Master of Disaster Health Care (Coursework and Research)

Admission requirements

Applicants must hold an approved bachelor degree or equivalent (AQF level 7) qualification in a health profession from an approved tertiary institution and have not less than two years’ professional experience in the health care sector following completion of the degree or equivalent qualification.

Applicants will be required to provide a brief statement (research proposal) regarding the area of research they would like to undertake. Research proposals are subject to Course Coordinator approval and the university's ability to provide suitable research supervision to students depending on their proposed research topic.

However, the Dean (Education) may, under certain circumstances and subject to specific conditions, admit others who can show evidence of fitness for candidature. Credit may be granted for comparable prior studies.

Course aims

The Master of Disaster Health Care (Coursework and Research) is designed to provide students who are working in health care, whatever their professional background, with the opportunity to deepen their specialised/advanced theoretical and practical knowledge and skills in disaster management and response, to apply these in a range of situations, and to contribute to the current and future development of disaster health care and/or disaster response.

Learning outcomes

Graduates of this course are expected to be able to:

perform advanced disaster management and response roles that apply to Australia’s disaster response in national and international settings
demonstrate excellence and leadership in their practice, taking into account the nature of interdisciplinary professional practice
influence and improve the nature and quality of disaster health care management and response using best available research evidence combined with professional practice knowledge from a variety of disaster settings
conduct and critique research into selected areas of disaster response.

Program of study

To qualify for the Master of Disaster Health Care (Coursework and Research), a student must complete 54 units (including an 18-unit research project) with a grade of P or NGP or better in each topic, according to the following program of study:

Core topics

36 units comprising:

DISH8001 Introduction to Disaster Health (4.5 units)
DISH8002 Clinical Decision Making in Disaster Health Care (4.5 units)
DISH8003 Health Management of Major Incidents (4.5 units)
DISH8004 International Disaster Practice (4.5 units)
NURS9218 Approaches to Research Designs (4.5 units)
NURS9219 Introduction to Health Research (4.5 units)
NURS9220 Developing a Literature Review (4.5 units)
NURS9221 Writing Effective Ethics Applications for Research Projects (4.5 units)

Plus 18 units from:

NURS9614 Research Project (18 units)*
NURS9614C Research Project (4.5/18 units) *
NURS9614D Research Project (4.5/18 units) *
NURS9614E Research Project (4.5/18 units) *
NURS9614F Research Project (4.5/18 units) *

* Enrolment in NURS9614 must be approved by the Course Coordinator and will depend upon the presentation of an acceptable research proposal and the availability of appropriate supervision. If appropriate supervision is not available students will be redirected to the coursework program.

The award of a grade of Fail (F) in the same topic on more than one occasion or in 9 units or more, or failure to complete the course within four consecutive years, may constitute prima facie evidence of unsatisfactory progress for the purposes of the University's Policy on Student Progress.

Except with permission of the Dean (Education):

the program must be completed full-time in three consecutive semesters or part-time within eight consecutive semesters
a student may not include a topic that repeats work previously undertaken.

Every effort has been made to ensure the information published on the Course Rule pages is accurate at the time of publication. Flinders University reserves the right to amend its curriculum without prior notice, and will update the Course Rules to reflect any amendments at the earliest opportunity.