Applied Health Services Research

AHS6000	Introduction to Health Services Research	3 ch
This course provides students with an overview of key aspects of health services research including an introduction to research methods, critical appraisal, epidemiology, ethics, and the Canadian health system. Note, this course is offered as part of the MAHSR program, a partnership among 4 universities (UNB, UPEI, SMU, MUN). The course is approved by our partners and Dr. Montelpare, Professor, UPEI, will be the instructor.

AHS6001	Canadian Health Systems	3 ch
This course proposes to give an overview of the history of the Canadian Health System and its current organization, as well as an overview of other international health system models. The key concepts that will be explored in the Canadian Health System include legislation, institutions, funding structures, human resources, and guiding values. Other issues examined will be the factors affecting health services utilization, the measurement of health outcomes and their use for accountability, and a review of health information systems in Canada and the structures and instruments within them. Finally, current issues and trends relating to the Canadian Health Care system will be reviewed.

AHS6004	Determinants of Health	3 ch
This course will explore the development of the philosophy of the determinants of health, and identify the determinants of health and their relationship with health status. As the course unfolds, students will gain an understanding of the philosophical underpinnings, as well as understanding their inter-relationships. An understanding of the complexity of developing healthy public policy that addresses multiple determinants of health will be developed by students, as well as the consideration of the implications of policy from a determinants of health perspective.

AHS6005	Policy and Decision Making	3 ch
In this course, students will explore the process of how Canadian Health Policy is developed, implemented and evaluated. This course will also assist in building skills in the areas of research approach, critical appraisal, policy synthesis, and briefing notes. The course will follow a case based approach to understand the implications of political, social, ethical, and economic factors/actors/stakeholders.

AHS6006	Qualitative and Quantitative Methods	3 ch
This course is divided into two broad sections. In the first section, the course will explore an introduction to qualitative and quantitative approaches. This part will highlight some of the critical issues involved in conducting applied health related research. The second section will be an overview of statistical techniques that are appropriate to health related research. It will provide students with some basic building blocks that they can use to carry out their own research and critically evaluate the work or others. Students will be introduced to SPSS in the Quantitative Methods section (this will be used extensively in the Statistics section).

AHS6007	Knowledge Transfer and Research Uptake	3 ch
This course will explore the facilitators and barriers of using evidence in decision-making, as well as developing the students’ understanding of the conceptual/philosophical/theoretical underpinnings of knowledge transfer and research uptake. Students will also learn how to create ongoing/sustainable linkages with decision makers and how to share research findings to academic and non-academic audiences. This course strengthens the program by providing students with skills to interact with stakeholders to facilitate the use of evidence in decision-making. Topics explored include Evidence Based Decision Making - barriers and facilitators, and why evidence is not used in decision-making. The course will look at how to get decision-makers to use research evidence through behavioral change, social marketing, and sustainable linkages.

AHS6008	Advanced Qualitative Research Methods	3 ch
In this course, students will gain an understanding of the use of qualitative research methods in applied health research. Students’ skill will be developed in the qualitative data analysis of qualitative data, grant proposal writing using qualitative data, and the critique of qualitative research. Topics explored include issues in qualitative approaches such as subjects/participants, ethical issues, representativeness, data trustworthiness, bias/perspective, researcher as an instrument, the designing of an analysis template, concurrent/ono-concurrent, nudist, and ethnography. Other topics explored include theoretical approaches to analysis, such as conflict, feminist, deconstructionalist, thematic analysis, participatory action research, grounded theory, and case studies.

AHS6009	Advanced Quantitative Research Methods	3 ch
This course will expose students to a variety of more advanced quantitative and statistical approaches to research methodology. The two main purposes of the course are to provide students with the tools to conduct advanced quantitative empirical research, and to provide the opportunity to develop their ability to critically evaluate the work of others. Students will learn to examine issues and develop research strategies to begin to identify and answer the important topics that need to be researched; students will design a realistic appraisal of what can be achieved and what cannot, given resource constraints.

ABRG6011	Indigenous Health	3 ch
This course introduces the historical and contemporary forces affecting Indigenous health, and the cultural teachings and ceremonies that define wellness among this marginalized community. Students will build an understanding of Indigenous models of health and healing, community wellness and cultural safety to promote equitable health care practice and policy and explore tools for "Allyship". Note, this course is offered as part of the MAHSR program, a partnership among 4 universities (UNB, UPEI, SMU, MUN). The course is approved by our partners. Dr. Julie Bull, an Indigenous person who is a graduate of the MAHSR program (UPEI) and the IDST program (UNB), developed the course and we have approached her about instructing it.

AHS6012	Big Data in Healthcare	3 ch
This course will provide students with an understanding of how big data can be utilized to develop policies and institutional responses that improve health outcomes. Students will learn how to use various tools and techniques to work with large data sets from sources such as Statistics Canada Data, including census and/or the national household surveys, and administrative data sets.

AHS6099	Capstone	6 ch
Students will complete a supervised capstone project which will consist of an in-depth literature review on a particular applied health services policy or problem OR an analysis of secondary data sources to address an empirical question.

AHS6997	Applied Health Services Research Master's Thesis	12 ch
Students in the Applied Health Services Research program are required to submit and defend a thesis describing their research. Theses will be supervised by a supervisory committee and examined by an Examining Board, both of which conform to the requirements for interdisciplinary degrees administered by the School of Graduate Studies at UNB.

AHS6998	MAHSR Practicum	6 ch
This course provides students with a residency placement at an approved organization or institution, consisting of relevant work in the health services research field that applies learning from the coursework for a duration of at least 240 hours. Note, this course is offered as part of the MAHSR program, a partnership among 4 universities (UNB, UPEI, SMU, MUN). The course is approved by our partners. The course will be administered by the MAHSR coordinator at UNB.