Health Systems - Leadership Innovation & Management for Healthcare

This flexible, interdisciplinary programme is taught by faculty from the UCD Iris Centre for Interdisciplinary, Research, Innovation & Education in Health Systems and takes a systems and design thinking approach to develop your capabilities in leadership, strategy, innovation and management across a range of healthcare settings.

The programme's flexible, negotiable structure, together with its interdisciplinary, applied and experiential focus, will appeal to healthcare professionals at all levels and in all settings within the health system who wish to think and practice strategically and innovatively to foster collaboration across traditional boundaries to deliver safe, high-quality, responsive, integrated and person-centred care.

How will I benefit?
The programme will contribute to your personal and professional development by enabling you to identify, analyse, critique and evaluate the ways in which you and your colleagues currently lead and manage. You will acquire the capacity to locate ways of leading and managing within relevant conceptual frameworks and to situate them in systems, policy, organisational and team contexts.

You will be prepared to be a more responsive, effective and resilient leader and manager who thinks and practices strategically and innovatively to improve patients' and colleagues' experiences of the health system.

You will be equipped with theories, concepts, models, frameworks, tools, techniques and research findings that will enable you to develop a deep appreciation of how the health system works and how you can maximise yours and your colleagues' contribution to it.

Who should apply?

Part Time option suitable for:

Domestic(EEA) applicants: Yes
International (Non EEA) applicants currently residing outside of the EEA Region. No

The programme's flexible structure, together with its interdisciplinary, applied and experiential focus, will appeal to healthcare professionals at all levels and in all settings within the health system who wish to think and practice strategically and innovatively to foster collaboration across traditional boundaries to deliver safe, high-quality, responsive, integrated and person-centred care.

Graduates of the UCD Graduate Diploma in Process Improvement in Health Systems (formerly the Graduate Diploma in Lean Six Sigma for Healthcare) can complete the MSc by taking an additional 30 ECTS credits from the ten-credit modules available.

Graduates of the UCD Graduate Certficate in Process Improvement can complete the MSc by taking an additional 50 ECTS credits from the ten-credit modules available.

To discuss whether the programme is suitable for you please contact the Programme Director, Professor Martin McNamara

The MSc in Leadership, Innovation and Management is a 90 ECTS credit, QQI Level 9, flexible, modular and interdisciplinary programme. The minimum time to completion is three years for part-time students; the maximum time is five years. The structure outlined below assumes a three-year timeframe.

For students commencing the programme from September 2023 and taking the programme over three years, the programme structure is as follows:

YEAR 1 (2023-24)

Trimester 1 (Sept to Dec):

NMHS 44200: Health Policy and Health Systems
NMHS 44190: Global Health Landscape and Leadership
Trimester 2 (Jan to April):

NMHS 44210: Enhancing Strategic and Innovative Capacity in Health Systems
YEAR 2 (2024-25)

Trimester 1 (Sept to Dec):

NMHS32280: Improving Processes in Health Systems
NMHS42700: Quality, Patient Safety & Outcomes
Trimester 2 (Jan to April):

NMHS43830: Collective Leadership & Effective Teamwork
YEAR 3 (2025-26)

NMHS43400: Managing Process Improvement Theory & Principles
&

NMHS43810: Implementing a Process Improvement Project (year long)
OR

NMHS44020: MSc Dissertation: Evidence Synthesis or Translation
Graduates of the UCD Graduate Diploma in Process Improvement in Health Systems (formerly the Graduate Diploma in Lean Six Sigma for Healthcare) can complete the MSc by taking an additional 30 ECTS credits from the ten-credit modules available.

Graduates of the UCD Graduate Certificate in Process Improvement can complete the MSc by taking an additional 50 ECTS credits from the ten-credit modules available.

Graduates of the UCD Professional Certificate in Process Improvement can complete the MSc by taking an additional 80 ECTS credits.

Teaching, Learning and Assessment
The programme is delivered through blended learning, entailing face-to-face and online learning supported by Brightspace, UCD's virtual learning environment (VLE).

There is a particular emphasis on experiential learning and on the application of learning to students' professional practice contexts through a range of activities. To optimise student engagement and participation, class sizes are limited to 30 students.

The teaching and learning methods include tutorials, workshops, faculty and peer-led seminars, and group work. Continuous assessment methods include project work, class presentations, student-led seminars, posters and assignments. There are no examinations.

Applicants will normally hold an NQF Level 8 academic award but consideration will be given to applicants with relevant and appropriate qualifications and experience working in the health system

Experience in a management and/or leadership role is desirable

A willingness to explore your own leadership and management practices and their impact on the systems in which you work is essential.

Please contact the Programme Director before you make your application.

The following entry routes are available:

MSc Leadership, Innovation & Management for Healthcare PT (X839)
Duration 2 Years
Attend Part Time
Deadline Rolling*

* Courses will remain open until such time as all places have been filled, therefore early application is advised

Please contact the Programme Director before you make your application. Contact details can be found in the Key information section of this page. We advise early application as only 30 places are avaliable on most MSc modules.

Applications are made online through UCD Applications. ?

Please note that all applicants are required to pay a €50 application fee. Your application cannot be processed fully unless the application fee has been paid.

2 Years Part Time

The knowledge, understandings and skills acquired throughout the programme will prepare you to make a significant contribution as a leader and manager in a number of areas and at many levels in the health system, including:

Organisational development
Strategy design and implementation
Policy design and implementation
Quality and service improvement
Clinical leadership and management
Innovation
Practice development
Education
Management and administration