Postgraduate Diploma in Healthcare Management
Bridging the gap between business and healthcare, while also responding to the most pressing challenges, requires a professional willing to step up. This programme will equip you to take responsibility for nonclinical activities within public and private healthcare organisations to optimise and improve healthcare delivery.
Next intake: 2023 SeptemberKey Facts
Our Postgraduate Diploma in Healthcare Management is designed to help you meet these challenges by improving your organisational and management skills. It’s intended for aspiring leaders, executives, and mid-level managers who recognise the need for change, development, and advancement in healthcare and the need for independent, conscientious, and intuitive leaders.
So, why not become one by mastering the complexities of the healthcare industry without interference to your day-to-day commitments, as this course is designed to fit around your schedule? Furthermore, for self-motivated individuals eager to learn, our online diploma in healthcare management provides excellent value for money. On a successful completion of the Postgraduate Diploma in Healthcare Management, you’ll be able to demonstrate:
- Modern understanding and knowledge of management theory and practise in the context of global healthcare management systems and practise.
- Perspectives on theory and application.
- The ability to apply healthcare management knowledge and skills.
University of Buckingham
The University of Buckingham is the only independent university in the UK with a Royal Charter, and also one of the smallest with around 2,700 students, who study for honours degrees in two intensive years of study. The University houses it's own medical school and was ranked first for student satisfaction in 2018, 2019 and 2020 by the Complete University Guide.
Accreditors and Endorsers
The Chartered Institute of Marketing
This programme has been approved by The Chartered Institute of Marketing.
Faculty
Programme Leader
Dr Clare Holt
Current post: Associate Professor Leadership in Healthcare
- Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Programme, NHS Leadership Academy, University of Birmingham
- Programme Lead MSc/PGDip Leadership in Healthcare, Learna Ltd/University of South...
Next intake: 2023 September Key Facts
Programme Leader
Dr Clare Holt
Current post: Associate Professor Leadership in Healthcare
- Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Programme, NHS Leadership Academy, University of Birmingham
- Programme Lead MSc/PGDip Leadership in Healthcare, Learna Ltd/University of South Wales
- Associate of Warwick Business School
- PhD Relational Leadership
- Executive Coach, AoEC
- Associate CIPD
Dr Clare Holt has worked with a variety of audiences across organizational boundaries, including middle to senior managers, company directors and CEOs, senior civil servants, politicians and peers. A creative thinker, Dr Holt strives to bridge her academic learning and research skills into practical settings across a variety of public and private organizations, particularly in all aspects of leadership in healthcare. Her focus in research, writing and teaching has involved most aspects of leadership, but predominantly features relational leadership, leading change and collaborative engagement in complex times.
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Why Study a Healthcare Management Postgraduate Diploma with Learna
We have over 10 years’ experience delivering online courses, giving you access to flexible, affordable distance learning in partnership with world-leading educators.
100% Flexible
Our courses are 100% online. No fixed study times mean you can log in and learn whenever and wherever.
Multidisciplinary - study in a group of doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other healthcare professionals.
Affordable
No physical campus means we can offer world-leading programmes at the most competitive prices.
Get a PgDip from £3,900 or an MSc from £7,500 - the most affordable courses of their kind in the UK.
Career Boosting
Get a University Validated postgraduate qualification in just 1 calendar year instead of 2 academic years.
40% of our alumni reported an increase in salary 2 years after studying with us.
Who is this course for?
The online Postgraduate Diploma in Healthcare Management offers emerging and aspiring executives and senior managers with a scheme of study that develops their academic, critical, reflective and practical understanding of managing complex organisations in a rapidly evolving contemporary global business environment. Subsequently, the programme aims to develop students’ capacity to apply the knowledge and skills acquired to help them develop their career and take up successful managerial and leadership positions in the future.
We like students who challenge the status quo, who wake up ambitious and love working with other professionals.
It will provide students with:
- Contemporary knowledge and understanding of management theory and practice
- Theoretical and applied perspectives
- The ability to apply knowledge and skills in various organisations
How Will I Learn?
You will be supported throughout your studies by a committed team of internationally recognised educational experts.
Our courses are conducted entirely online through self-directed distance learning. You’ll receive guidance throughout your course with tutor-stimulated academic discussions, which are based on clinically-rich case scenarios.
These usually occur within groups of 10-20 students, allowing you to clearly communicate with both your tutor and fellow students.
Curriculum
The online Postgraduate Diploma in Healthcare Management will be formed of six 20 credit modules over 12 months. Allowig you to study a variety of interesting and relevant topics.Module Aims
The aim of the module is to introduce, address and explore organisational theories and issues in healthcare organisations.
The module will provide students with a greater understanding of the theories and concepts to address and better understand the complex issues facing healthcare organisations both nationally and internationally.
Module Summary
- Organisational Structures
- Culture
- Human Resources
- Group dynamics and effective teams
- Conflict and Motivation
- Research- Qualitative strategies
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of the module, students will be able to:
- Demonstrate a critical awareness of organisational behaviours and issues in healthcare organisations informed by relevant research and novel practice in the field
- Build an understanding of criticality and reflexivity in applying academic theories and concepts into practice
- Demonstrate originality, insight and critical/reflective practice to solve problems and create innovative propositions related to organisational behaviours
- Use of systematic and creative approaches to address complex issues related to organisational behaviours, including undertaking critical thinking and reflective practice to provide confident judgement and apply appropriate courses of action
- Develop skills to contribute to evidence-based decision making in order to influence organisational outcomes.
Module Aims
The aim of the module is to introduce students to key leadership practices, but particularly within the healthcare context. It seeks to encourage students to explore their experiences and knowledge to be better informed to improve their leadership and management practice.
The module will delve deeper into what leadership means, exploring leadership theories to support greater critical thinking in considering what leadership means in supporting a more sustainable healthcare organisation.
Module Summary
- Leadership in context
- Leading a collaborative organisation, including Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity
- Clinical Governance
- Quality and Improvement
- Just Culture
- Research - literature review focusing on leading a sustainable healthcare organisation
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of the module, students will be able to:
- Develop a critical understanding of what leadership theory means in practice and applied in context, with a focus on the prevailing social, economic and healthcare systems in place
- With a focus on the future of healthcare, advanced principles and theoretical frameworks in leadership are applied to critically develop systematic responses to existing discourses, suggesting new ideas in unpredictable healthcare leadership
- Building on personal experiences in leadership, learning is applied to develop advanced interpersonal, team and networking skills to strategically enhance collaboration across organisational boundaries to address complex situations and contribute to the field of healthcare leadership with greater confidence.
Module Aims
The module aims to develop a comprehensive understanding and application of the principles, practices, models and tools called upon to ensure a responsible yet innovative approach to strategic management within the complex context of healthcare.
The module builds on the foundations of strategic management thinking to further develop a thorough understanding of strategy which supports innovation in healthcare. This is undertaken by exploring, critically and reflectively, contemporary approaches to enable appropriate and informed strategic decisions with a focus on sustainable development.
Module Summary
- Defining strategy as an organisational concept
- Models and frameworks in strategic management
- Stakeholder engagement/positioning
- Contemporary issues for strategic and innovative thinking
- Strategy to enable innovative thinking - the future of healthcare
- Research - narrative inquiry
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of the module, students will be able to:
- Applies a systematic understanding of strategic management, to develop a high level of critical thinking to understand the value of strategy and innovation for the future of healthcare
- Selects advanced principles and theoretical frameworks in strategic management to critically develop systematic responses to explore and develop sustainable innovation for the future of healthcare
- To practically explore and apply strategic thinking and innovate for the future, working with stakeholders to address the complex needs and increased demands on healthcare organisations.
Module Aims
This module aims to develop students' understanding and interpretation of financial management in healthcare, to make more informed decisions to influence and assist the impact of this function on the principles and practices of healthcare management decision making.
To introduce and support a more comprehensive understanding of financial management in healthcare, along with being able to better interpret and apply financial statements, budgeting, costing and investment appraisal in financial and business decision making.
Module Summary
- Understand the terminology of accounting, along with the structure and content of the main financial statements used by healthcare organisations.
- The role and use of different financial statements.
- The use of management accounting techniques for sustainable decision making.
- Sources of healthcare finance and the role of financial information to focus on value-based healthcare
- Budgeting and budgetary control.
- Research - how to appropriately use data
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of the module, students will be able to:
- Recognition and understanding of financial management at a local level to be more effective and efficient in providing high quality care to patients
- Systematically analyse incomplete and/or contradictory evidence, to be better informed at influencing financial planning and contribute realistic recommendations to improve financial sustainability
- Develop skills and knowledge to systematically organise and communicate advanced financial management to effectively and confidently use financial data to better inform healthcare stakeholders in unpredictable and complex contexts.
Module aims
The aim of this module is to move beyond the concept of traditional marketing and think about how communication in healthcare is more effectively positioned across the expanse of stakeholders, departments and specialisms.
This module is designed to challenge the traditional concept of marketing to critically analyse what it means to communicate with stakeholders across healthcare organisations, exploring what is meant by a communication strategy and what is involved in better engaging the public.
Module Summary
- Developing and delivering an engaging communication strategy
- Consumers and evaluating the audience
- Social marketing for healthcare campaigns (external communication)
- Staff engagement and consultation (internal communication)
- Reputation management - handling good news along with bad publicity
- Research - conducting interviews in research.
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of the module, students will be able to:
- Considers the importance of developing and delivering a comprehensive communication strategy, analysing the impact on the diverse mix of stakeholders
- Building on experience and skills to critically explore how marketing frameworks can be adapted to influence internal and external communications in healthcare organisations
- Through research and case studies, skills will be honed to think how communication can be better targeted to influence the required audience via the appropriate media, using the appropriate language to communicate during unpredictable healthcare management situations.
Module aims
This module aims to explore how to effectively manage and lead change within complex healthcare organisations, including an ability to evaluate the inhibitors to change and how to innovatively overcome them with confidence.
This module will cover the more popular models and theories of change management, while systematically being encouraged to critically evaluate their practice and process of applying them in healthcare organisations, whilst addressing the challenges of effective long term change.
Module Summary
- Change management theories
- Identifying the inhibitors and resistors to change.
- Leading and managing change - identifying the problem
- Innovation and change
- Techniques to implement effective change in healthcare
- Research - case studies
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of the module, you will be able to:
- Appraises the impact of a variety of organisational change theories, recognising why change can be so complex in the context of prevailing social, economic and health care systems
- Uses theories and practical examples to critically explore leading effective and sustainable change to benefit the future of healthcare
- By considering why change is necessary and what inhibits change, effective techniques are critically discussed in line with how to influence and drive complex and innovative change in healthcare
- Understanding how to use case studies in research and identify recommendations for practice.
Assessment Methods
There are three components of assessment to assess the learning outcomes of each taught module. These test different elements of learning including critical analysis, management skills, professional reflection and independent/community of practice based study.
Scenarios reflective of day-to-day work situations will be presented for students to consider and answer every week. Students critically discuss the concepts within their online group discussion forum facilitated throughout the module by their tutor and marked by them at the end of the module.
Students learn by finding relevant literature, reading and critically appraising it; discussing it within the discussion forum and applying it critically to real world examples and your own practice. The content of the scenario is based on the learning outcomes for the module.
The scenarios, reflective portfolio and the group work is carried on as the module progresses which ensures engagement throughout the module.
The reflective journal is used by students throughout each module to monitor personal progress. This is guided by weekly feedback from your tutor and is graded at the end of every module. The journal typically includes the following:
- Initial expectations and reasons for taking the course.
- Module and/or personal learning objectives.
- Description of events, issues and learning points within current personal practice.
- Change in every day practice due to knowledge gained on each module.
- A description of what has been learned during the module.
At the beginning of each module, students are presented with a module assignment. The module activity may take the form of an individual piece of work, such as an essay on a relevant topic, or may be a group activity, such as the creation of a marketing plan. This activity tests a student's ability to work independently or work within a team: to select, sift and analyse information, interact with colleagues and apportion group member’s roles and derive a solution to the module task.
The diverse assessment methods within each module are designed to test the expected characteristics of Masters graduates. These include critical awareness of current issues and developments in leadership, critical skills, knowledge of professional responsibility, integrity and ethics and the ability to reflect on their own progress as a learner.
Entry requirements
Entry requirements
Our digital doors are open to both local and international students from diverse educational and social backgrounds. We offer no international surcharge and believe having a multi-disciplinary and multi-national cohort is best for student development. Typically, applicants for the Postgraduate Diploma in Healthcare Management will:
- Hold a minimum of a 2.1 degree
- Possess a degree (i.e. a minimum of a 2.1) awarded by a UK university or overseas equivalent
- Have 2 years' management experience
- Ability to communicate their ideas effectively - In some cases, applicants may be asked to submit a piece of work for assessment in order to confirm that they are able to work comfortably at postgraduate level and demonstrate the requisite professional knowledge.
- Basic IT skills
e.g. word-processing, email and internet will also be expected. - English Language
If English is not your first language, you must have one of the following qualifications as evidence of English language skills:
- IELTS: 6.5 with 5.5 minimum in each skill
- Cambridge Certificate of Proficiency in English (CPE): Grade C or above
- Cambridge Certificate of Advanced English (CAE): Grade B or above
- Pearson Test of English (Academic): 60 with 51 in each component
- IBT TOEFL: 90 with no subtest less than 17
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Why Learna
We have over 10 years’ experience delivering online diploma courses, giving you access to flexible, affordable distance learning in partnership with world-leading educators.
Our courses are some of the most affordable of their kind, providing value for money without compromising on quality. We also don't apply an international surcharge. No fixed timetable means you can log in & learn on the go, at your convenience.
Being totally online means we can select the very best tutors and resource editors, no matter where they’re located.
Connect with multidisciplinary people around the world to expand your insights & broaden your career prospects.
Our programmes produce 90% fewer emissions than campus-based learning.
