Effective healthcare is a team endeavour, and effective teams need confident leaders
Healthcare is complex and every day, clinicians are asked to do more – lead teams, manage risk and improve services, while navigating rising demand and limited resources. Many step into leadership roles without formal preparation and the challenge can feel terrifying.
Clinician leadership has been a central part of healthcare development in Ireland over two decades. The Professional Diploma in Healthcare Leadership, awarded by the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland (RCPI) and delivered in partnership with Hibernia College, is built on that experience and knowledge. It is designed by clinicians who understand the realities of healthcare, to provide the skills and tools for professionals who want to lead with purpose, without losing sight of what matters most: patients, colleagues and outcomes.
This diploma will give you the confidence and skills to be a confident leader, taught by clinicians with a lifetime devoted to the development of clinical leadership.
Professor Liam Plant, Programme Lead, explains that effective healthcare leaders are those who can adapt, listen, and lead through uncertainty.
“Developing healthcare leaders who combine compassion, systems thinking, reflective practice and clinical insight within complex teams is essential to the future of patient care. This professional diploma will deliver a dynamic framework for such development,” Professor Plant says.
Throughout the eight-month programme learners will explore:
Adaptive leadership in uncertain environments and how to lead when systems are strained, change is constant, and answers aren’t clear.
Team dynamics and culture, how to build psychological safety, appropriately give feedback, and navigate conflict.
How to use Quality Improvement tools like PDSA and Lean to identify problems and lead meaningful change.
Strategy, finance and innovation, particularly around interpreting data, managing resources, and shaping plans that reflect clinical priorities.
Dr Áine O’Carroll is a professor of healthcare integration and improvement and one of the programme tutors. “Healthcare is one of the most complex systems in society, yet we often try to lead it as if it were simple,” she says. “This programme is grounded in complexity science and the lived realities of practice, preparing participants for leadership in an uncertain and changing system.”
Each module provides an evidence base of practical relevance through real-world case studies, peer discussion, and flexible weekly activities. The course is fully online, designed for working professionals, and includes weekly live sessions with expert RCPI faculty.
Participants will work with senior clinicians at the frontline of clinical leadership in Ireland, like Professor Plant and Professor O’Carroll throughout the eight-month programme, along with faculty members such as Professor Conor O’Keane, Consultant Histopathologist and a champion of quality improvement and Professor Makani Purva, Consultant Anaesthetist and Honorary Professor at Hull York Medical School.
Why This, Why Now?
Whether you’re newly appointed, preparing for a formal leadership role or already managing people and processes, this internationally recognised programme gives you the confidence to face the challenges ahead.
Participants come from diverse backgrounds – consultants, registrars, GPs, nurses, and health managers, but all with a common goal to lead more effectively in a pressurised system that is undergoing rapid transformation.
This Professional Diploma will be particularly relevant for those aspiring to Clinical Director, Programme Lead or similar leadership roles.
Ready to Lead?
If you’re a healthcare professional, working in a clinical or management capacity and ready to take the next step, this programme is for you.
Find out more here.
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