The Education Specialist (Ed.S.) in Leadership and Learning; Healthcare Administration will teach you realistic problem-solving strategies for managing and strengthening your health care environment.

Enjoy Flexibility – 11 courses with start dates every 2 weeks
Choose Where You Learn – Online courses
Affordable Monthly Payments – Opt to pay $395 per month

Through practical, real-world applications, learners will gain adeptness with leading health care practitioners and nursing educators to create cultures that are highly innovative, ethical, and evidenced-based. 

The degree is centered around 3 elements:

  • Collaborative and ethical leadership
  • Transformational leadership
  • Reflective scholarship

Through practical, real-world applications, students will gain adeptness with leading innovation and technology in health care, nursing accreditation and advocacy, and legal and financial management in health care environments.

Inside: EDD830 Leadership Theory

Is this program for you?

Individuals seeking greater knowledge and skills in accreditation policies and practices for health care settings, integration of health care technology strategies, and financial management of those environments would benefit most from this Education Specialist degree.

We understand trying to fit education into an already busy schedule. We created interactive, flexible, facilitated, online courses designed to fit around your lifestyle.

Benefits of an Education Specialist Degree

  • Continue professional development
  • Grow your leadership philosophy
  • Pursue senior roles
  • Familiarize yourself with new technology tools

For more information about the program, see the Academic Catalog.

Admission Requirements

  • Application – A completed application.
  • Master’s Degree Transcripts – Official transcript demonstrating a conferred master’s degree from an institution that is accredited by a CHEA recognized accrediting body or an international equivalent, with a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0 or greater.
  • Military Documentation (Optional) – A copy of the most recent orders; or a copy of DD214 (This can be requested from the National Archives.)

Courses:

    The emphasis of this course is on leadership with the focus on the application of leadership concepts and leadership skills. Through the examination of a wide array of different leadership theories, the student gains knowledge and skills for a plethora of theoretical paradigms and models, which can be used to influence others towards positive and lasting change. Working with teams and dealing with the politics and power within an organization are also examined in depth.

    3 Credits
    Required Books

    This research course examines the basic principles and techniques of doctoral scholarship, and offers an overview of the development of theory and research logic, explores the relationship between theoretical and empirical constructs, and provides a wide variety of specific research methodologies, including the scholarly publication process. Students study the principles of the scientific method and research design techniques common to both qualitative and quantitative research, including sampling methods and data collection techniques. Material includes examination of various research methods including electronic searches and retrieval methods. Students learn to critically read research papers and articles, and are introduced to the writing techniques necessary to produce expository and analytical papers to the standards of publishable work. This course is a prerequisite for all other doctorate courses.

    3 Credits
    Required Books

    This course examines a meaningful and sophisticated understanding of motivation and emotion. Blending motivation and emotion with leadership builds a powerful sense of tolerance and meaning in many domains of life: home, school, workplace, clinical setting, athletic fields, healthcare, and interpersonal relationships. The course deeply explores individual emotion, mindset, and interventions. A leader can use this knowledge to motivate individuals and evaluate how emotion drives behavior to obtain the best performance out of their employees and relationships in all facets of life.

    3 Credits
    Required Books

    Creating strategic change that lasts is a fine art of every successful leader. Throughout this course, students examine what the best leaders do to create an atmosphere where employees in the organization can flourish. The focus is on learning essential behaviors that promote a high-energy culture.

    3 Credits
    Required Books

    This course begins to ask the doctoral student to reflect on past courses, studies and articles that support and build upon personal areas of interest. The course is designed to challenge students to think about an area of interest and begin develop a comprehensive research topic aligned with their professional goals. Students expand on the research topic, identify appropriate theories, methodologies and consider research design. At the end of eight weeks, students will frame the beginning of a doctoral research dissertation.

    3 Credits
    Required Books

    This course examines the organizational structure of healthcare systems. It assists the student in evaluating resources and competition. Students learn to create strategic initiatives and add value to an organization. This is grounded in theories that drive health care organizations in the 21st century. Leaders of health care organizations should be able to conceptualize, initiate, and support organizational change that meets the needs of the business, patient, and employees. The National Association guides leaders in these endeavors for Healthcare Quality (NAHQ) Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice.

    3 Credits
    Required Books

    This course reviews the legal impact on a local, state, and federal level for health care organizations. Students evaluate laws, regulations, and mandates as well as implement effective processes to assure compliance and reporting to a variety of agencies. Students learn what constitutes the elements of negligence, malpractice, and intentional criminal acts. They learn how to establish processes for end-of-life issues, informed consent, and root cause analysis for sentinel events. Leaders of health care organizations should understand how personal feelings influence morality and ethics to be able to avoid discriminatory actions toward employees, establish a collaborative relationship with organized labor, and create fair and fiscally responsible contracts with managed care organizations. The National Association guides leaders in these endeavors for Healthcare Quality (NAHQ) Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice.

    3 Credits
    Required Books

    Nursing Accreditation and Advocacy in the Profession delves into the rationale, processes, and importance of programmatic accreditation for nursing and nursing programs. Programmatic accreditation is the industry standard for the nursing profession. Understanding the factors, processes, and options for programmatic accreditation guides the nursing professions decisions. The programmatic accreditation process also becomes a critical aspect of nursing leadership and nursing leadership decisions. This course investigates the programmatic accreditation options, selecting an appropriate accrediting body, discuss the accrediting process, and review the future of programmatic accreditation to nursing.

    3 Credits
    Required Books

    This course provides the student with the information and skills to review, understand, and implement basic principles in healthcare finance. The student discerns the unique aspects of finance in healthcare organization for the management of patient care decisions. Accounting principles, government oversight and healthcare financial management concepts provide the student with the skills necessary to make informed leadership decisions. This course assists the student in making sound leadership decisions using financial management as a foundation.

    3 Credits
    Required Books

    This course is about authentic leadership and how leaders drive innovation in organizations. It assists future leaders in developing the unique skill set required in the health care environment that exists today. Creativity can be developed for use in both the organization and classroom. Authentic leadership, properly developed, can be intuitive and support innovative environments. This course also explores technological advances and prepares leaders for the next phases of the digital revolution. Leaders must embrace evidence-based practice and understand how to explore innovation in complex systems with theories such as Complex Adaptive System Theory. Leaders need to be able to enact cost saving measures such as Six Sigma and Lean Enterprise Theory. Leaders are accountable to the Code of Ethics of the American College of Healthcare Executives and these are explored as well.

    3 Credits
    Required Books

    This course is designed to provide students with additional research tools used to solve everyday problems through a process of inquiry and developing solutions to significant problems in the workplace. This useful strategy can provide the leader a design for decision-making based on data and supportive research.  This course satisfies the Proctored Exam requirement for this program.

    3 Credits
    Required Books