Health and Social Practice (Leadership and Management) MSc
3 year part time | September start
Option for Placement Year
Option for Study Abroad
Option for Placement Year
Option for Study Abroad
Applicants should normally have:
A minimum of a 2:2 honours degree in a relevant subject.
Applicants must be working in health and social practice and hold appropriate registration with a relevant professional body such as the NMC or HCPC, or have a professional qualification relating to their area of practice.
Other qualifications, equivalent professional qualifications and/or relevant work experience will be considered on an individual basis.
The university accepts Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) for entry onto the programme subject to approval by the Programme Leader.
International qualifications:
If you have studied a non UK qualification, you can see how your qualifications compare to the standard entry criteria, by selecting the country that you received the qualification in, from our country pages. Visit www.northumbria.ac.uk/yourcountry
English language requirements:
International applicants are required to have a minimum overall IELTS (Academic) score of 7 with 7 in each component (or approved equivalent*).
*The university accepts a large number of UK and International Qualifications in place of IELTS. You can find details of acceptable tests and the required grades you will need in our English Language section. Visit www.northumbria.ac.uk/englishqualifications
* At Northumbria we are strongly committed to protecting the privacy of personal data. To view the University’s Privacy Notice please click here
Module information is indicative and is reviewed annually therefore may be subject to change. Applicants will be informed if there are any changes.
AC7101 -
Leadership, Management and Decision Making in Health and Social Practice (Core,20 Credits)
This module will focus upon three central and complex areas key to the development of your own practice i.e. Leadership, Management and Decision Making. The module will therefore prepare you to apply effective leadership within the delivery of your service. You will learn about models and frameworks of leadership and application of these within you area of professional practice. This will include leadership styles, communication strategies and conflict management. You will learn to access strategies and behaviours for effective leadership and management that will assist you in achieving and maintaining leadership of self and others. Module content will also include the main theoretical approaches to decision making, and allow you to explore and apply these principles. You will learn to critically evaluate the complexity and uncertainty within which judgements and decisions are made, examining how decision making skills are acquired and better utilised in the range of health and social practice.
More informationAC7102 -
Leading Quality and Service Improvement in Practice (Core,20 Credits)
This module is for students on the MSc Health and Social Practice programme. This module will help you advance your knowledge, understanding and skills in relation to leading and advancing practice in your own professional field. You will have the opportunity to identify an area of contemporary practice with a focus on quality improvement, seeking to improve service user outcomes through the systematic review of services against specific criteria. Following this, recommendations for service improvement are identified. You will have the opportunity to plan and complete an audit, sourcing and critiquing a range of relevant contemporary evidence, apply leadership and change theories and contextualise learning in order to prepare you for advancing and leading practice. The module content will include, clinical audit approaches, leadership and change theory, development of strategic leadership skills and networking, promotion of research-based practice and integration of research and theory to practice. You will have the opportunity to apply and relate what you learn on the module towards your academic assessment, which is the development and presentation of a poster and written abstract similar to those presented at a conference.
More informationAC7104 -
Critical Evaluation of Contemporary Practice (Core,20 Credits)
This module content will introduce Policy and Socio-economic drivers for service development and encourage you to consider how these may impact on contemporary practice and service delivery.
The core lectures will introduce the concept of undertaking practice evaluation and you will be encouraged to consider this in relation to a specific practice role or service. Seminars will encourage you to explore and enhance your awareness of workforce modelling and discuss professional boundaries. You will be directed to professional guidance relating to advanced practice and discuss these in relation to service delivery to meet the health and social care population.
The seminars, supervision and independent learning will encourage you to apply the key areas of learning within this module to your own professional context and field of expertise The sharing of understandings and experiences during the seminars will be an integral part of the way in which the module helps to socially construct individual’s perceptions of their role within the context of communities of practice.
You will learn about how you can make effective and systematic use of evidence based published research to inform your practice. You will be encouraged to apply this knowledge in relation to a contemporary aspect of practice. You will consider issues around quality and governance in relation to service delivery and explore the significance of commissioning and stakeholder engagement.
AC7103 -
Managing Strategic Thinking in Health and Social Practice (Core,20 Credits)
This module will focus on the theoretical concepts and phases of strategic thinking in health and social practice. It considers the principles of strategic thinking for your own cognitive development and explores this in the context of a critical exploration of the development of your practice area. The module also considers the impact of the complexities of strategic thinking, goal setting, planning and resourcing. It will explore individual assumptions and existing knowledge and empirical evidence. You will consider and explore logic, and creative ways towards problem solving preparing you to think proactively about applying strategic thinking more effectively. You will learn about models and frameworks of strategic thinking and consider these in the context of your area of professional practice. This includes considering communication strategies and engagement across organisations. Exploring the principles outlined will help you to access strategies and behaviours for strategic thinking that will assist you in identifying a solution focused approach to challenges.
More informationAC7107 -
Research Approaches and Methods in Health and Social Practice (Core,40 Credits)
On this module you will appreciate the knowledge and skills needed to undertake research. You will learn about research philosophy, methodology and the different methods associated with a range of research traditions. You will explore the value of research evidence in informing health and social practice and be able to apply the principles of research to critically appraise research quality. Specifically on this module you will learn about:
• Locating and organising literature
• Philosophical assumptions and foundations of enquiry
• Qualitative, quantitative and mixed methodological approaches
• Data collection, data analysis and interpretation
• Research governance and ethical issues
• Analysis and interpretation
By the end of the module you will be able to prepare a research proposal on a topic of interest to yourself and of value to health and social practice.
AC7035 -
Empirical Project (Optional,60 Credits)
You will be encouraged to critically explore a range of approaches to research however emphasis will be placed on your understanding of the world view, design and meaning system that will drive your own research study. It is assumed that prior to the undertaking of this dissertation module you will have undertaken study that prepares you for engagement with a Masters dissertation process and that you will have constructed a robust research proposal that has gained or is in the process of gaining ethical approval from both the University and (if applicable) your employing organisation. In the module you will revisit and deepen your understanding of a range of key topic areas linked to the empirical research process, this will include discussion of world views and research paradigms, the research question, aim or hypothesis, research design, working with literature and theory, developing ethical codes, constructing the research sample, collecting robust research evidence, ensuring quality assurance within your research work, analysing both qualitative and quantitative evidence and writing and disseminating the research dissertation work. You will be invited to attend a series of research seminars during the module and you will have access to a named supervisor for one to one supervision work. Both the seminars and supervision will encourage you to apply the key areas of learning within this module to your own professional context and field of expertise. This will enable you to critically examine how the empirical research process will work best for your research goals and design.
AC7036 -
Practice Project (Optional,60 Credits)
This module gives you the opportunity to consolidate your previous learning in a way that is meaningful to you. The development of a practice project will allow you to bring together reflection, theory, action, and practice. You will apply your analytic and assessment skills to a range of change frameworks and, from your findings, select an appropriate framework to plan and conduct a service change which is compatible with the needs of the service user, the service and the practice context. You will learn about influence factors, both internal and external, and in order to take account of multiple perspectives when planning change, you will negotiate and collaborate with relevant stakeholders and colleagues in the planning and implementation of your project, which will include evaluating the impact of any resulting change. Through this you will learn how to successfully operate as a leader, project coordinator, decision maker and auditor. While undertaking this project you will engage in reflective practice, conceptualisation, literature evaluation, relevant data collection and project planning and change management.
More informationAC7108 -
Systematic Appraisal (Optional,60 Credits)
This 15000 word dissertation module will focus upon a selected area of health and social practice. It was designed to let you explore and area of research by undertaking a systematic appraisal of the empirical literature. This systematic appraisal would be in an area of your choice, and reflect that of your professional practice. In doing so, you will investigate and conceptualise research through exploring secondary data. This means that you will learn about the process of searching and retrieval of appropriate literature and critical appraisal of that literature. You will also learn how to demonstrate a systematic approach to analysis, interpretation and presentation of the results. You will also need to consider ethics and how you address this within the systematic appraisal, however, ethical permissions for this dissertation are necessary however, they are also minimal.
More informationOur Applicant Services team will be happy to help. They can be contacted on 0191 406 0901 or by using our Contact Form.
Full time Courses are primarily delivered via on-campus face to face learning but could include elements of online learning. Most courses run as planned and as promoted on our website and via our marketing materials, but if there are any substantial changes (as determined by the Competition and Markets Authority) to a course or there is the potential that course may be withdrawn, we will notify all affected applicants as soon as possible with advice and guidance regarding their options. It is also important to be aware that optional modules listed on course pages may be subject to change depending on uptake numbers each year.
Contact time is subject to increase or decrease in line with possible restrictions imposed by the government or the University in the interest of maintaining the health and safety and wellbeing of students, staff, and visitors if this is deemed necessary in future.
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