Healthcare Management MSc

Core modules

• Advancing Professional Decision Making

  Advance your decision making skills through critical reflection, with the help of a 'critical friend'. This is a specialist designated module for the Management and Leadership in Health and Social Care course. Current health and social care policy and the modernisation of the NHS, and other international models demands new ways of working across traditional boundaries, and the implementation of national targets at local level. This requires the development of roles for confident autonomous practitioners, who possess the knowledge and skills to implement complex decisions in a rapidly changing environment and to play key roles in service development. You’ll need to be able to utilise practical decision making skills within an area of professional knowledge and to develop strategies to facilitate the implementation of the outcomes of the decision making process into practice, either as an individual or within a team/organisation. Management of change and service development are seen as core elements of the module, together with the enhancement of professional judgment and leadership.

• Organisational Transformation in Health and Social Care

  Critically explore change theory in relation to your own field of practice and demonstrate understanding of the theoretical and philosophical components of organisational transformation. The module encourages the synthesis of strategic discourse with operational application as modes of organisational structures thereby forming strong links between theory and practice. You’ll be expected to demonstrate an ability to isolate and focus on the significant features of problems and to offer synthetic and coherent solutions. It is expected that you will produce original or innovative work relating to your specialism that is worthy of publication, public performance or display.

• Research Studies

  Designed to provide you with a critical overview of the main methodologies and designs applied to research within health and social care, professional practice, regulation and policy. It provides you with an opportunity to explore the theoretical dilemmas that underlie the process of inquiry and its relationship to practice. The module will provide a framework within which to select, evaluate and justify the research methods chosen for your research project.

• Major Project

  The major project is of central importance to the Masters award. You’ll be expected to bring together aspects of learning from previous modules, as well as using the learning as the basis for planning, conducting and writing a research or work-based project. This module will support you in your preparation and submission of a Masters level major project (either a research project or work-based project). There’ll be eight hours of workshop support available to you during the module. This will be delivered as four, two-hour workshops. In addition, there will be a full-day introductory workshop before the module commences. You’ll be allocated a minimum of six hours individual supervisory support with additional supervisory support negotiated between you and your supervisor.

• Global Leadership

  This model consists of four elements: effective decision-making, adoption of a global approach, creation of a new business paradigm and a contemporary mission. It also considers the related concept of mis-leadership, which looks at how leaders have often failed to achieve the optimum outcomes for those they lead. Leaders predominantly create context and this module will explore the skills required to successfully mould and develop the context in a chaotic environment. This module is delivered via distance learning and is therefore not available for tier 4 visa holders.