Project Management for Healthcare
Module Description
Besides having excellent Leadership skills and good Communication skills, a good manager must also have good Project Management skills.
Change is inevitable and without change a company or business gets stuck in a rut and eventually inevitably die.
In today’s world especially in such a fast changing industry such as Healthcare, a manager needs to be constantly on the alert for these changes and to make sure to plan and foresee such changes. Project Management is a good tool to effect change in a productive and effective manner.
ICT provides a number of useful tools and software which assists managers to track projects, schedule and communicate deadlines.
Additionally, a successful project manager needs to know the industry (in this case private and public Healthcare), carry out budgeting and cost management, communicate effectively with his/her own team as well as plan well to close the project successfully.
Entry Requirements
Candidates who apply for this course must possess one of the following:
- a Level 6 degree in a related field;
OR
- a Level 5 diploma or higher diploma and 5 years’ work experience in a supervisory or managerial role.
Preference is given to applicants having a Level 6 degree in a discipline related to the healthcare industry and a minimum of 3 years’ work experience in management within the sector.
Target Audience
The programme is mainly targeted at:
- Nurses and Midwives;
- Nursing Managers;
- Ward Managers;
- Clinic /Department Managers;
- Physiotherapists;
- Social Workers;
- Doctors;
- Professionals allied to medicine, such as paramedics;
- Staff within the pharmaceutical and medical devices industries;
- General Managers without clinical qualifications.
Career Paths
The programme aims to prepare you for senior posts such as
- Chief Executive Officer
- Managing Director
- Head of Department of any healthcare entity such as a hospital, clinic or ward, amongst others.
How you’ll be assessed
The course comprises:
- Evening classes for part-time courses.
- Classes held throughout the day for full-time courses.
- Guided learning, presentations, comprising synchronous online discussions, tutorials and/or videos.
- Self-study hours comprising research, reading and assignment work.
Assessment
Assessment is carried out via two mandatory components:
- Modular Assessment
- Dissertation Assessment
The programme includes different forms of assessment which allow for and promote students’ critical engagement. The formative and summative assessment tasks may include an in-class assignment and/or a home-based written assignment using diverse assessment tools which may take the form of online and in-class discussions, examinations, case studies, reports, proposals, essays, and presentations, etc., as applicable to the diverse modules.
Learning Outcomes
Competences:
At the end of the module/unit the learner will have acquired the responsibility and autonomy to:
- Apply Project Management tools and techniques to administer and manage a variety of projects in own Healthcare organisation.
- Create an action plan indicating targets, objectives, persons responsible and time frames using the appropriate software and tools.
- Build a communication plan to disseminate information relating to actions, responsibilities and deadlines to relevant stakeholders.
- Carry out project risk assessment and costing to ensure that the project is beneficial, successful and within budget.
- Manage resources and budgets in a responsible manner to avoid incurring unnecessary losses.
- Identify potential challenges, obstacles and barriers which could hinder the progress of a project and the potential impact on internal and external stakeholders as well as own Healthcare organisation.
Knowledge:
At the end of the module/unit the learner will have been exposed to the following:
- Examine aspects of Project Management in Healthcare.
- Critically analyse processes, tools and techniques in Project Management.
- Evaluate and critique the Five Functions of Project Management (relating them to Healthcare)
- Critique the Management Process § Identify the participants in the Project.
- Critically analyse the Work Breakdown Structure.
- Analyse and evaluate Mind Mapping as a tool in Project Management.
- Justify the concept of Resource Allocations and Costs.
- Critically analyse the methods of estimating activity duration.
- Enumerate Estimated Cost of operations/project.
- Critically analyse Cost Budgeting and Management for a Project in Healthcare.
- Critically analyse the Reporting System for the project.
Skills:
At the end of the module/unit the learner will have acquired the following skills:
- Follow the four basic -step management process when working on project plan.
- Use the five functions of project management when working on own project.
- Use the appropriate software tools and techniques to schedule and track tasks.
- Demonstrate the breakdown structure of the work to give a hierarchal description of the work to relevant stakeholders and team members.
- Apply tools such as Gantt Charts to monitor the progress of a project.
- Use PERT charts to evaluate and review the project’s progress.
Judgment Skills and Critical Abilities:
The learner will be able to:
- Determine a specific, standard set of procedures for own project methodology.
- Determine appropriate course of action/change in course of action based on risk assessments.
Module-Specific Communication Skills:
The learner will be able to:
- Communicate plan of action to key stakeholders during different stages of project implementation.
- Write up regular reports to document changes, deadlines and disseminate important information as a means of reference.
- Discuss project ideas with colleagues and superiors to receive feedback and new ideas.
- Present the different stages of the project clearly and in an appropriate manner.
- Draw up a Mind Map to organise the information in a visual manner.
Module-Specific Learner Skills:
The learner will be able to:
- Improve personal time management and planning skills in relation to project management.
Module-Specific Digital Skills and Competences:
The learner will be able to:
- Navigate through the online learning platform to find assignments, discussion boards, literature, tutorials etc.