The subjects offered gave me an insight into the possible career paths I could take in healthcare.
When I finished high school, I studied a Bachelor of Health Science and a Master of Podiatric Medicine. After working in private practice in Australia for a few years, my passion for travel led me towards taking a job in Singapore where I worked as a podiatrist at the International Medical Clinic. This was a great experience which allowed me to provide podiatric care and advice to a wide range of patient populations.
I soon returned from Singapore and decided that podiatry wasn’t for me. My strong commitment to and interest in health outcomes and value-based healthcare led me to undertake my Masters of Health Service Management (majoring in Project Management). While studying, I was fortunate enough to be offered a job as a project officer, where I worked on improving the health outcomes of rectal cancer patients in the Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District.
I wanted to study Health Services Management because I realised after a few years working as a podiatrist in private practice that there were limited opportunities for me to progress professionally. I was never ambitious enough to open my own clinic and thought I needed to pursue a different path. I knew I wanted to remain working in healthcare, but I was not sure what career I wanted to take.
I decided to study a postgraduate course at UTS because I wanted to work full-time and this course allowed me to study part-time in block mode which was quite convenient for me at this stage of my life.
Throughout my time working as a podiatrist, I have become innately aware of the inequalities that exist regarding the quality of care patients receive. I am passionate about using outcome measures to drive quality improvement activities within organisations.
I’m currently working as a Project Officer in the Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District. The project I’m working on at the moment is improving the healthcare outcomes for rectal cancer patients and involves using an international framework for outcomes measurement and implementing that in hospital. We benchmark our results and compare them with the international community and this often requires a lot of stakeholder and change management.
The most rewarding part of this course so far has been working with such a diverse and group of students from different cultural and professional backgrounds. In class, this encourages thought-provoking group discussions and I’ve learned a lot from my peers from their varied experience in healthcare.
The assignments in this course often include a lot of group work, which I find beneficial. The skills I’ve learned while participating in group work are 100% transferable to the workplace. I have found this a valuable aspect of the course.
I’ve developed throughout this course and can attribute my personal and professional development to the exceptional guidance provided by the staff in the Faculty of Health at UTS. Their expertise and industry experience are not only valuable but also motivating.
In the future, I would like to stay on as a Project Officer in my current role and continue helping improve the health outcomes across the health district. I would love to work for the World Health Organisation as a project manager.
My advice for future students who wish to study Health Services Management is to consider this course if you are looking to extend yourself as a leader in healthcare. The course exposes students to a wide variety of subjects from data management to policy, power and politics in health. The assignments and class activities are carefully designed to simulate current challenges in the healthcare industry. The collaborative aspect of this course allows you to refine your communication and leadership skills.