Call for Chapter Proposals: Introduction to U.S. Healthcare System

OER Project Directory
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CALL FOR PROPOSALS

Soaring textbook costs have been well documented (USGAO, 2018). The price and uncertainty surrounding course materials are a significant barrier for the vast majority of today’s college students (Weisbaum, 2016). That barrier has shown to be even more significant for historically underserved student populations – confirming textbook affordability as a social justice issue (Jenkins et al., 2020).

Fortunately, as textbook prices continue to increase, so has the use of Open Education Resources (OER): openly-licensed materials that can be accessed, edited, and shared without cost or restriction (Hewlett Foundation 2017). OER’s use has risen exponentially in recent years, with research evidencing its positive impact on academic performance, student enrollment, student retention, and time-to-graduation rates, to name but a few (Cooney, 2017; Fischer et al., 2015). Despite its ability to reduce current cost barriers to higher education – while simultaneously helping to decolonize the text, reduce student stress, increase first-day access, usher innovative pedagogies, etc. – some disciplines still lack options for high-quality OER.

In order to address the growing need for OER, a project is being embarked upon to prepare an OER textbook on the overview of the healthcare system in the United States, titled, Introduction to the U.S. Healthcare System. This work is being targeted for undergraduate health sciences, public health, and health administration students. The target date for publication is August, 2022.

Please consider submitting a proposal for one of the following chapters, or another chapter you consider appropriate to include in such a work (the Table of Contents below is a working document and will be edited as this process unfolds). Single authorships and co-authorships are accepted. Proposals are due by November 12, 2021.

Table of Contents

  1. Overview of the U.S. Healthcare System
  2. Primary Care & Other Healthcare Professionals
  3. Outpatient & Inpatient Care
  4. Public Health
  5. Population Health Management
  6. Financing Healthcare in the U.S.
  7. Government Programs
  8. Managed Care & Reimbursement
  9. Long-Term Care
  10. Populations with Special Needs
  11. Quality & Safety
  12. The Impact of Technology
  13. Health Policy
  14. Health Disparities
  15. The U.S. vs. Other Countries

Proposal Requirements

Please submit all proposals to thomas.clobes@csuci.edu, including the following elements:

  • Detailed outline of chapter content
  • Author(s) Information
    • Full name
    • Institution
    • Primary email
    • Author’s bio & qualifications

Important Dates

  • October 6, 2021 – Call for Proposals issued
  • November 12, 2021 – Chapter proposals due
  • December 10, 2021 – Chapter authors notified; commence writing
  • March 4, 2022 – First draft due
  • April 1, 2022 – Authors receive peer-feedback on chapter
  • May 13, 2022 – Final draft due

About the Co-Author & Editor

Thomas A. Clobes, Ph.D. is faculty in the Health Sciences program at California State University Channel Islands. He has over 20 years of experience in the healthcare field. His research focuses on medical cannabis and health policy.

References

Cooney, C. (2017). What impacts do OER have on students? Students share their experiences with a

health psychology OER at New York City College of Technology. International Review of research

in Open and Distributed Learning, 18(4).

Fischer, L., Hilton, J., Robinson, J., & Wiley, D. (2015). A multi-institutional study of the impact of open

textbook adoption on the learning outcomes of post-secondary students. Journal of Computing

in Higher Education, 27(3), 159-172.

Hewitt Foundation, William and Flora. (2017). Open education resources. Retrieved from

Jenkins, J. J., Sánchez, L. A., Schraedley, M. A., Hannans, J., Navick, N., & Young, J. (2020). Textbook

broke: Textbook affordability as a social justice issue. Journal of Interactive Media in Education,

1(3), 1.

United States Government Accountability Office. (2018). College textbooks: Students have greater

access to textbook information. Report to Congressional Committees.

Weisbaum, H. (2016). Students are still saddled with soaring textbook costs, report says. NBC News.

Retrieved from https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/students-are-still-saddled-

soaring-textbook-costs-report-says-n516011

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