the general subject matter, knowledge, intellectual and/or other skills that would normally be found in a university-level course.
Full information about challenge for credit can be found in the Undergraduate Calendar.
Evaluation
To receive credit for the HADM 435 challenge, students must complete all the required assignments, achieve a minimum passing grade of 50% on each assignment, and a composite grade of at least 60%.
Challenge for credit course registration form