Course Descriptions | Health Quality Programs

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The Master of Science in Health Quality (MScHQ) Program is delivered on a part-time basis over two (2) years by an interdisciplinary team from the Faculties of Health Sciences, Law, and Engineering as well as the Smith School of Business and School of Policy Studies at Queen’s University. This team of experts in the areas of quality, risk and safety will provide learners with a unique opportunity to link theoretical foundations with practical application.

The MScHQ Program delivers online synchronous sessions and asynchronous teaching. It is expected that students will attend the intensive weeks and synchronous session to participate in group activities. Teamwork is an integral component of the program and promotes dialogue on the key issues as outlined in the team assignments. Team-based learning fosters an environment where you can learn from faculty, team members and class members. Group composition is determined by the faculty teaching the course.

Year One	Intensive Week (Early September)	Fall Term (September-December)	Winter Term (January-April)	Summer Term (May-July)
Year One	HQRS 840	HQRS 841	HQRS 844	HQRS 847
Year Two	Intensive Week (July)	Fall Term (September-December)	Winter Term (January-April)	Summer Term (May-August)
	HQRS 846	HQRS 845	HQRS 842	HQRS 898
	HQRS 846	HQRS 845	HQRS 897 *new optional course* (instead of HQRS 898)

HQRS 840: Introduction to Quality, Risk and Safety
This course provides a comprehensive introduction of the historical, current and future state of quality, risk and safety. The developments of quality and safety research will be examined via the exploration of system enhancement, theoretical frameworks and tools for measuring system improvements.

HQRS 841: Process Improvement in Healthcare
This course offers the student a solid foundation in the current methods of process improvement in healthcare settings by incorporating best practices for process definition, value stream mapping and performance measurement in the course. Root cause analysis, hypothesis testing methods, and design of experiments (DOE) and other related analytical methods will be taught using relevant examples from different healthcare settings. Students will have the skills necessary to evaluate impact of their process improvement activities and be able to undertake ever increasingly complex improvement activities.

HQRS 842: Research and Evaluation Methods to Assess Quality, Risk & Safety
The course prepares students to advance safety science knowledge through independent research using quantitative and qualitative methods, including topics in advanced research design, data management, measurement and analysis techniques. Students are expected to generate a research proposal suitable for their culminating project.

HQRS 844: Law, Risk and Healthcare
The intersection of areas of law, risk, and healthcare that create specific and unique complexities for a variety of professionals is explored in this course. Topics include accident law, civil litigation, insurance and risk management; the course concentrates on the intersections of these areas to synthesize both a coherent system of redress and a risk and safety conscious system for organizing social behaviour.

HQRS 845: Organizational Behaviour in Healthcare
This course introduces students to fundamental organizational behaviour concepts and theories and their use in healthcare settings. Behavioural and organizational dynamics within and beyond organizational boundaries are explored and analyzed. Fundamentals and skills to analyze, manage and change organizational dynamics in healthcare services are addressed.

HQRS 846: Human Factors in Healthcare
Human Factors as a discipline researches and provides information about human behavior, abilities, limitations, and relationship to the work environment (physical, organizational, cultural), and applies it to the design of safer and more effective tools, machines, systems, tasks, jobs, and environments. This course will cover the main human factors (e.g., perception, stress, workload, fatigue, etc.) that play a role in various healthcare contexts and can have a critical impact of the outcomes (e.g., care success, patient safety, job satisfaction, etc.).

HQRS 847: International Perspectives on Policy, Economics, and Quality Healthcare
This course examines concepts in health policy and health economics and how this relates to policy process and development. The concepts will be analysed from an evaluative perspective on effectiveness and efficiency in healthcare nationally and internationally.

HQRS 897: Individual Project in Health Quality
The focus of this course is the scholarship of integration, implementation, and application. Students will develop projects independently for system-based practice change to address a problem in healthcare, incorporating aspects of policy, equity, and social determinants.

HQRS 898: Project in Healthcare Quality
The focus of this course is on the scholarship of integration, implementation, and application. Students will develop interdisciplinary group projects for system-based practice change to address a problem in healthcare, incorporating aspects of policy, equity, and social determinants.