In the previous activity, you used instruction and key words to understand the essay question and what you need to do for your essay. Now that you understand the essay question and what you need to do for your essay, it is important for you to recognise the essay topic to know what you need to write about. Knowing the topic of your essay will help you know what literature you are looking for to provide the evidence you will use in your essay. It will help you to get the right search terms to make your search more accurate. The topic is the main idea, concept, or process you need to write about. To recognise the essay topic, look out for:
· Names of people or places
· Names of theories
· Names of processes
· Scientific, mathematical, or specific terms related to your discipline
Step 1: Recognising your essay topic(s):
Remember your essay is in three parts and although there is one main idea you need to carry throughout your essay, ‘Universal Health Coverage in South Africa’ each part has specific sub-topics that you need to research so that you can fully respond to the questions asked in each part. For this step, list the topics you can see for each part of your essay. Make a note for which topics belong to which part so that you can answer each part/component of your essay appropriately:
• Define high-quality health system and why south Africa would need this for universal healthcare to work. (1) • Responding to question “can UHC be achieved in south Africa” (2) •In your answer describe your chosen building block explaining the various components that make it up. You are then required to suggest one or more process(es) that can be implemented through this building block. (3) • You need to identify and provide evidence-based reasons for why South Africa needs such a system and identify the values that underpin your definition. (1) • It requires a strong thesis statement—a clearly defined stance in response to the question asked. Your aim is to convince the reader of your thesis using evidence (such as quotations from literature) and analysis. (2) •Using the case of National Health Insurance as an example, the final component of your essay is for you to suggest one building block through which to implement the process of reform of the Health System to provide UHC. (3) |
Step 2: Using the correct language for academic searches
It is important to be specific when identifying the topics of your research so that you can get the appropriate literature for you essay. Your essay is on the topic Universal Health Coverage in South Africa. However, lets see what happens when you search for Universal Health Coverage:
· Open Google Scholar (https://scholar.google.com/), and search using term “Universal Health Coverage”.
· Find the first article and download it
· Next search the term “Universal Health Coverage in South Africa”
· Find the first article and download it
Read or skim both articles to get an idea of what each article is about and answer the questions that follow:
What is the difference between the two articles?
The first article has a broader perspective, the continent of Africa is the area of focus. It is more generalised the problems that it is addressing. It does not have to tailor its solutions to the 54 countries that it researched. The second article is more focused on South Africa. the solutions that are stated take into account the cultural setting and beliefs in South Africa. |
Which article is more specific, relevant, and appropriate for your essay question? Why?
The second article, because the research and the statics is most accurate to what is happening the country and because the research is meant to be it is more relevant to the topic that is being researched and there for will be more helpful in reaching a conclusion that can actually be applied to the country. |
Are there more words you could add onto the term Universal Health Coverage in South Africa to make your search more specific, if so, list them below:
How to reach underdeveloped areas, such as places where there aren’t roads electricity. (Since the topic is universal care, it should be able to reach everyone, even those that are in underdeveloped areas. |
In this step, we conducted a basic search where you compared the results of searches phrased generally and phrased precisely. Since your choice of language can influence the sources you find, it helps to be as precise as possible.
Step 3: Finding the literature
For this step you are required to use google scholar, the library website, and/or other reputable database to search for literature relevant and appropriate to the topics you wrote above. As we saw in step 2 it will help your search to be as precise as possible to find the literature that will help you respond to the set of questions asked of you in your course paper. Because your paper is divided into 3 parts, you may have identified more than one topic for each part, in that case, searching for the other topics is part of your homework in preparation for writing your paper.
For the purposes of this activity, choose one topic for each part of the paper and find two articles based on that topic. In the blocks below write the topic and then the title, author(s), and year for the articles and/or resources you find:
Part 1:
Topic: Define high-quality health system and why South Africa would need this for universal healthcare to work.
Title: Health systems thinking: A new generation of research to improve healthcare quality.
Author: Hannah H. Leslie, Lisa R. Hirschhorn, Tanya Marchant, Svetlana V. Doubova, Oye Gureje, Margaret E. Kruk
Year: October 30, 2018
Title: Implementing High-Quality Primary Care Through a Health Equity Lens
Author: Azza Eissa, Robyn Rowe, Andrew Pinto, George N. Okoli, Kendall M. Campbell, Judy C. Washington and José E. Rodríguez
Year:December 1, 2021
Part 2:
Topic: Responding to question “can UHC be achieved in south Africa”
Title: Health financing for universal health coverage in Sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic review
Author: Susan C. Ifeagwu, Justin C. Yang, Rosalind Parkes-Ratanshi & Carol Brayne
Year: 01 March 2021
Title: An analysis of the services provided by community health workers within an urban district in South Africa: a key contribution towards universal access to care
Author: L. S. Thomas, E. Buch & Y. Pillay
Year: 18 February 2021
Part 3:
Topic: In your answer describe your chosen building block explaining the various components that make it up. You are then required to suggest one or more process(es) that can be implemented through this building block.
Title: Universal health coverage financing in South Africa: wishes vs reality
Author: Janet Michel , Fabrizio Tediosi , Matthias Egger , Till Barnighausen , Di McIntyre , Marcel Tanner , David Evans
Year: 1 June 2020
Title: Human resources for health and universal health coverage : progress, complexities and contestations
Author: Laetitia C. Rispel ,Duane Blaauw, Prudence Ditlopo, Janine White
Year: 1 March 2018
Inequities in access to health care in South Africa
Bronwyn Harris, Jane Goudge, John E Ataguba, Diane McIntyre, Nonhlanhla Nxumalo, Siyabonga Jikwana & Matthew Chersich
06 July 2021
Well-done, you have completed the first few steps that will help you write a good course paper and submit it on time. Download these papers and store them on your computer. Not only will you need them for next week’s activities, but you will also use these to start writing your paper.
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