Assessment Strategy/ Brief

Your summative assessment is a 2500-word critical evaluation of a healthcare system that will be based on an economic standpoint, policy effectiveness and a quality of health perspective. You would need to consider health economics from both a micro and macro perspective.

You will be supported to choose a healthcare system by module tutors.

The assessment will be submitted Week 14 of the module.

 Assessment Criteria

You will be assessed on your ability to:

• Demonstrate a detailed knowledge of economic principles that can be applied to evaluate your chosen healthcare system considering alternate funding methods to offer as a solution.
• Critically evaluate the impact of policy initiatives on organisations and professionals working within healthcare settings
• Demonstrate critical reflection on the legal, social, ethical and professional dilemmas relevant to the economic analysis of your chosen healthcare system.
• Adherence to School of Health & Life Sciences guidance for presentation and referencing.

Module Learning Outcomes 

The most important thing when writing your essay is that you meet the assessment criteria.

These guidance notes may be used to help direct the content and structure of your essay.  We recommend that you have the assessment criteria and the University Generic Marking Criteria (level 6) with you as you plan and develop your work.

Your Title Page should include the following:

• Your name
• Your student number
• Programme title
• Module title and module code
• Module leaders name
• Title of your essay
• Word count
• Submission date
• Declaration of Generative AI Use

This module has an AI Permission of Amber. You can, if you wish, use Generative AI as a companion for specific tasks, explicitly permitted by the Module Leader when producing your assessment. (Please see Page 6 for more information on AI Permission and Declaration of Generative AI Use)

Suggested Structure

Introduction

Your introduction should include:

A succinct overview of your essay (Introduce your chosen health system to discuss with a very concise statement as to why) and your intentions (What you will discuss- key theories, concepts etc) should clearly reflect the assessment criteria. Defining any key concepts. Two to three sentences required as an example:

For this assessment the UK National Health Service (nhs) is the chosen system, exploring theories and concepts, critically analysing the economic principles and the impact of policy initiatives on the organisation and the healthcare professionals working within this system. The assessment will demonstrate critical reflection on the legal, social, ethical and professional dilemmas relevant to the economic analysis of the NHS and define key concepts such as economic efficiency, opportunity cost, scarcity and rationing of resources considering micro and macroeconomics.

Assessment Criteria

(main body of the essay)- Aim to be critical yet concise!

Demonstrate a detailed knowledge of economic principles that can be applied to evaluate your chosen healthcare system considering alternate funding methods to offer as a solution. 

The key is to ensure you identify key economic principles that can be applied to your chosen healthcare system (rather than purely discuss all economic principles) and demonstrate why chosen over alternate funding methods- i.e. why taxation over PHI. You will provide a succinct overview of how your healthcare system is funded, from the types of funding- address your evaluation from the perspective of main funding method, consider %GDP if relevant.

You will then provide an analysis of the benefits/ problems associated with this system- please use using economic terminology- for example: demand/supply; market failure; moral hazard etc.

Critically evaluate the impact of policy initiatives on organisations and professionals working within healthcare settings.  

You may want to consider the political values of governments- so looking at current government focus and ideology, how does that shape policy and what impact has this on both your chosen healthcare system and healthcare professionals working within this.

Think about both the positive and negative impact.

You may wish to draw on some contemporary policy from the country chosen to discuss to illustrate.

You will find that information here should link to your previous discussion as funding and the problems associated- economic principles are often then transferred to policy as to how to address issues. 

Demonstrate critical reflection on the legal, social, ethical and professional dilemmas relevant to the economic analysis of your chosen healthcare system. 

As you are reflecting this could be written in the first person- although for flow third person may feel more comfortable for you. Remember word limitations, you cannot identify every dilemma here but perhaps at least 2 that are relevant to your chosen healthcare system. You will find that parts one and 2 of the assignment will have already started to identify dilemmas i.e. equity of provision, scarcity and rationing- how does that link to legal, ethical, social or professional dilemmas- if you are a healthcare professional- there may be a conflict with delays and rationing or people unable to fund healthcare in terms of ethical principles or professional codes- so fairness, equity.

Conclusion

The conclusion should not introduce any new information but should be a summary of what you have already analysed that you can present as the main focus of your essay.

It is the final result, a judgement reached by reasoning, or the summing up of an essay. This should be very short- 2-3 sentences maximum.

Appendices (if used, each one should be presented on a new page) It is suggested not relevant for this essay.           

Adherence to School of Health & Life Sciences guidance for presentation and referencing.

Follow guidelines in the Student Essential Guide and see the ‘Study Support section on Blackboard. You will be marked on referencing and citation; the logical development and flow of the assignment; that you stay to your word count; your academic writing, application and development of critical discussion. Remember quality over quantity in terms of concepts.

If you are struggling with your writing or referencing- visit the Learning Hub page- so much fabulous guidance there.

https://libguides.tees.ac.uk/learning_hub/home

It is always useful to review any previous feedback on summative work to help you enhance this current and future assignments.

AI Permission and Declaration of Generative AI Use

This module has an AI Permission of Amber. You can, if you wish, use Generative AI as a companion for specific tasks, explicitly permitted by the Module Leader when producing your assessment.

When you submit an assessment, you are declaring the following:

I understand that to use the work and ideas of others, including AI generated output, without full acknowledgement, is academic misconduct. I confirm that this assessment submission is all my own, original work and that all sources, summaries, paraphrases and quotes are fully referenced as required by the University’s Academic Misconduct Regulations (relating to Taught Provision and Advanced Independent Work on Professional Doctorate courses).

More information on academic misconduct can be found in the Academic Misconduct Regulations (relating to Taught Provision and Advanced Independent Work on Professional Doctorate courses) which are available at the following link here.

The Title Page of your Assignment should include one of the following statements:

DECLARATION OF GENERATIVE AI USE

(delete one of the following as appropriate):

• I DID NOT use Generative AI technology in the development, writing, or editing of this assignment. 

• I DID use Generative AI technology in the development, writing, or editing of this assignment.

If you DID use Generative AI technology in your Assignment, please provide detailed responses in the Appendix of your assignment to the following items (1-3) and include statement (4):

1. Specify the reasons and purposes for using Generative AI technology in this assignment. Clearly explain how the Generative AI technology assisted in the development, writing, or editing processes.
2. EXTENT OF AI USE: Outline the sections or parts of the assignment that were developed, written, or edited with the assistance of Generative AI technology.
3. REFLECTION ON AI’S CONTRIBUTION: Reflect on how the Generative AI technology contributed to the assignment, including its limitations and advantages in the context of the assessment.
4. By including this statement in my assessment submission, I attest that the information provided in this Originality and use of AI Declaration Statement is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge. I understand that providing false information is a violation of the University’s Academic Misconduct Regulations and may result in academic and/or disciplinary consequences.

Note declarations, when incorporated into the Title Page and, if required, inclusion of the items (1-4) in the Appendix do not contribute to the assessment word count.

End of Assignment Brief