Masters Of Public Health (MPH) Course – Reasons For Pursuing And Future Goals

Enhancing Skills and Competencies in Public Health

I would like to take this opportunity to inform the concerned authority the reason behind my decision to undertake the Masters of Public Health (MPH) course. Firstly, I believed that a Masters of Public Health could enhance my skills and competencies that I developed through my D.Pharm course, and prepare me to have a fulfilling career in the healthcare sector to address diverse emerging healthcare issues. Since I became committed to bring improvement in the quality of life of individuals and reduce the burden of health issues across my community and others, pursuing the MPH course was thought to be a rewarding and significant decision. While I gained knowledge and experience about how drugs intend to improve patient’s condition throughout my D.Pharm course, I also had the realisation that health issues can be addressed at its core by fundamental principles of public health. Further, I acknowledged the need for developing managerial and communication skills that are crucial for solving organisational issues in the field of healthcare. The science-intensive program of MPH was appropriate to fulfil my interest in bringing my skills to make a major contribution to the field of public health. Upon completion of this course, I am better able to understand the principles of prevention and control of disability and diseases, and the strategies to promote health across a national and international level.

Patient discharge from healthcare settings is a highly complex process, and a number of challenges are effaced in terms of financial management. Through my MPH course, I have learnt that effective hospital revenue cycle management practices have gained importance in the contemporary era. I belief that there is a need for more stringent regulations about underpayments, and delays in payments at the time of patient discharge. I have always taken interest in engaging in conversation with my seniors to take insights from their experiences during placements. I have been informed by one of my senior that revenue collection at the time of patient discharge is a crucial concern and professionals must be placed to generate accurate and consistent financial information to ensure that there is no further need of using resources to follow up debt. Further, I realised that implementation of control systems for ensuring the flow of finances from the patient’s end is vital. I had applied my critical thinking skills to come to the conclusion that a professional taking interest in the field of healthcare finance system must be able to identify novice and developed funding sources, product lines and revenue streams for providing advice on how to strengthen the existing ones.

Importance of Hospital Revenue Cycle Management Practices

The knowledge of appropriate financial management gained through this project would enable the progress of my ability to bring professionalism into managing financial aspects. At the end of the project, I would be able to develop my knowledge on how to reduce the financial risk of patients leaving the care setting and eliminate chances of further use of resources to follow up outstanding debt. In future, I would be able to use information technology to evaluate and interpret financial conditions of patients and engage in suitable decision making. Working in a healthcare organisation, I would collaborate with concerned stakeholders to prioritise individual and organisational needs of financial resources at the time of patient discharge. In future, I would ensure that I demonstrate the capability of interpreting and reporting financial data and communicating the same to the organisational department for successive decision making process. Further, I can assess the financial status of the organisation and develop any suitable corrective measures if required. 

The basic requirement for this project is post graduate degree in Public Health, and I fit into this since I am pursuing MPH degree from a reputed institute of the country that would make me a competent professional in the field of public health. As a part of the MPH course, the subject on Health Economics and Financing has given me the opportunity to learn about the implications of out-of-pocket costs, and how such costs can be reduced. I have learnt that increased cost sharing have been advocated to act as an encouraging factor that makes them smarter consumers of the healthcare industry. The overall aim is to reduce the cost of medical care. Throughout the sessions conducted for the above-said subject, the focus has been given to teach students like me the importance of the situations when high out-off pocket costs can lead to delay in patient care service delivery. I would further like to add in this regard that while visiting different healthcare settings due to personal reasons, I have come across patients enquiring about out-of-pocket costs to be borne by them for different treatment processes. On such instances, the patients have shown their desire to receive more revenue from private health insurance companies for own financial benefits.  The present project would add value to such experiences.

At aim of the project is to understand the cost of a patient for having cancer treatment at this highly esteemed setting. It would throw light on how one reduction of out-of-pocket expenses for patients and increase of revenue from private health insurance companies can be possible. In future, I as a responsible healthcare professional would like to engage in patient counselling with regards to out-of-pocket costs management. Patients are in need of up-to-date information on the different means of managing healthcare costs and the diverse benefits they can receive from private health insurance companies. I feel taking part in patient education would a rewarding aspect of my future career. Since cancer treatment is a costly affair, patients are more keen on understanding the different dimensions of out-of-pocket costs. Challenges faced by cancer patients are overwhelming, and they need constant support when approaching healthcare centres for cancer treatment.

Potential Benefits of E-Learning Platforms for Professional Development

The basic requirement for this project is post graduate degree in Public Health, and I fit into this since I am pursuing MPH degree from a reputed institute of the country that would make me a competent professional in the field of public health. In due course of my D. Pharm degree and MPH degree, I have taken interest to engage in e-learning process that has proven to be helpful. The term e-learning refers to the process of web based learning or online learning that includes learning through courses available online. The experience of engaging in e-learning has been noteworthy, and it has made me realise the different advantages of it. Such form of learning has been flexible and convenient for me as resources are easily accessible from any where one wants. I have taken part in discussion chats where I have put forward my beliefs and opinion about a certain healthcare topic. The discussion forums have also drawn my attention where interaction has been promoted to share opinions with peers. I would like to mention in this respect that I have the knowledge about the use of different e-learning platforms and how these work with different softwares.

Upon successful completion of the project, I would gain a clear understanding of the impact of the e-learning platform in terms of its efficiency and effectiveness, and the areas in which learning experience is to be improved. Based on this information I would consider future professional learning through the e-learning platform. Continous professional development is a crucial aspect of the career of health care professionals. I would like to keep myself educated on the advanced research in my field through e-learning, and the use of e-learning process would add enrichment to my learning.. The key reason for engaging in e-learning would be the flexibility of time and convenience of learning setting. The process would be interactive, stimulating, interesting and meaningful and I would establish professionals goals based on such learning. Further, it would help me in interacting my peers from across the globe and share views and opinions that are important for professional development. 

Project 4: Improving the accuracy and relevance of medical record documentation to ensure patient encounters are accurately translated to optimise health funding and service provision

The project is an idea for individuals with a post-graduate degree in health, and I fit into this since I am pursuing MPH degree from a reputed institute of the country. The focus of the project is on the medical record, and my attention has been drawn in due course since writing and managing medical record was a part of my D.Pharm curriculum. The curriculum encouraged pharmacist professionals like me to become actively engaged in demonstrating direct patient care. Apart from dispensing of medications, we have been taught to collaborate with other care professionals to provide optimal quality care. After learning the process of writing patient medical records, there was an increase in the clarity of the importance of my role in drug therapy. Moreover, I gained an understanding of the principle that as a healthcare professional I must be responsible for the recommendations I make. By writing a patient’s medical record, I would be able to identify the relevant source of recommendations that fit the patient scenario, and accept professional responsibility. As a part of my course, I had completed solving virtual patient medical record writing cases that have been helpful in clarifying concepts at their core. This training might be applied in the present project.  

Role of Medical Record Documentation in Ensuring Accuracy and Relevance

The project would provide me with a golden opportunity to exhibit my learning and skills and take part on medical record writing for patients in future. With a comprehensive and accurate patient medical record in place, I would be coding data into particular diagnostic groups and auditing records for correct analysis. At the fundamental level, I would be keeping the focus on providing exemplary care which is patient-centred in nature, including the ability to collect, record, interpret and assess patient information. By this process, I would be determining the presence of a medical condition or a disease and assess the need of referral or treatment process. Since the identification of patient-centred factors has a great impact on health, I would precisely focus on the roles dedicated to the recording of the details. In a nutshell, I would emphasise on augmenting my role in healthcare information system in the respective healthcare organisation.

Visual display of the current services and pathways for pulmonary rehabilitation services provided by the SVHM Health Independence Program

The program on the visual display of the current services is suitable for students with an undergraduate degree in Medicine or Physiotherapy. Further, students are required to have interest in gathering information, interviewing stakeholders and undertaking gap analysis. In addition, one needs to be able to visually represent complex information. As part of D.Pharm degree, I have gained knowledge of chemistry, anatomy, pathophysiology, physiology and medicinal biology and their relation to medicine. Coming to the ability of interviewing stakeholders, I belive that my skills in this regard are up-to-the-mark since I have previously engaged myself in conducting interviews of different stakeholders in order to collect health information. In the last few years of my D.Pharm course, students were required to engage in extensive research; both clinical and preclinical that involved human subjects. As a result, I had to undertake rigorous interviews with the respondents to gather information and process with data analysis. The MPH course has given me the chance to understand the concept of gap analysis as indicated by comparing the actual performance of an organisation with the desired performance. My critical thinking ability and logical reasoning skills would be crucial for the present project.

Drawing on experience from the project, I would consider myself in a position to implement the concept of the visual display of information in practice to understand the needs of the organisation I am working for. With the advent of digital technology, the chance of creating and sharing images in a spontaneous manner for enhancing communication has become a key element of healthcare systems. One example of how I might translate my knowledge into practice is a transfer of information to the patient from other care professionals. In situations where verbal communication would be found to be disrupted or compromised, I would implement the process of visual representation learnt from the process. I would also ensure that visual representations would not make the nature of interpretation of information further complicated, thereby maintaining the credibility of health information. The negative influence of social factors on the complete process would be eliminated at the root level.

To quantify the changes to physical and psychological functioning of patients on the waiting list of BWCPM

While completing the MPH course, I have gained information on the importance of addressing physical and mental heath issues of patients who are in the waiting list for getting access to care services. Understanding the core concepts of human physiology and anatomy are also crucial in this respect. The vast knowledge gained in the field of human physiology, anatomy and pathophysiology as a result of completing D.Pharm course would be relevant to this project as the knowledge would make me understand the health issues. The concepts of these subjects are very crucial for healthcare service since the patient condition is dependent on these. Acknowledging this, I had always focused on scoring high grades in these subjects. Further, the importance of self-management comes into the limelight in this regard as patients are to be educated on the mitigation strategies to combat negative physical and psychological changes. Self-management education delivery to patients entails a professional to demonstrate effective verbal and non-verbal communication skills. My previous experiences of communicating with patients have taught me the value of showing empathy and respect while educating them on a healthcare topic. My patient communication skills have therefore developed for the better as I have learnt to approach patients with the right tone and body language.

The fundamental benefit that I would gain from this project is an increased level of understanding of how patients feel physically and mentally, and what their experiences are when they are included in a waiting list for access to treatment. I future, I would utilise the knowledge gained to understand patient condition while they are in the waiting list and plan the delivery of services accordingly if given the authority. The ability of counselling patients to address deteriorations in their psychological and physical conditions would form the second skill developed as a result of the project. In future, I intend to apply my interpersonal skills and communication skills for gathering information from patients and identify the factors facilitating accurate diagnosis of psychological and physical conditions of the patients included in the waiting list. Counselling provided on my part would be appropriate as I would be focusing on providing therapeutic instructions. Establishment of caring relationships with patients would also be an integral element of my professional practice.