Nursing & Midwifery - Advanced Leadership

Why Advanced Leadership in Nursing?
Educating future leaders in healthcare delivery and related research is at the core of the mission of the RCSI School of Nursing & Midwifery. Our aim is to develop expert, reflective nursing and midwifery practitioners who can seek out and use research-based knowledge to improve patient care.

We are proud to provide postgraduate students with a rigorous, outcome-focused curricula, shaped by innovative teaching and learning practices. We have a long association with postgraduate nursing and midwifery education and are the largest such school in Ireland.

Our School aspires to become recognised leaders in the provision of health sciences education, both nationally and internationally and our suite of online programmes and learning content is continually evolving in response to the needs within the healthcare sector and services.

Our goal is to empower nurses and midwives to be able to demonstrate the difference they make to practice, and in doing so, to be able to respond accordingly to the leadership and professional challenges that they face every day.

Why RCSI?
Follow in the path of former students who have embraced 230 years of teaching excellence. Driven by the promise of 'leading the world to better health', RSCI has been at the forefront of international healthcare education since our establishment in 1784, and we have a worldwide reputation for delivering excellent Undergraduate and Postgraduate health professions education.

RCSI's singular healthcare focus is evident through all our Postgraduate programmes, offering innovative, insight-rich and immersive development opportunities for both current and future leaders in healthcare.

Course details
The MSc in Advanced Leadership is a fully accredited two-year online master's programme aimed at nurses who wish to advance their academic and professional knowledge and skills in the area of leadership.

This programme welcomes nurses at all levels of their career – from those who aspire to enter management, to nurses in managerial positions who want to develop key competencies and skills. You will develop the confidence and best practice approaches to drive impact as an active member of any healthcare team.

Throughout the MSc in Advanced Leadership, you will develop an in-depth knowledge of information retrieval, data management skills, referencing skills, systematic reviewing, research implementation and action research skills as well as developing and engaging in research projects and activities across disciplinary boundaries and with academic institutions in leadership.

This fully online programme comprises seven highly relevant modules including core learning modules in clinical specialties; anchor modules including advanced research, advanced leadership and clinical competency and thesis module, where you will undertake a capstone learning project.

In the first year of the programme, you will have one day of classes every two weeks in RCSI Dublin, with supplementary learning via online classes.

In the second year, you have less in-class sessions; however, this is supplemented with supervision sessions.

The programme modules are:
Module name Credits Assessment method:
Advanced Research Methods/ 10/ Assignment

Advanced Leadership - Professional & Clinical/ 10/ Assignment

Advanced Management & Strategy/ 10/ Assignment

Change Management: Theory and Practice/ 10/ Presentation and assignment

Education & Training/ 10/ Presentation and assignment

Contemporary Issues: Clinical Governance, Safety and Risk Management/ 10/ Presentation and assignment

Generating Evidence for Practice/ 30/ Oral assessment, ethics assignment, methodology assignment and systematic review

To be eligible for the programme you must:
- Be a registered nurse or midwife in your country of practice.

- Hold a bachelor degree. If you don't hold a bachelor degree, please see the recognition of prior learning pathway outlined below.

- Be working in the healthcare industry.

- Meet the English language requirements (unless exempt): IELTS score of 6.5, Duolingo 105-110, or equivalent score on another standardised test. Please see below for list of exemptions.

Recognition of prior learning
If you do not have an undergraduate degree at level 7 or above you may still be eligible to apply through recognition of prior learning (RPL). RPL is the assessment of knowledge, skills and competence previously acquired.

Learning occurs in many contexts which include work, involvement in social and community activities, or learning through life experience generally. RPL does not give credit for experience as such; rather it considers the learning that was acquired as a result of the experience.

RPL may be used to gain:
- Admission to courses/programmes where a person may not have obtained the standard entry requirements.

- Exemptions from course modules which duplicate the learning outcomes an individual has already demonstrably acquired through prior learning.

English language requirement exceptions
Exemptions may apply for:
- Applicants who have completed their school or undergraduate studies (three or more years) through English in a country where English is the majority native language

- Applicants who have completed their school or undergraduate studies (three or more years) in an English speaking institution in a country where English is not the majority native language and where an IELTS score of 5 or more was a requirement for admissions to the programme

- Applicants who have been working in a country (three years or more) where English is the majority native language or for an employer where English language is the official language

- Graduates of an RCSI Undergraduate, Masters or Professional Diploma programme in Dublin and Bahrain
Please note: Certified proof must be uploaded as part of your application.

How to apply
Applications for the next intake of this programme – September 2023 – are now open. To apply, please click on "Application Weblink" below.

2 years part-time.