Industry & Institutions Perspectives: Stakeholders in the Swiss Health System

The role of this course within the Master in Communication Management and Health program is to build a bridge between theoretical and practical knowledge and help the transition university studies and future career. This is made possible by presenting particular challenges that healthcare professionals had to face and by providing frame for meeting the very same professionals in person.

Since the scope of the healthcare sector is quite broad, professionals will represent different entities: from companies to NGOs, from public institutions to hospitals. Students will learn how to take into account interests and viewpoints of the many stakeholders in the healthcare sector. Before meeting the health care professionals, student groups will work on a particular challenge and propose ways to meet it. Professionals will then report how they met this challenge, and the case will be discussed in depth.

• Understand the basics of healthcare systems;
• Understanding stakeholders identification and analysis;
• Meet professionals from different areas of the health sector;
• Provide an overview of the challenging situations a communication expert would face while working in the health sector;
• Prepare students to make contacts with the professional market

In presenza

The three credits will develop over the course of the fall semester. The first meeting will introduce to the work of the semester and the teaching method used (case study) for the discussion with professionals. Other lectures will follow on the Swiss health system structure, on stakeholders’ identification, mapping, and involvement as well as on methodologies for a participatory decision process. During the other meetings, students will work on real case studies delivered by the four professionals they will meet. In class the students will present their group work (case study), and in the online session the professional will present the work of his/her organization the solution to the case for this perspective.

At the end of the semester, students will receive a numerical grade, which will be determined by the following:

• Case study papers & final assignment (self-evaluation)
  (60% of total grade)
• Case study presentations
  (20% of total grade)
• Active participation to the course 
  (20% of total grade)