Nursing - Leadership & Quality Healthcare - Athlone

The Postgraduate Diploma in Nursing in Leadership and Quality Healthcare programme is aimed at graduate nurses who wish to advance their academic and professional development. The nursing profession is dynamic and evolving with societal needs and care needs of individuals, families and communities. Nurses are challenged by the sophistication of technological, medical and social advancement and with the ever-increasing divergence in social inequalities, presenting nursing with a new agenda for transformation. The Postgraduate Diploma in Nursing in Leadership and Quality Healthcare programme provides the nurse with a broad-based educational experience to practise at a higher level incorporating key concepts such as clinical decision-making, professional leadership, evidence-based practice, professional ethics, research knowledge and skills.

Upon successful completion of this programme, graduates will have developed a mastery of complex and specialised knowledge and a critical awareness of issues at the forefront of nursing. They will have an advanced understanding of how techniques of enquiry enable the critical and objective analysis, interpretation and application of research and scholarly evidence. Graduates are ideally placed to progress to Masters level studies.

Semester 1
Nursing in a Modern Health System
Credits: 10
The aim of this module is to develop students’ critical appraisal and evaluation of nursing in a modern health system. Critical reflection of the core theories and concepts underpinning professional nursing practice will include: the nature and function of nursing, the professionalisation of nursing and the nurses’ role embedded in a modern health system. Critical awareness will enable heightened insight into nursing from organisational, national, international and global perspectives.

Research Methods in Healthcare
Credits: 10
The aims of this module are to enhance the student’s knowledge and understanding of the research process, and to develop an advanced understanding of research methods and its application to practice.

Clinical Leadership and Management
Credits: 10
This module will enable the student to develop the knowledge, understanding and skills to lead and manage change and quality improvement in the modern healthcare environment.

Semester 2
Quality Initiatives and Outcomes
Credits: 10
The aim of this module is to develop the students understanding of the quality issues that pertain to the provision of an effective and efficient quality healthcare service.

Professional, Legal and Ethical Issues in Nursing
Credits: 10
This module provides the student with the opportunity to learn, reflect and critically analyse many diverse ethics, bioethical, legal and cultural ethical concepts and their application to professional nursing practice, The module content is designed to guide the student through important areas of study, and introduce the student to the issues and skills central to the module content, with an emphasis on the development of active and independent learning to enhance professional practice and create lifelong learning skills.

Application of Evidence to the Healthcare Setting
Credits: 10
The module will consolidate the student’s prior knowledge and skills developed in previous modules and through experiential learning about evidence based practice. It will equip the student with the skills necessary to: 1. Evaluate the evidence base which underpins quality practice. 2. Develop a Policy, Procedure, Protocol, or Guideline (PPPG) from inception/review through to validation.

A Bachelor of Science in Nursing (Level 8, H2:1 or higher) or equivalent qualification will be required for entry to this programme. In line with University Guidelines students, prior learning may also be recognised including: prior experiential (non-certified) and accredited (certified) learning.

1 year full-time, 2 years part-time.

Commencing September

This course will enable graduates the opportunity to complete the Level 9 MSc in Nursing in Leadership and Quality Healthcare as a pathway to Level 10 PhD/Doctoratal programmes in national and international universities.

Career Opportunities
Graduates from this Postgraduate Diploma in Nursing in Leadership and Quality Healthcare have the potential for employment in multiple domains of practice. There are numerous areas for career advancement, both nationally and internationally, with Postgraduate level attainment identified as an essential requirement for career progression and promotion in administrative and clinical managerial posts.