Healthcare Management and Performance Improvement in Healthcare – HEA4529
Overview
This module will enable students to learn from their past management experience and champion new approaches, mapped to the NHS Management and Leadership Framework and competencies (NHSE, 2025). Leaders and Managers working within healthcare will be required to consistently assess (via a standard appraisal approach) capability and performance against the standards, to identify personal development needs. This module is mapped to 24/27 NHSE Leadership and Management Framework competencies and will support healthcare staff to develop NHS Management and Leadership Framework competencies aligned to ‘Balancing safety, productivity and wellbeing’, ‘Improving Performance and Operational Delivery’, ‘Maximising resources and financial value’, and ‘Improving patient outcomes and experience’.
| Module code: | HEA4529 |
|---|---|
| Level: | 7 |
| Module credits: | 20 |
| Cost for new students: | £1060 for 2026/27 academic |
If you are an existing student who is undertaking this module as part of a programme, your fee will have been advised to you by email. You can also check your fees online. For any queries, please contact [email protected].
If your tuition fee is being paid by a sponsor or you are a sponsor paying a student’s fee, you are required to send a copy of a purchase order to [email protected].
For further guidance please visit: https://www.edgehill.ac.uk/departments/support/finance-and-payments/sponsored-students/
Who is this module for?
This module is designed for healthcare professionals and managers who are working, or aspire to work, in roles involving the management of services, teams and resources. It is relevant to doctors, nurses, allied health professionals, clinical scientists and colleagues in non-clinical roles, including management, social workers, quality improvement, governance, patient advocates and the voluntary sector.
What are the key aims of the module?
The module aims to develop your ability to critically evaluate healthcare management practice and select improvement approaches that support effective performance and operational delivery. Drawing on your professional experience, you will explore how managers make and evaluate decisions within complex healthcare services.
You will examine how to balance patient safety, productivity and staff wellbeing; use resources responsibly; and improve patient outcomes and experience. Through critical reflection and appraisal of evidence, you will identify your management development needs and consider how learning can inform your practice in relation to the NHS Leadership and Management Framework.
How will I study?
Teaching and learning are delivered through blended learning based on a hybrid teaching model. A hybrid model is an educational approach where some individuals participate in-person and some participate online (at the same time). The tutor(s) deliver sessions and teach remote and in person learners synchronously using appropriate technology, meaning that the students are taught together in ‘real time’. This means some of your teaching sessions will be delivered in-person and some are online synchronous delivery. If you are unable to attend in person with your module leader’s permission you can attend the in-person teaching session online synchronously. Sessions will require participants to interrogate educational theory, critique policy and standards, and apply concepts within complex clinical and academic environments. Peer review, micro-teaching, and facilitated debate are used to promote critical engagement and scholarly exchange.
What will I study?
Broad content will include:
How will I be assessed?
Assessment is a 4000-word Critical appraisal of an improvement method to effect optimal performance and operational delivery.
On successful completion you will:
On completion of this module, you will be able to critically evaluate healthcare management approaches and the factors that influence performance and operational delivery. You will be able to select and critically appraise appropriate improvement methods, use performance data and measures to evaluate improvement, and understand the relationships between patient safety, productivity, staff wellbeing, resource use and patient outcomes and experience.
You will also be able to develop evidence-informed recommendations for improving healthcare services, taking account of feasibility, stakeholder involvement and sustainability. Through critical reflection on your own management experience, you will identify your professional development needs and consider how these relate to the NHS Leadership and Management Framework. (NHSE, 2025).
Study dates and venues
Venue: Ormskirk Campus, Edge Hill University
Starts: Saturday 27 February 2027
Session times:
How to apply
Module availability varies from year to year and will be subject to minimum student numbers being achieved. Places will be allocated on a first come first served basis. Due to the popularity of some modules, it may be that the module is fully booked when your application is received. We will include your details on a waiting list and allocate you a place on the next available intake.
We encourage you to apply as early as possible to give you the best chance to obtain a place on your preferred cohort, module applications will close as soon as the module is full. Applications received within two weeks of the start date may have to be considered for a later cohort.
For details of how to apply, please visit the apply page.
Contact us
For further module information, please contact the Module Co-ordinator, Denise Dutton via email [email protected].
Or you can contact the Medical School on [email protected].
Pathways
This module is a core module on the MSc Leadership Development (Medical Leadership & Management) and MSc Leadership Development (Leadership & Management). This module can also be undertaken on a stand-alone basis.