A key feature of a work-based learning programme is the requirement to learn from and for your work context. Work-based projects are purposeful work activities focusing on the real demands of your job. Engaging in a substantial work-based project provides opportunities for you to investigate, plan, develop, implement, review and learn from experience.

The final stage of a master's qualification requires you to engage in a substantial work-based, investigative project, which typically takes around six to nine months to complete.

This 60-credit project will be of sufficient complexity and timescale to allow you to:

• Plan and conduct a practitioner enquiry that contributes to knowledge creation and interpretation in your organisational context
• Develop mastery of key methods and techniques for undertaking practitioner enquiry, including action planning and problem-solving
• Identify, select, justify, plan and deliver a complex and multifaceted task related to the implementation of a work-based project
• Make a relevant and useful organisational impact; deploying resources effectively

Before embarking on a 60-credit project, you will complete a project proposal and ethics statement. Your mentor will provide you with formative feedback on your proposal before you submit your final version to the University Project Approval Committee.

This module is a key part of how we support you in customising your postgraduate programme.

As part of this, you will:

• Develop your learning objectives to meet your personal development needs, the needs of your workplace, and the University's requirements.
• Update your personal development plan.
• Engage with your key stakeholders to determine organisational needs and the requirements for a substantive work-based project.
• Negotiate your future postgraduate programme, selecting modules to best meet your needs.
• Outline a proposal for a work-based project to fulfil personal, organisational and University requirements.

You will also negotiate timescales, target award and award title to construct an achievable programme that meets your career aspirations and the requirements for success at postgraduate level.

Creative thinking is the ability to imagine or invent something new and is a powerful skill in the work context spanning the spectrum of 'brilliant ideas' to 'better ways of doing things'. It can be closely linked to problem-solving. This module will help you develop your abilities and support you to develop a creative, innovative culture in your team.

You will examine concepts and models used to stimulate creative thinking and frameworks for problem-solving and assess their applicability and usefulness to your work. For example, you might look at the work of experts such as Edward de Bono and evaluate ideas such as ‘left and right brain thinking’, ‘six thinking hats’ and a ‘solution focus rather than a problem focus’.

Modern-day workplaces can be constantly changing, and many factors cause stress and prevent individuals from maintaining high levels of performance and wellbeing. In this module, we will explore workplace resilience as a tool to cope with modern stresses. This will provide you with an opportunity to build a strategy to improve your own resilience and that of others.

We will delve into the lessons learned from the science of positive psychology and other perspectives, such as the importance of confidence, adaptability, and purposefulness. We will also critically analyse current themes around new age perspectives, such as mindfulness, by looking at academic research and the applicability of techniques to workplace practice.

This module will cover:

• Quality Improvement – a key foundation to improving healthcare
• Measurement practice in healthcare
• Tools and techniques for measuring Quality Improvement
• Interpreting and using measurement in Quality Improvement
• Managing data into meaningful information

By the end of the module, you will be able to demonstrate a good understanding of key principles and techniques related to quality improvement and measurement in health care. You will be able to identify and evaluate different approaches for application in your own working context.

The topics covered in this module include:

• What is leadership? What is management?
• Leadership and management: current debates and issues in relation to the challenges of your own role
• Social and ethical challenges for management and leadership in changing organisational contexts; managing with integrity
• Organisation culture, values, power – impact on expectations and behaviours of leadership and management
• Understanding your own leadership style, behaviours, habits
• Evaluating your own strengths and development needs in the context of management and leadership
• Developing authentic leadership effectiveness – aligning your approach to fit with current and future organisational needs

This module will help you to understand different perceptions of effective leadership and management and examine the effectiveness of leadership and management in the context of your own organisation. You will be able to devise a strategy for your own personal leadership development to help you address the current challenges of your role.

This course sets the scene for understanding the context and agenda for organisation development. The topics covered include:

• What is Organisation Development? History, perspectives and definitions
• Theory and practice of Organisation Development
• Organisation Development and its links to business strategy, HR strategy, systems thinking and organisation learning
• Models for understanding your own organisation
• Developing organisation practice
• The role of Organisation Development Practitioner - limits and possibilities