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Health Services and Policy Research
Competencies
The OTC program is a competency-based
one. It offers research training, conceptual learning, and
skills development opportunities to round out the graduate
education experiences of students interested in careers as
health services and policy researchers. These training and
skill development opportunities are organized around a set
of competencies that are considered a must for health services
and policy researchers.
As students come from varied graduate
programs, it is recognized that they already have some of
the skills and conceptual knowledge needed to be health services
and policy researchers but that none has all the competencies
required in this field.
To be able to graduate from the program,
students will have to demonstrate proficiency in the following
core competencies:
1. |
Understanding of the Canadian health
care system and how it has evolved over time;
the implications of policy legacies, values and interests
and institutional structures for further system modification
and policy development; a critical appreciation of health
services governance, organization, financing and delivery
options and of the effect of geography on these options. |
| 2. |
Ability to effectively carry out health services
research including:
| a. |
Ability to synthesize and critically evaluate
information produced by health services research. |
| b. |
Ability to frame researchable questions regarding
health services, policies and/or systems. |
| c. |
Ability to effectively select from, integrate,
and apply a range of conceptual frameworks and research
methods drawn from different disciplines to answer
health services and policy questions and help resolve
health services issues. |
| d. |
Awareness of the importance of contextual issues
(e.g., cultural diversity, gender, geography, socio-economic
circumstances and local conditions) in the formulation,
development and execution of health services research. |
| e. |
Ability to select and develop reliable, valid
measures and indicators of health services and system
performance. |
| f. |
Ability to select from and apply a variety of
analytic approaches that match the research question(s)
and context. |
| g. |
Ability to work effectively with health services
researchers from other disciplines. |
| h. |
Awareness of ethical issues relating to all aspects
of the research enterprise. |
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| 3. |
Understanding of theories about how the health
of populations is produced, maintained and enhanced
at the individual, group, community, provincial and national
level. |
| 4. |
Understanding of theories of health and health
services knowledge production; the social, economic,
political and ethical factors that influence knowledge
production; and, the diverse assumptions embedded in knowledge
production. |
| 5. |
Ability to effectively exchange knowledge
and develop research partnerships with stakeholders
in the health field (e.g., citizens, health care providers,
decision-makers at all levels). |
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