School of Biomedical Sciences

On completing my undergraduate degree in Psychology I entered the field of health administration through a planning position in a large metropolitan based regional health service in New Zealand. I completed a post graduate diploma in health administration by distance education and studied with some of New Zealand’s senior health managers. I left New Zealand to travel and work overseas in the early 1980’s. I worked in a small rural hospital in New South Wales before backpacking through Asia to England. I had a brief secondment to a District Health Authority in Surrey. On return to Australia I worked in a large rural base hospital while undertaking a Master of Health Administration by distance education. Having a broad base of experience in different roles in different countries, I accepted my academic appointment in 1990.

My initial interests were to combine my experiences as a student and in industry to improve the learning experience of the students I had contact with. It took some time to appreciate the significance of curriculum and a strategic consideration of teaching and learning but it has now become a passion. I have always viewed our program in health services management as being management development in focus as part of a professional development orientation. I believe that academia is grounded in scholarly activity and shared Boyer’s interpretation on that. Boyer (1990) concluded that scholarly activity encompassed the scholarship of discovery through original research, the scholarship of integration - to interpret, draw together and bring new insight on original work, the scholarship of application - of theory to practice and the bidirectional relationship between theory and practice, and finally the scholarship of teaching - communication of knowledge to learners and the creation and sharing of knowledge about the practice of teaching. There should be a balance in these endeavours but achieving that in the discipline of health services management has taken me some time. My initial efforts in discovery were somewhat tentative and not universally successful in regard to publications but certainly drove me to work on my integration, application and teaching. That lead to my doctoral research I am now at the point of equilibrium with submission of my doctoral thesis for examination. Completion of my thesis pulls all that scholarship together and provides a new direction for growth in my scholarship.

I was an early adopter of technology in teaching, and embraced the potential of computer mediated communication to strengthen the learning interaction in a distance education context. While it has increased the time pressures on both student and teacher I believe the learning outcomes that are now possible greatly exceed those experienced in a traditional distance education form. By encouraging students from the start to integrate and apply their learning and assessment tasks to their work context early returns on this learning investment are possible. More students are reporting success with activities that have been initiated through assessment tasks including business cases, services redesign and staff development activities.

 

top of page ^

Teaching

Teaching philosophy

While it can be fraught to single out specific authors in regard to developing a personal philosophy of teaching several were important to me. Knowles (1990) recognised that adult learners required certain conditions to learn particularly an understanding of why they needed learn something. It was also important that there was an emphasis in approach that linked to their experience. Checkland and Scholes (1990) developed an approach, soft systems methodology, to deal with ill-structured problem situations and placed particular significance on the concept of weltanschauung. Weltanschauung was a concept that represented the understandings and beliefs that shaped a person’s interpretation of the purpose of a system, and the assigned meaning of the activities occurring within it. Checkland (1999) subsequently suggested they “were best thought of as ‘holons’, using Koestler’s (1967) neologism”, where something was simultaneously a whole and a part. (p. A54).

My thinking about curriculum and learning were also extended through propositions presented by Savery and Duffy (1995). Those propositions were that “understanding is in our interactions with our environment…we cannot talk about what is learned separately from how it is learned”; “a cognitive conflict or [concern] is the stimulus for learning and determines the organization and nature of what is being learned”; and finally that “knowledge evolves through social negotiation and through the evaluation of the viability of individual understandings” (p. 31). Goodyear (1999) further summarised some of the transitions involved which for me included a move from “information transmission” to a “design of learning tasks and environments”; a shift from “‘teacher’ directed” to “learner managed learning”; from “individualistic learning” to “learning communities”, and from “inert knowledge” to “usable knowledge” (p. 12).

The concept of experience, and learner engagement with it, was influenced by the work of Dewey (1938), van Manen (1997) and Munby and Russell (1994). Dewey’s writing on reflection resonated with me in focussing on problem-solving. Schön’s work on developing professional artistry in addressing the gap between theory and practice allowed me to consider problems I had perceived in the way management was taught to health service professionals. In drawing on my own experience as a student in several different universities, and in both face-to-face and distance education modes, I embraced the use of computer-mediated communication to facilitate a learning and teaching interaction that incorporates all of the above. It also led to my doctoral study that was submitted for examination in July 2009.

My current view of teaching as a “holon” can best be expressed by way of an analogy. Imagine a jigsaw puzzle in pieces that are upside down on a work surface. In a curriculum sense the colours and patterns on the face of the pieces are concealed and I regard the shape of each piece to be largely indeterminate at the onset. Within each subject within a course there are several pieces of the puzzle that are presented to each learner that represent the assessment tasks and associated learning activities. The purpose of engagement with the learning resources is to reveal the face-side of each of the jigsaw pieces and the shape to assist the learner in fitting the pieces together. The role of other subjects in the curriculum is to add the number of face side pieces of the puzzle that learners can put together to develop an emerging critical mass of knowledge, skills and abilities. The ability to scaffold learning between subjects I coordinate is emerging as much more important than ever before because subjects in sequence can allow reinforcement and extension of learning when these elements are made explicit. Making those linkages explicit is not just a design issue but needs to be incorporated into the interaction that is facilitated when viewed from the learner’s perspective.

Current subjects authored and taught
HSM401 Perspectives on Health Care Systems (1990 - present)
HSM406 Resourcing Health & Aged Care Services (2002 - 2007, 2010 - present)

Current subjects taught
HSM409 Epidemiology & Public Health (2004 - present)

Subjects authored but no longer taught
HSM243 Health Services Policies (1997 - 2001)
HSM246 Managing Change (1997 - 2000)
HSM408 Current Issues in Health Services Management (1991 - 2008)
HSM510 Health Planning (1995 - 2009)

Subjects coordinated but no longer taught
HSM410 Aged Services Policies (2002 - 2006)
HSM512 Evaluating Health Services (2009)

 

top of page ^

Research

I am yet to become research active although I expect that to change following the submission of my thesis (July 2009). Despite engaging in a number of research activities in the early 1990s, not all of that activity led to publications. A study that commenced in 1993 with my colleague Lyn Johnson into the rural health organisations reforms in NSW lead to one publication with a second drafted. Due to my success with sabbatical leave in 1994 the second paper was not completed while I was overseas. The methodology we used was replicated in New Zealand and then in the UK. I published a paper on the NZ experience in an international journal while the UK paper was deferred. A subsequent replication of the study with changes in NSW in 1996 also did not lead to publication with the resignation of my co-researcher. My efforts switched from the scholarship of discovery in health care reforms to deal with the changes occurring within the university environment. In 1997 I became involved in the initial online delivery trials at CSU. I felt the use of online delivery offered greater potential for scholarly activity and I committed to this. I commenced my doctoral studies at this point and grappled with a number of issues such as computer-mediated communication, development of managerial thinking in clinicians and use of experience and reflection. Not all of these areas were equally developed in regard to the literature, particularly in the context that I was combining them in, I made a choice not to publish until my thesis was complete. That time has now arrived.

Research Interests

• Health system reform
• The role, function and development of the health service manager
• Management of change processes
• Developing the use of reflective thinking in a distance education context

Grant History

• Yen, M. & Ritchie, D. 2008 “CSU-Bathurst Foundation Grant - “From theory to practice: health services managers’ perceptions of the impact of formal learning on their practice” (Value $6000)
• Conyers, V. & Ritchie, D. 1999 Faculty of Health Studies Seed Grant - “Post Graduate students’ perceptions of assessment tasks in health services management provided via distance education” (Value $2000)
• Ritchie, D. 1994 Special Studies Program - A review of Health Systems Reform in New Zealand and the United Kingdom (Six months leave with travel expenses)
• Johnson, L.D. & Ritchie, D.J. 1994 CSU Seed Grant - “A review of rural health restructuring in NSW” (Value $1999)

 

top of page ^

Publications

Refereed Publications

• Ritchie, D. J. (2003). How Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) Can Support The Development Of Managerial Thinking In Health Professionals Studying By Distance Education: A Case Study. Innovations in Professional Practice: Influences and Perspectives. Proceedings of the Continuing Professional Education (CPE) Conference 2003. Dr Peter Rushbrook. RIPPLE, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga.
• Conyers, V. & Ritchie, D. (2001). Case Study Class Tests: Assessment Directing Learning. Journal of Nursing Education. 40:1, 40-2
• Ritchie, D. (1998). Management of Health System Reform: A view of changes within New Zealand. Journal of Health Services Management Research. 11:3, 182-191
• Ritchie, D. (1997). Managing the gap - balancing the advances in technology with advances in management practice. Australian Health Review. 20:1, 53-63
• Ritchie, D. & Johnson, L. (1994). A review of rural health restructuring in New South Wales. Australian Health Review. 17:4, 125-134

Other Publications

• Ritchie, D. (1996). Hospitals in Transition: The resource management experiment (Book Review). Australian Health Review. 19:1, 143-145
• Ritchie, D. (1995). Review of the Karpin Report and an assessment of it’s implications for health service managers. NSW Health Executives’ Herald. 13:4, 14-17
• Ritchie, D. (1995). Current and Future Directions for Academic Programs in Health Services Management. NSW Health Executives’ Herald. 13:3, 22-23
• Ritchie, D. (1993). Health System Restructuring - New Zealand and Australia. Australian Health Executive. 5:2, 6-7
• Hines, J., Geissinger, H., Cartwright, M., Hatherly, D., Gates, W. & Ritchie, D. (1995). Problem focussed learning in Health Services Management (Information) education. HIANSW ‘95 Conference proceedings. 10-12 February 1995, Oasis Resort, Primbee
• Cartwright, M., Gates, W., Geissinger, H., Hines, J. & Ritchie, D. (1994). The Road to Erewonga: Innovative Health Informatics. Informatics in Healthcare-Australia. 3:1, 37-41

 

top of page ^