Midwifery (Leadership and Research)

Entry requirements

• You will hold a current first level Professional Registration with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC).
• Ordinarily, you must be working in clinical practice or undertaking voluntary healthcare work.
• You will have achieved an undergraduate degree or higher in a related subject gained within the last 36 months. Classification of 2:2 or above.
• A recent academic reference will be required as part of the application process.

ADDITIONAL ENTRY REQUIREMENTS FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS

• Hold current first level Nursing Professional Registration with a relevant regulatory body.
• Hold an undergraduate second-class honours degree or higher in a related subject.
• IELTS 6.5. The University also accepts a range of internationally recognised English tests.
• If you do not meet the English language requirements, the University offers a range of English language preparation programmes.

Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) is considered on a case-by-case basis and those interested should contact the Award Leader. The University's guidelines on this can be found here: https://www.keele.ac.uk/qa/programmesandmodules/recognitionofpriorlearning/

Months of entry

September

Course content

Designed for early career midwives, our MSc Midwifery (Leadership and Research) will enable you to progress your professional career. You will enhance your core practitioner skills, develop management expertise and advance your research knowledge in a supportive and interprofessional environment empowering you to effectively manage the demands of today’s healthcare services.

Designed to support your preceptorship period, our Midwifery (Research and Leadership) MSc allows you to build on your existing midwifery skills and focus on developing research and leadership expertise at a higher level, enabling you to respond competently to the complexities of clinical practice.

You will continue your transition as a clinical practitioner and progress as a professional who can deliver compassionate, safe and effective care as an autonomous and reflective practitioner, whilst supporting quality improvement and innovation in the rapidly changing health and social care sector.

Expert academics will guide you through current strategic management thinking around complexity and change. You will examine the origins of leadership thinking so you can improve your understanding of contemporary theory. The course focuses on how leaders shape the culture of organisations, with potential leadership problems and their solutions examined and identified, alongside analysis of areas such as making sense of change.

You will develop confident reflective skills, so you can understand your influence and that of others and explore the principles of health leadership and team working through peer-supported learning. Your research expertise will improve as you explore evidence-informed practice and the research skills required to develop a project proposal plan, which will prepare you for a substantive piece of independent work.

Choosing an optional module provides you with the opportunity to sync your studies with a specific area of interest. Current choices on this programme include analysing how digital technology and innovation have a role to play in both improving healthcare and the use of health informatics. Or, you could choose to acquire knowledge about healthcare ethics and law, enhancing your ability to critically think on the subject and look at law as it relates to healthcare professionals. The final option focuses on facilitating the learning journey, assessing the principles of teaching and learning within healthcare and reflecting on areas such as your own experiences, the experience of others, and observation feedback from your own teaching.

You will analyse how current healthcare policy is shaped by contemporary research within your area of practice, and improve your analytical expertise in selecting, reviewing and synthesising research evidence. Our module on quality and improvement in healthcare will develop your critical knowledge and understanding of the various factors that impact quality provision, by looking at areas such as the role of regulators, examining existing policy and exploring the role stakeholders play in the quality of healthcare outcomes.

In the final part of the programme, you have a choice of undertaking a research dissertation or a work-based project. The dissertation will demonstrate your research skills and capabilities in designing, producing and reporting of an independent research project. The alternative work-based project will involve you producing a comprehensive assignment that focuses on a specific area of your current professional responsibilities, chosen in agreement with your supervisor, employer and work-based facilitator.

Information for international students

ADDITIONAL ENTRY REQUIREMENTS FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS

(Also stated in 'Entry Requirements' section)

• Hold current first level Nursing Professional Registration with a relevant regulatory body.
• Hold an undergraduate second-class honours degree or higher in a related subject.
• IELTS 6.5. The University also accepts a range of internationally recognised English tests.
• If you do not meet the English language requirements, the University offers a range of English language preparation programmes.

Fees and funding

Please note, if your course offers a January start date, the January 2024 start date falls in the 2023/24 academic year. More information is available on our Postgraduate Tuition Fees page.

It's important to plan carefully for your funding before you start your course. Please be aware that not all postgraduate courses and not all students are eligible for the UK government postgraduate loans and, in some cases, you would be expected to source alternative funding yourself. If you need support researching your funding options, please contact our Financial Support Team.