The course has given me deeper understanding of the challenges of leadership in health and social care and a chance to make a positive contribution towards solving these problems. What a privilege!
Sophie
The course provided ways to understand and embed key healthcare management theories and concepts into my day to day practice. This has enabled me to influence and undertake change.
Our online master’s degree is ideal if you are a leader or manager in a health or social care setting, or someone looking to step into this role. You’ll build on your existing experience within your industry and gain not only the knowledge and skills to reach your full potential as a manager, but the emotional tools to lead with empathy and drive positive organisational change. You’ll study online giving you the flexibility to achieve your career aspirations around your other commitments.
Course overview
Management and leadership in the health and social care sector is increasingly important worldwide, with The World Health Organization placing greater emphasis than ever before on the need for managers to have appropriate competencies and the NHS promoting specific values and principles of care, a Healthcare Management MSc is a valuable tool in the development of healthcare services.
You’ll learn how healthcare organisations operate in today’s climate whilst developing the full range of management skills needed to help organisations achieve their strategic ambitions, exploring insights from the business world to further your understanding. You’ll be able to use these skills to develop approaches to management and leadership, and be well equipped to put in place mechanisms which support the development of organisational learning.
You'll explore the important social factors, and others, which influence managing and leading both organisations and individuals, learning with other current and aspiring managers and leaders from a range of health and social care organisations from around the world.
Our Masters degree will equip you with the knowledge, skills and emotional tools you need to meet today's healthcare challenges. Key topics include:
Resilience and prevention of disasters
Leadership, management and change management skills
Ethical decision-making and its application to practice
Critical reflection on professional practice
Modules and assessment
Modules
You can choose one of the two optional modules.
Modules are subject to change and availability.
Organisational Transformation in Health and Social Care
Health and social care institutions (e.g. NHS) are continuously striving to improve themselves and attain excellence against a backdrop of relentless change. The ability to accept rapid and significant change as an inevitable consequence of life is a pre-requisite for organisational survival. We’ll cover the ability of organisations to adopt change rather than merely adapt to it as one of the major hall marks of a learning organisation. You’ll discover how organisational learning becomes the mechanism by which organisational competencies can keep pace with national, local or international challenges. The development of whole-system change initiatives have become the cornerstone; the gold standard approach in managing complex change manifested through individuals who seek to improve service delivery.
Change is inevitable, and it is readily accepted that to remain the same increases organisational risk, however, applying change management strategies to complex and high challenge organisations can be a difficult task yet essential task in today's pursuit of organisational efficiencies. You’ll explore change theory, strategic formation alongside organisational change, the application of advanced technologies and the resilience requirements of your organisation.
Global Leadership
You’ll learn about leadership styles, emotional intelligence and will have the opportunity to learn about your own leadership traits and styles. Leaders predominantly create context and together we’ll explore the skills required to successfully mould and develop the context in a complex evolving environment.
We’ll examine the fitness of health and social care institutions to tackle urgent global issues. It consists of three elements: 1) effective decision making 2) adoption of a global approach, and 3) creation of a new business paradigm. We consider the related concept of 'MisLeadership', which looks at how leaders have often failed to achieve the optimum outcomes for those they lead.
Advancing Professional Decision Making (Optional)
Responding to the continuously changing nature of service design and redesign of health and social care systems. We’ll support you, as health and social care practitioners, to develop and extend your role for advanced practice as you prepare for more autonomous and more integrated organisational roles and functions. You’ll possess the knowledge and skills to take and implement complex decisions in a rapidly changing health and social care sector environment. As advanced practitioners, you’ll have the potential to contribute to the need for organisational transformations across the care sectors.
This is particularly important in advanced organisational practice, and we’ll encourage you to focus on new or advanced areas of service development for effective organisational decision making. You’ll need to be able to utilise both strategic and operational decision-making skills at an advanced level to accommodate national, and where relevant international, strategic intentions with local implementation needs and adjustments.
Organisational and Individual Disaster Resilience (Optional)
Disasters (e.g. floods and earthquakes), pandemics (e.g. COVID-19), major emergencies and many other situations and events cause disruptions to the operation of health and social care. These disruptions often reduce effectiveness and threatens health and social care continuity. Health and social care services are highly dependent on interdisciplinary set of parameters such as infrastructure, management and human resources all of which are essential for the continuity of these critical services and demonstrate the complexity of these services.
We’ll equip you to assess and improve the resilience of your organisation. Responding to communities’ need for more effective and less interruptive health and social care services, by integrating resilience in the way the organisation operates. You’ll reflect on this complexity and the interdisciplinary nature of these services whether you are from medical, paramedical, military, engineering, or other backgrounds. You’ll specifically develop broad and detailed knowledge about the components of risks, disaster typologies, vulnerability assessment, emergency complexities and disaster response phases.
We’ll provide a framework, which’ll allow you to recognise the need for resilience, and to demonstrate capability to assess and address at least one of its key parameters that has the potential to affect the continuity of health or social care service.
Postgraduate Research Design
This module is designed to give you the necessary tools to identify and plan research in order to address real-world problems within your practice, or address existing knowledge gaps within your field. The module will provide a framework allowing you to propose and justify a research question and design appropriate to your professional practice.
Major Project
The Major Project, central to the Masters award and enables you to demonstrate your ability to synthesise learning from previous modules and use your learning as the basis for planning, conducting and writing up a research or work-based project.
Assessment
How you’ll be assessed will vary between modules. This is in order to assist you in developing submission evidence for Management and Leadership professional recognition later. Assignments include the production of reports, essays, a portfolio and Major Project.
Meet your tutors
Dr Nebil Achour, PhD, MSc, BSc
Nebil is our Course Leader for the MSc and has a vast amount of expertise in the resilience of healthcare to major hazards, about which he has published over 50 scientific articles and reports. He was also a member of the global WHO Hospital Safety Index revision panel.
After gaining a BSc in Civil Engineering from the Tunis Advanced School of Science and Technology, Tunisia, Dr Achour worked in private engineering and design firms on designing structures and training engineers in several countries. Granted a Japanese Government Scholarship to further his education, he gained his MSc with a focus on the response of hospital lifeline systems following seismic activities and his PhD on hospital's fragility assessment in 2004 and 2007 respectively from Kanazawa University.
Following his graduation he was then employed as a Post-doctoral Researcher in his graduate University. He joined Loughborough University in September 2007 as a Research Associate. He coordinated the research activities of the £11million HaCIRIC research centre, and the CPM WBDL MSc Course. He was awarded the Best Paper Award during the CIB World Congress 2010, and the Highly Commended Paper in the 2016 and 2015 Emerald Literati Network Awards for Excellence. Nebil is actively involved in national and international research and consultancy activities and interested in exchanging knowledge with academics and practitioners, specifically those working on similar topics.
How you'll study
Our Healthcare Management MSc is studied 100% online.
You’ll study through Canvas, our world-class online Learning Management System (LMS), which can be accessed from your phone, PC or tablet at home or on the move. Canvas provides instant access to study materials, forums, and support from tutors and classmates, as well as enabling easy submission of your assignments.
On successful completion of your studies you’ll be invited to attend a graduation ceremony on campus. If attending the ceremony in person is not possible then we’ll arrange to have your certificate sent to you.
Careers
To help you land your dream job, our Employability Service will work with you throughout your time at ARU and after you graduate.
We offer:
careers advice, including one-to-one online and telephone appointments with our experienced advisers
help with your CV, job searches, applications and interview preparation
an online portal packed with useful careers resources
our Employability Programme, which helps you hone the skills employers say they want in graduates.
Entry requirements
Applicants should ideally have a good first degree or equivalent and be currently working in, or have recently worked within, the arena of Management and Leadership in healthcare.
A professional qualification isn’t a necessity for access to the course, but you must meet the criteria above and demonstrate a strong interest in Management and Leadership.
You will need to provide evidence that a satisfactory Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) clearance has been undertaken.
If you have lived outside of the UK for 6 months or more within the last 5 years then you will need to provide a police check from the country/countries previously resided in
If you are completing placements overseas you will be required to obtain a police check/certificate of good conduct from the relevant country
If English is not your first language, you will be expected to demonstrate a certificated level of proficiency of at least IELTS 6.5 or equivalent.
As a distance learner, you'll also need a suitable computer with internet connection, together with sufficient IT competence to make effective use our online learning management system (LMS) with high-speed internet and email.
For non-graduates, non-traditional entry routes to the course may be possible by clearly demonstrating on your application that your qualifications and experience are equivalent to an Honours degree.
For military students: Various entry points are available depending on accreditation against military training. You can find out more on our Healthcare Management MSc (Armed Forces) course page.
Fees & funding
Fees
The full tuition fee for this course is £7,700.
The tuition fees you pay each year for the full Healthcare Management MSc will be £3,850. The course is studied over 2 years.
Accredited prior learning may reduce the tuition fees. This will be confirmed once your application has been submitted.
Funding
Your course can be fully funded by the new Postgraduate Student Loans now available (subject to eligibility).
We offer payment by instalments, so you can spread the cost of studying with us.
For military students: You can use your ELCs towards this course. Anglia Ruskin University is a recognised ELCAS provider (number 1007). Please contact your Learning Centre for details of ELC, eligibility and how to apply.
For more information on how you fund your studies please see our funding page.
FAQs
Why study a Healthcare Management MSc?
In any healthcare role, your career is not simply a job – it’s a vocation.
And those working in healthcare at any level strive to make a difference every day.
It’s a demanding sector, and one which has seen unprecedented challenges in the recent past. And as the healthcare industry continues to adapt, the need for strong and knowledgeable leadership has never been more urgent.
A Healthcare Management MSc with Anglia Ruskin University will maximise your leadership abilities and enable you to drive change and inspire those around you, giving you the tools to lead in an industry that saves and transforms lives.
Whether you’re already in a healthcare management position or working towards one, this online MSc can boost your CV and place those goals in reach, futureproofing your career and preparing you to face any challenges that come your way.
What can this degree do for my career? ?
In recent years, the healthcare industry has experienced demand like never before in both public and private sectors.
And with it has arisen an urgent need for leaders who truly understand how best to run health organisations in order to provide the best possible care for patients.
But as leading authorities like the WHO and NHS recognise a shortage of skilled and capable leaders in the arena of healthcare management, it remains an intensely competitive environment in which those with the know-how to enact change and drive progress will stand out from the crowd instantly. Whether you’re looking to strengthen an existing leadership position or are new to healthcare management and aiming to progress, an online Masters in Healthcare Management will equip you with an invaluable understanding of the challenges of health leadership and an inclusive managerial perspective that allows you to identify challenges and solutions as they arise.
What will I learn on this course?
With an online MSc in Healthcare Management, you’ll build an essential understanding of organisational practices and structures.
You’ll also develop vital leadership skills that will enable you to steer organisations and guide those around you, to maximise your success and theirs in a field that carries out crucial and lifechanging work every day.
This course will prepare you to handle the challenges faced in a healthcare leadership role, such as the ever-evolving nature of systems and services. You’ll learn how to respond to these changes in accordance with policy at local, regional and national levels, as well as internal changes in organisation.
Over the course of this degree, you’ll also examine a range of perspectives on healthcare management, taking cues from cross-cultural and global examples to understand the environmental and social factors that influence leadership decisions in the field.
As part of this course, you’ll also master research skills which will not only enable you to make the most of your studies, but enable you to explore challenges within your organisation, and find innovative solutions. Your learning will be assessed in a variety of ways throughout your course, including a major project which gives you the chance to showcase your learning and use your newfound research skills to explore your subject in greater depth.
Who studies a Healthcare Management MSc?
For this course, we generally seek students with a good first degree and experience in the field of healthcare. If you have management and leadership experience, or are actively working towards such a role, even better.
This course also welcomes non-traditional learners – those who are not graduates and may not necessarily have qualifications behind them, but who have extensive experience in healthcare management equivalent to a degree. For students from backgrounds like these, this course is a fantastic opportunity to build upon your real-life learning and explore the theory behind the skills that make a good leader into a great one.
Ultimately, our students are people who want to make a difference through management and leadership in a healthcare setting. If that applies to you, you could be the perfect candidate for our Healthcare Management MSc.
Why study healthcare management masters online?
Our distance learning courses are purpose-built for busy learners – those who otherwise wouldn’t have the time to undertake a traditional degree that demands adherence to set timetables that conflict with everyday life.
Whether you’re a full-time worker, a parent, carer, or simply someone who wants to enjoy full flexibility in the next steps of their education, this course offers learners an opportunity to master not only the essential skills of a demanding field, but crucial soft skills such as independence, time management and organisation, through a unique online learning format that puts complete control into your hands. These are fantastic transferrable skills to have that bring value to any workplace.
This UK-based healthcare management masters is an incredible opportunity to expand your skills and transform your career, all while studying online.
Take the next step in your career with a Healthcare Management MSc online with Anglia Ruskin University and find out how distance learning can change your life.
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