ProfDip in Clinical Leadership
€5,750
Develop the leadership skills you need to enhance your professional practice and empower you to tackle contemporary organisational needs.
Professional Diploma
9 months
Online - Part-time
30 ECTS
11 October 2025
RCSI scholarship opportunities
RCSI HealthCARE Scholarship
We are delighted to offer the RCSI HealthCARE Scholarship to dedicated healthcare professionals seeking to advance their careers. With three scholarships available, each offering a 30% reduction in tuition fees, we are committed to supporting your leadership ambitions. Take this opportunity to benefit from financial support and further your professional development. Please see our terms and conditions.
Eligibility
Open to individuals who have accepted their offer and made their first instalment payment.
How to apply
1. Submit your programme application
2. Accept your offer and complete the first instalment payment
3. Submit a 500-word personal statement outlining your impact in healthcare. The link to submit this will be provided by Admissions once your acceptance and payment have been confirmed.
Deadline
31 July 2025.
About
Develop the leadership and management skills you need to succeed on the Professional Diploma in Clinical Leadership from RCSI Graduate School of Healthcare Management. You will undertake a unique programme of study that is evidence-based, cutting-edge and designed to meet the immediate development needs of both you and your organisation.
This programme covers crucial skills – self-management, skills for managing both people and finances, and how to lead change. You'll also explore relationship management, influencing others, and how to drive quality improvement in health services.
Drawing on approaches from positive psychology and positive organisational scholarship it is designed to meet the needs of multidisciplinary health professionals. This programme is offered part time over nine months through a blend of online content and activities and live interactive sessions, offering a collaborative and supported student experience. All webinars last for one hour, workshops run for 2.5-3 hours and live sessions are recorded.
This course is a Level 9 award on the Irish National Framework of Qualifications.
Develop leadership skills
Enhance management capabilities
Engage with innovative practices
Suitable for
This programme is suitable for clinicians, interdisciplinary health and social care professionals, healthcare managers and administrators, and others in the wider healthcare sector aiming to advance their leadership and management capabilities.
What you will learn
Develop self-insight, resilience, and emotional intelligence to lead effectively in clinical settings
Learn to manage human and financial resources, evaluate team performance, and influence healthcare outcomes
Explore change models and quality improvement methods to enhance patient safety and healthcare culture
What our students say
Testimonial
"What I really liked about the course was the ability of the faculty to be professional and informal at the same time, I felt part of a team since day one, despite the virtual nature of the course."
"As a result of this programme, I feel more confident when taking up leadership or management roles within healthcare. I am better equipped to lead multidisciplinary team meetings and online clinical discussion groups."
"I particularly enjoyed the traditional learning in small groups where peers from different specialities would share leadership experience. This was made possible with the seamless virtual platform provided by RCSI."
"The flexibility was really important when I was working and had a young child. The skills, knowledge and language that I developed afforded me the additional lens and language to move things forward."
Faculty highlight
Biography
Dr Kristina Brown
Dr Brown’s research interests are restorative just cultures, psychological safety and patient safety in healthcare organisations, in which she actively researches and collaborates with healthcare organisations.
Find out more
Register your interest
Are you interested in learning more about the Professional Diploma in Clinical Leadership programme on offer with RCSI Online? Please register your interest for the 2026 intake below
Course information
This programme will provide you with the skills and knowledge to:
- Analyse and discuss clinical leadership and management models in a healthcare setting.
- Reflect on the feedback from your psychometric profile and how this information can inform and allow you to be a more effective clinical leader.
- Critically and systematically analyse healthcare case studies and apply this learning to your own organisation.
- Discuss the importance of developments in positive leadership and how these develop a resilient strengths-based approach to maintaining a positive outlook to your clinical leadership role.
- Analyse the roles of team members in a clinical team and how they can influence performance outcomes.
- Apply the basic principles of management accounting, budgeting and activity-based costing.
- Discuss the importance of building and maintaining relationships across boundaries and maintaining networks for effective clinical leadership.
- Apply and effectively manage a performance management system using a coaching methodology.
- Critically evaluate and apply team effectiveness in relation to healthcare outcomes.
- Critically debate change management theories and the challenges they present for clinical leaders.
- Evaluate quality improvement methodologies/measures and demonstrate how they can impact healthcare delivery and outcomes.
- Critically discuss the principles and implementation of a patient safety culture and outcomes.
- Develop and present an evidence-based business case for a change or quality improvement in your clinical setting.
| Module Name | Module Description |
|---|---|
|
The Clinical Leader: Understanding and Managing Oneself (10 ECTS) |
Insight into yourself, others and how organisations work is a fundamental element of all effective models of leadership. The ability to understand and manage yourself is critical to being able to operate as a leader in any clinical setting.. This module guides you to develop self-insights, resilience and emotional intelligence and teaches you how to implement these competencies and capabilities and become an effective leader and manager in a clinical setting. |
|
Leading People and Managing Resources in the Clinical Context (10 ECTS) |
Leading and managing people and teams are key capabilities for healthcare professionals. Project management tools are introduced and applied as part of the learning. |
|
Leading Change and Quality Improvement in Health Services (10 ECTS) |
In recent years, the rapid pace of change and the increasing demand for quality healthcare systems and reduction in patient safety errors presents real challenges for clinical leaders. Change management is a vital prerequisite for those hoping to lead change, quality or patient safety initiatives.. The aim of this module is to provide you with a number of change models and modern approaches to maximising quality and safety culture in your healthcare setting. You will be required to develop and present an evidence-based business case for a change or quality improvement in your clinical setting. |
*ECTS: European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) is a tool of the European Higher Education Area for making studies and courses more transparent. It helps students to move between countries and to have their academic qualifications and study periods abroad recognised (EC, 2020).
Orientation: 6-17 October 2025
Module 1: 20 October-12 December 2025
Module 2: 5 January-6 March 2026
Module 3: 16 March-15 May 2026
A full timetable is available below.
Continuous assessment.
We are proud to be a recognised University of the National University of Ireland (NUI). All RCSI programmes are accredited by the NUI.
Recognition by ministries and bodies in all jurisdictions must be determined by the individual applicants.
We are pleased to confirm that a number of our recent graduates who are domiciled in the United Arab Emirates and in the Kingdom of Bahrain have successfully had their certificates recognised by the Ministry of Education in their respective countries.
Admissions
To apply for the Professional Diploma in Clinical Leadership, you must:
- Hold a bachelor degree. (If you don’t hold a bachelor degree, see the recognition of prior learning pathway outlined below)
- Be working in the healthcare industry
- Meet the English language requirements (unless exempt): IELTS score of 6.5 or equivalent score on another standardised test (certified proof should be uploaded with your application; see below for exemptions)
If you do not meet the minimum academic requirements above, you may still be eligible to apply through recognition of prior learning (RPL). RPL is the assessment of knowledge, skills and competence previously acquired.
Learning occurs in many contexts which include work, involvement in social and community activities, or learning through life experience generally. RPL does not give credit for experience as such – rather, it considers the learning that was acquired as a result of the experience.
RPL may be used to gain:
- Admission to courses/programmes where a person may not have obtained the standard entry requirements.
- Exemptions from course modules which duplicate the learning outcomes an individual has already demonstrably acquired through prior learning.
Exemptions may apply for:
- Applicants who have completed their school or undergraduate studies (three or more years) through English in a country where English is the majority native language.
- Applicants who have completed their school or undergraduate studies (three or more years) in an English speaking institution in a country where English is not the majority native language and where an IELTS score of 5 or more was a requirement for admissions to the programme.
- Applicants who have been working in a country (three years or more) where English is the majority native language or for an employer where English language is the official language.
- Graduates of an RCSI Undergraduate, Masters or Professional Diploma programme in Dublin and Bahrain.
Please note: Certified proof must be uploaded as part of your application.
Fees: €5,750
| Year 1 | Date | Fee |
|---|---|---|
|
1st payment |
On application |
€2,000 |
|
2nd payment |
End of module 1 |
€2,000 |
|
3rd payment |
End of module 2 |
€1,750 |
Please note
- Fee includes all resources, access to our award-winning online learning portal and access to extensive RCSI-only databases.
- Fee includes an NUI fee.
- Fee is payable via the above schedule, where relevant.
- If you have outstanding fees you will not be entitled to receive your grades or be eligible to progress and or graduate (VLE and Library privileges will be withdrawn in these cases).
- RCSI accepts no obligation to refund any fee, or part thereof, in respect of a student who chooses to withdraw from a programme.
- If you choose to withdraw from a programme you are liable for full fees owed for the seat on that programme.
- All NUI parchments are issued in Latin; you will be required to pay an additional fee of €50 to NUI if you wish to have a parchment published in English.
- Fees are subject to review annually.
- If you are being sponsored or funded by your employer you should upload a funding confirmation letter in the document upload section on the application portal.
How to apply
Applications for the Professional Diploma in Clinical Leadership are accepted on a rolling basis. Please begin your application by completing the form below.
Please ensure you attach the following supporting documents with your application:
- Clear copy of your valid passport.
- Copies of your academic transcripts/degree.
- Copy of your CV.
Already begun your application? Complete it via our application portal now.
Continue your application