Leadership for Health Services Improvement – (M.Sc.)

Contents

The MSc programme consists of taught modules (total 120 credits) plus a dissertation (60 credits). There are five compulsory modules, each worth 20 credits. Students have freedom to select the modules for the remaining 20 credits from those offered by HSMC or from the wider range of modules offered elsewhere in the University to reflect the programme's emphasis on leadership and service improvement.

The core modules are:

Managing Quality and Service Improvement in Health Care (20 credits)
This module aims to provide students with knowledge about the management of quality in health care and an understanding of the issues involved in improving quality in health services. It covers concepts and definitions of quality and service improvement, different perspectives on quality, the development of quality management in health care including an analysis of current policy, approaches to the management of quality such as ISO 9000, TQM, business process re-engineering and accreditation, and the development of a quality improvement strategy. This module is run as a one-week block.

Introduction to Organisational Development in Health and Social Care (20 credits)
You will critically examine the definitions and processes of OD from diagnosis through intervention to review. This module introduces, critiques and assesses the impact of the main frameworks that underpin contemporary OD practice in health and social care.

Key frameworks include:

* Systems theory
* Critical appreciative inquiry
* Psychodynamic approaches
* Complexity theories
* The relationship between structure and culture
* Story telling

The method of delivery will combine traditional lectures with a range of more innovative approaches including individual, group and whole cohort inquiry and application; an organisational consultation; and relevant health and social care case studies. This module is taken in two blocks (three and two days).

Public and User Involvement in Health Care (20 credits)
This module aims to provide students with an understanding of the historical and theoretical background to consumerism and user involvement in health care and the evidence for how users and the public can be involved in improving service quality.

It includes models of public, user and patient involvement, and community participation and development, analysis of the development of policy on consumerism and public involvement and examination of policy initiatives. Different methods for involving users and the public will be presented and the strengths and weaknesses discussed. This module is taken in two blocks (three & two days).

Leadership in Context (20 credits)
This module provides students with a practical overview of the fundamental ideas, models and frameworks for understanding leadership. It critically examines theories and models of leadership, in order to develop students’ knowledge and understanding of the concepts and models of leadership in a health context. It provides opportunities for students to examine how these concepts can be used in organisations to achieve outcomes for service users, staff and other stakeholders.

In addition, the module introduces students to techniques for assessing and developing themselves and others as leaders. This module will be delivered in three, two-day workshops.

Applied Leadership Learning (20 credits)
This module is explicitly developmental in its approach, with a focus on students using the experience of action learning within a group setting to enable critical and in-depth personal reflection and learning.

The action learning set meetings held for groups of six to eight students will be facilitated by an academic tutor who has specialist expertise in the areas of personal development, action learning, and leadership. Action learning sets will entail participants working as a group to define, analyse and reach solutions to management and leadership issues being faced at an individual or organisational level. Each student will identify key improvements in their workplace which they wish to bring about during the course of the programme. The action learning set meetings will be a forum for discussing how to achieve these improvements in the context of the theory and concepts covered in the Leadership in Context module and for applying leadership models and tools to workplace situations.

Students will be expected to do preparatory work for each action learning meeting, based on academic reading, diagnostic tools and support materials made available to them as part of the programme.

This module will also require them to prepare and maintain a personal development plan (non-assessed), and to keep a formal structured written learning log (non-assessed), documenting their critical reflective analysis of their individual action learning and personal development.

The module will begin with a two-day introductory workshop, including one day for initial action learning set meetings. This will be followed by a further five one-day action learning set meetings during the course of the module. The module will finish with a two-day closing workshop, including a final action learning set meeting.

Please note that the detailed content of programmes is regularly updated in line with developments in theory, policy and practice: HSMC reserves the right to make adjustments to this indicative programme outline as appropriate.