MHST 620 - Culture and Health

This version of MHST 620 closed. To current version.

Delivery mode:  Paced/home-study online
Credits: 3 - Applied Studies
Prerequisite: Professor approval and completion of one graduate course
Precluded courses: n/a

1.0 Introduction | 2.0 Course Goals | 3.0 Course Materials | 4.0 Course Structure | 5.0 Course Outline
6.0 Assessment Structure

1.0     Introduction

This course will critically examine the relationship between cultural factors and health/health care delivery. Students will explore how ethnicity, gender, social class, and the organization of health disciplines and health systems influence opportunities for health and the delivery of health care to clients, particularly vulnerable or marginalized populations.

2.0     Course Goals

After completing this course, students should be able to:  

  1. Develop a contextual understanding of culture, including influences such as social class,
    gender, and ethnicity.

  2. Develop a critical understanding of how evidence is constructed and knowledge legitimized in
    differing worldviews. 

  3. Develop a critical perspective of the relationships between culture and health/health care
    delivery. 

  4. Suggest ways to apply a critical perspective of culture and health in health care leadership
    roles. 

  5. Accept the personal challenge of awareness-reflection-action in personal and professional ways of thinking and doing.

3.0     Course Materials 

MHST/NURS 620 is comprised of both Online and Print-based course materials.

Online Materials

  • Introduction: Provides essential information about the course materials, the design of the course, and the procedures you should follow to complete the course successfully.
  • Schedule: Outlines the timing of course activities
  • Units: Contains the six units that comprise the course
  • Assessment: Outlines the assignments/evaluation procedures of the course.
  • Reference: Listing of required readings, web sites, and citations included in the units

Print Materials

  • Reading File: A collection of articles, excerpts, and other sources of information that you will be directed to read in this course.
  • Textbooks: The textbook listed below is used in this course.

Coburn, D., D'Arcy, C., & Torrance, G. (1998). Health and Canadian society:
     Sociological perspectives (3rd ed.). Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

4.0     Course Structure  

The course includes Internet access to health-related Web sites around the world, participation in electronic mail, and computer conferencing with students from across the country. Students are expected to connect to an Internet Service Provider at their own expense.

5.0     Course Outline

MHST/NURS 620  consists of the following 6 units

Unit 1- Awareness: Understandings of Health and Culture
Time Frame: Week 1

This unit has two purposes: to give students a chance to learn a bit about each other and their expectations for this course; and to start students on the path of developing awareness about the relationships between culture and health/health care.

Unit 2- Awareness: Critical Theory Perspectives
Time Frame: Weeks 2 and 3

This unit has the following purposes: to help student develop awareness of the ways they think about phenomena, including culture and health; and to help students develop awareness of the perspectives of phenomena offered by critical theory.

Unit 3- Awareness: Discourse Analysis
Time Frame: Weeks 4 and 5

This unit has the following purpose: to develop awareness of discourse analysis as an approach to reveal worldviews and power relations embedded in cultures that create inequities in health and health care delivery.

Unit 4- Reflection: Health and the Cultures of Social Class, Gender, and Ethnicity 
Time Frame: Week 7 to 9

The purpose of this unit is to provide the opportunity to reflect on cultural factors that influence health and health care delivery. Students apply principles of critical theory and discourse analysis to examine the relationships among social class, gender, ethnicity, and health.

Unit 5- Reflection: The Cultures of Health Care
Time Frame: Weeks 9 and 10

The purpose of this unit is to provide the opportunity to apply principles of critical theory and discourse analysis in reflection about how the cultures of health professions and health systems influence health care delivery. 

Unit 6- Action: Transforming Health Care
Time Frame: Weeks 12 and 13

The purpose of this unit is to explore how a critical perspective of health and culture can lead to actions to transform health care in a direction of equity.

6.0     Assessment Structure  

To receive credit for MHST/NURS 620, students must achieve a course composite grade of at least 60 per cent and a grade of at least 60 per cent on each written assignment. The weighting of the composite grade is as follows:

Conference 

Forum Leadership

Assignment 1

Assignment 2

Total

20%

 25% 30% 25% 100%

Feedback on Conference Participation (20%)

Feedback regarding conference participation will be ongoing. Quality of input (not quantity) is the goal. Feedback will focus on the student's ability to provide organized and original contributions that reflect analysis and synthesis of the material presented.  

Participation Criteria  

The assessment structure for MHST/NURS 620 indicates that 20% of the final grade is determined by participation in the course. Participation is measured against the following criteria.

  1. Complete on-line contributions during the unit forum timeframe.

  2. Respond to online discussions at least twice each week.

  3. Contribute original thoughts or ideas to online discussions.  

  4. Cite relevant resources to validate points made.

  5. Demonstrate openness to divergent points of view.

  6. Be respectful of the perceptions of others.  

  7. Integrate material from previous units to formulate ideas and generate dialogue. 

  8. Present responses that follow the rules of grammar and spelling in the online contributions. 

Critical Forum Leadership (25%)

Critical forum leadership provides students the opportunity to lead a conference discussion on one of five topics related to culture and health.  In the discussion, students apply principles of critical theory and discourse analysis to examine the relationships between health and factors that influence health: social class, gender, ethnicity, and the cultures of health professions and health systems.

Assignment 1:  Critical Reflection on Discourse (30%) |

Assignment 1 invites students to analyze the discourse around a health-related topic relevant to their practice setting.  Students locate resources (primarily journal articles and web-based information) that comprise the discourse about a health-related topic and analyze this discourse to determine the ways the topic is discussed and understood in our society.  

Assignment 2: Action to Transform Health Care (25%)

Assignment 2 asks students to discuss how the discourse from Assignment 1 is evident in their practice setting, the influence of this on health care delivery, and actions that could transform the discourse to improve health care delivery. 

Athabasca University reserves the right to amend course outlines occasionally and without notice.
Page last edited: June 09, 2003 To previous version. ©Copyright 2003 Athabasca University
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