Short Paper

Health Leadership 4210 Short Paper (MAX. 5 pages) Due: November 18th 2009 at 11:30 am SHARP* 30% of final grade Background: At the beginning of October, 2009 Tom Clossen the current President and CEO of the Ontario Hospital Association (OHA) wrote an editorial that appeared in the Toronto Star criticizing the Ontario Medical Association’s (OMA) position on Omnibus Bill 179 Regulated Health Professions Statute Law Amendment Act, 2009. It is a big piece of legislation that proposes changes to approximately 25 Acts. Among these, it will allow for pharmacists and nurse practitioners to provide enhanced direct patient care. According to the Ontario government the legislation aims to accomplish three goals: 1. Expand the Services of Regulated Health Care Professionals; 2. Improve Patient Safety; and 3. Strengthen the Health Care System From the perspective of the OHA the legislation “would improve access to quality health care for patients while allowing physicians to focus their time and talents on more complex cases” (Clossen, 2009). Clossen goes on to note that doctors are not providing leadership on this issue. In a rebuttal that appeared in the Star just two days later, Dr Suzanne Strasberg the president of the OMA noted that the OHA should place its focus on helping its hospital administrators break their “addiction” to cut-backs in hospital services rather than point fingers at the doctors. Assignment: Your task is threefold: 1. Discuss key elements of Ontario’s Omnibus Bill 179 including the rationale for implementing this legislation. 2. Discuss the positive and negative implications of Ontario’s approach to re-aligning professional scopes of practice. 3. Analyse the extent to which Ontario’s strategy to re-balance health care responsibilities exemplifies (in)effective leadership in healthcare? You should use the available evidence (academic literature) as well as the opinions of different interest groups (OMA, OHA, ONA etc.) to support your arguments. Tie your paper together with a good introduction that clearly states your argument and a conclusion that succinctly summarizes your main ideas. Include proper APA referencing. Make sure to link your analysis to leadership concepts discussed in the course. Ensure that you follow the paper’s formatting requirements. This is a RESEARCH paper. Be sure to conduct an academic literature review. To get you started you can draw on the following resources: 1. Syllabus articles on leadership 2. Regulated Health Professions Statute Law Amendment Act, 2009, http://www.health.gov.on.ca/english/public/legislation/regulated/regulated_health_professions.ht ml 3. Oandassan, I. et al. (June 2006) Teamwork in Healthcare: Promoting Effective Teamwork in Health Care in Canada Policy Synthesis and Recommendations, CHSRF. a. Location: http://www.chsrf.ca/research_themes/workplace_e.php 4. Clossen, Tom “Ontario Medical Association is taking aim at wrong target”, in Toronto Star, Oct 6 a. http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/705859 5. Strasberg, Suzanne The doctors respond to hospitals' criticism, in Toronto Star, Oct 8 a. http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/707144 6. Ministry of Health and Long Term Care, What Experts are Saying About Proposed

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Changes to How Ontario’s Health Professionals Provide Services a. http://www.health.gov.on.ca/english/media/news_releases/archives/nr_09/may/bg_2009051 1_2.html Formatting Requirements 1. Title page with paper’s title, your name, student number, my name, course, and date of submission 2. Printed on 8.5” by 11” paper 3. Font of 12 point or higher 4. Double-spaced 5. 1” margins 6. Spell- and grammar-checked 7. Use APA style (handy reference: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/) 8. No footnotes 9. A list of references appended 10. No longer than 5 pages of content – additional pages will not be marked. Grade Deductions: Written Assignments that do not conform to ALL of the above requirements will be docked a half letter grade (i.e. an A paper will become an A-). Late Written Assignments are subject to a 3% per day penalty (including weekend days). All illnesses must be documented with a proper physician’s note (refer to the syllabus for instructions). Academic Integrity Misrepresenting the work of others as your own constitutes academic dishonesty and is a punishable offence in the University. Review your obligations with the interactive on-line Tutorial for students at: http://www.yorku.ca/academicintegrity/tutorial.htm. Ignorance is not an excuse. Know your obligations!

 TurnItIn: You are required to submit your short paper into Turn-it in http://turnitin.com/static/index.html a. Class ID NO: 2794191 b. Password: hlst4210 c. You must create your own user profile using the class enrollment wizard. Additional instructions are available at: http://www.yorku.ca/computing/students/turnitin.html * Time Management You are expected to turn your papers and assignment in on time. Please refer to the course policy on “Written Assignment Grade Deductions” below. There will be a 1% time management bonus granted for short papers submitted by November 18th at 11:30 a.m. SHARP – no exceptions as this is a bonus grade. Evaluation Scheme 1. Content (10%): Did I make a clear argument? Did my document properly address its intended audience? Did I use data to support my arguments / assertions / ideas? Did I reference the work of others properly? Did I move beyond summary to provide analysis? 2. Style & Organization (10%): Was my writing easy to read? Was the document free from spelling and grammatical errors? Have I shown evidence of having learned to edit and revise my own work? 3. Originality & Soundness of Argument (10%): Did I show evidence of having thought analytically? Creatively? Logically?

A superior paper (letter grade “A”) will demonstrate a thorough analysis with a parsimonious synthesis of 2

the literature. It will integrate theoretical leadership concepts discussed in the course with analysis of the specific tasks listed above.

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