Master of Health Care (Nursing)

Master's studies for engineering and social and health care professionals

The interdisciplinary degree programme in Technological Transformation Leadership aims to develop strategic leaders capable of integrating technology with business processes and with organisational processes in social and health care.

The programme emphasises ethical leadership and the societal impacts of technology, including considerations specific to IoT and AI, such as data privacy, security, and ethical AI deployment for engineering students, and data privacy, security, and ethical AI deployment in social and health care for social and health care students.

These studies also provide an excellent opportunity to improve spoken and written English skills and network with students from across different business sectors and nationalities.

Work experience requirements

Applicants must, in addition to the required educational background, have gained at least two years (24 months) of subsequent work experience in a relevant field after the completion of the bachelor's degree, in order to meet the eligibility criteria.

Leading roles in technology and social and health care

Upon completion, graduates will be able to lead technology initiatives, execute strategic plans, manage projects and innovations, and address ethical considerations in technology transformation, including those related to AI, and, in addition, for engineering graduates, IoT as well.

Gaining skills and capabilities for developing a technological transformation leadership approach to the working environment helps our graduates expand their professional opportunities and bridge gained knowledge and know-how with the future operational environment. 

Students in the programme can immediately apply their attained skills and know-how in their workplace. Many of the graduates capitalise on new opportunities either within their current organisation or in new professional careers.

What do the studies include?

The studies contain challenging independent work, online group work, and online studies to accommodate students’ professional and personal lives. The studies are rigorously intensive but manageable.

Teaching days for core studies are usually limited to 2 to 4 online days per month. The study days for complementary competence studies depend on the courses you choose to study. Students can also choose elective master’s level courses from other universities.

For engineering students, the scope of the studies is 60 ECTS credits, and the duration of the programme is 1 year. For social and health care students, the scope of the studies is 90 ECTS credits, and the duration of the programme is 2 years. 

For engineering students:

• core competence 15 ECTS
• complementary competence 15 ECTS
• master's thesis 30 ECTS

Engineering students can construct their degrees focusing either on technological transformation leadership or IoT through AI. Topics covered can include, for example, leadership and change management, technology strategy, and data-driven decision making. Additionally, the programme addresses emerging issues in the Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI), preparing students to navigate and leverage these technologies effectively.

For social and health care students:

• core competence 35 ECTS
• complementary competence 25 ECTS
• master's thesis 30 ECTS

Topics covered in the studies can include, for example, leadership and change management, health and wellbeing technologies, and knowledge management.

Studies for redesigning emergency care

Health care crises have made it clear that our emergency care systems and acute care pathways are experiencing a fundamental change in perspective. The need for major systemic change is evident, for both better person-centred care and the well-being of our health care professionals.

To ensure evidence-based, goal-directed development and meaningful change in emergency care systems, our objective is to educate future experts, leaders, and researchers with advanced competencies, diverse perspectives, and understanding of systems integrations, safety science, staff well-being, and person-centred emergency care systems at both practical and systems levels.

Work experience requirements

All applicants must, in addition to the required educational background, have at least two years (24 months) of relevant work experience gained after the completion of the bachelor's degree in order to meet the eligibility criteria. 

Work at the forefront of redesigning emergency care systems

We need to redesign emergency care as a system. It is necessary to integrate care pathways and existing services, develop new clinical advancements, reshape professional roles, and break old systemic and work cultural barriers within emergency care, such as roles between prehospital acute care, out-of-hospital community paramedicine, and emergency departments. 

The treatment of acute and critical patients is often volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) environments must be safe, person-centred, and of the highest quality in the future while also addressing the increasing complexity of subacute patient profiles. Therefore, its continuous development requires long-term goals and rigorous processes to succeed and be effective.

We further need to make emergency care work manageable. By breaking silos and disciplinary boundaries and going beyond the scopes of familiar practices, we are sharing new knowledge and further understanding of the complexity, variety, and diversity of work in emergency care systems. 

We will explore how human-environment work can be further developed to be more sustainable and safer, utilizing, among others, translational simulations and design for psychologically safe work cultures. The goal is to make emergency care systems manageable and sustainable for all health care professionals.

What do the studies include?

The degree comprises 90 ECTS credits. The studies are taught entirely in English and are completed entirely online. The coursework includes assignments and lectures (online). Participation in online lectures is not mandatory but recommended. The degree contains the following three main modules:

• core competences (30 ECTS credits)
• elective complementary studies* (15 ECTS credits)
• research methods and master's thesis (15+30 ECTS credits).

*Elective complementary studies can be chosen from available master’s courses at LAB University of Applied Sciences or Arcada University of Applied Sciences, or from courses available at other institutions providing master’s level courses.

Learning outcomes

As a student in this programme, you will learn:

1. to analyse and evaluate the effectiveness and quality of emergency care interventions and systems and to develop systems thinking and person centredness in emergency care settings;
2. to support, develop, and enable sustainable human work in emergency care environments by evaluating the opportunities and challenges of future digital solutions for emergency care systems;
3. to evaluate and develop safety science-based interventions in emergency care to ensure high patient and occupational safety in a complex environment by evaluating opportunities and challenges in different emergency care systems.