Healthcare Leadership and Resilience Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Hospital Operations Managers, Clinical Service Managers and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 7 Nov 2026 Course code SD-HSM-033

Before you join: Participants should have experience supervising services, teams, programmes or operational projects in healthcare, public health, social care or a related support function.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Health-system leaders must maintain safe, equitable care when demand surges, staffing falls, supplies are constrained or critical services are disrupted. The challenge is not only managing an incident. It is making timely decisions with incomplete information, protecting staff capacity, coordinating partners and restoring services without creating avoidable patient harm or an unmanaged backlog.

This course develops practical leadership methods for resilient health-system operations. Participants assess service dependencies using the WHO Health System Building Blocks, distinguish routine pressure from incidents requiring formal command, establish decision rights, build a common operating picture and lead clear escalation. They apply HICS structures, PDSA improvement cycles, workforce risk controls, scenario planning and After Action Reviews to strengthen preparedness, response, recovery and organisational learning.

Teaching combines short instructor briefings with health-service cases, facilitated group analysis, incident simulations and structured application planning. Cases reflect realistic challenges such as emergency department crowding, medicine shortages, cyber-related service interruptions, infectious-disease surges and workforce redeployment. Participants leave with a 90-day resilience action plan, supported by practical templates for incident leadership, communications, workforce readiness and recovery monitoring. The five-day programme provides approximately 32.5 contact hours, delivered in a classroom in 50+ cities or live online. Participants receive a certificate of completion.

The course is suited to clinical, operational and corporate-service leaders responsible for service continuity, patient safety, workforce capacity or emergency preparedness. It is especially relevant for managers moving from departmental oversight into cross-functional leadership during periods of uncertainty and disruption.

What you will be able to do

  • Assess service dependencies and resilience gaps using the WHO Health System Building Blocks
  • Apply adaptive leadership and Cynefin principles to uncertain operational decisions
  • Create a common operating picture using demand, capacity, safety and resource indicators
  • Establish incident command roles, escalation thresholds and operational-period objectives using HICS
  • Design workforce resilience controls for fatigue, redeployment, skills coverage and staff wellbeing
  • Test service improvements using PDSA cycles, driver diagrams and balance measures
  • Develop stakeholder communication plans using message maps, SBAR and risk communication principles
  • Produce a 90-day resilience action plan with measures, owners and review cadences

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Greater confidence leading teams through service disruption and uncertain decisions
  • A practical method for escalating risks before patient-safety impacts increase
  • Stronger ability to connect workforce wellbeing with service continuity
  • Clearer communication with executives, clinical teams, partners and affected communities
  • A documented 90-day plan for improving resilience within the participant's service

For your organisation

  • Earlier identification of demand, staffing, supply and patient-flow risks
  • More consistent incident roles, escalation decisions and recovery arrangements
  • Reduced dependence on informal knowledge held by individual managers
  • Better workforce protection through fatigue controls, cross-training and support pathways
  • Stronger organisational learning from incidents, near misses and service disruptions

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can assess how service dependencies affect resilience, continuity and patient safety.

  • WHO health system building blocks used to map service dependencies
  • Resilience capacities: absorptive, adaptive and transformative responses to shocks
  • Distinguishing operational pressure, incident escalation, crisis and prolonged disruption
  • Service criticality criteria: harm, time sensitivity, volume and substitute capacity
  • Map patient pathways, referral links, workforce and supply dependencies
  • Equity impact screening for disruptions affecting vulnerable patient groups

Participants can select leadership approaches and decision structures suited to uncertain health-service conditions.

  • Adaptive leadership distinguishes technical fixes from value-laden adaptive challenges
  • Cynefin domains guide leadership responses under varying levels of uncertainty
  • Set decision rights using RACI for incidents and recovery work
  • Psychological safety practices surface concerns, dissent and near-miss information
  • Leader intent statements align autonomy with patient safety boundaries
  • Escalation thresholds trigger timely executive, clinical and partner involvement

Participants can build and use a common operating picture to guide timely operational decisions.

  • Common operating picture combines demand, capacity, harm and resource indicators
  • Safety huddles structure rapid updates, decisions, owners and deadlines
  • SBAR formats concise escalation between clinical, operational and executive teams
  • Leading indicators identify deteriorating flow before missed-care events occur
  • Run charts separate common-cause variation from special-cause service signals
  • Information verification counters rumours, duplicate reports and outdated assumptions

Participants can plan workforce capacity actions that protect staff wellbeing and safe care delivery.

  • Demand-capacity matching identifies staffing gaps by acuity, skill and shift
  • Skills matrices reveal single points of failure and cross-training priorities
  • Fatigue risk controls address hours, breaks, rotations and redeployment
  • Just Culture separates human error, at-risk behaviour and reckless conduct
  • Structured check-ins identify moral distress, burnout and support requirements
  • Delegation agreements clarify competence, supervision, accountability and escalation routes

Participants can organise incident command, set operational priorities and manage recovery transitions.

  • HICS roles organise command, operations, planning, logistics and finance functions
  • Incident objectives specify patient safety, service continuity and recovery priorities
  • Operational periods establish briefing cycles, action plans and resource requests
  • Trigger-based escalation links thresholds to authority, actions and communications
  • Resource allocation uses triage principles, ethical criteria and documented rationale
  • Recovery transition criteria prevent premature stand-down and unmanaged backlog

Participants can test and monitor service changes without compromising critical safety controls.

  • PDSA cycles test service changes at small scale before spread
  • Driver diagrams connect improvement aims, change ideas and measurable outcomes
  • Process mapping exposes queues, handoffs, rework and unsafe workarounds
  • Failure modes and effects analysis prioritises preventable process risks
  • Balance measures detect unintended consequences for staff, patients and equity
  • Standard work protects critical controls during rapid operational change

Participants can communicate credible updates and coordinate effectively with internal and external stakeholders.

  • Stakeholder mapping identifies influence, impact, information needs and trust risks
  • Message maps align facts, uncertainty, actions and audience concerns
  • Risk communication principles explain changing guidance without false reassurance
  • Partner coordination agreements define mutual aid, referrals and supply escalation
  • Briefing scripts prepare managers for staff, patient and media questions
  • Feedback loops capture frontline intelligence and close communication gaps

Participants can prepare resource options for supply disruption and demand-driven capacity surges.

  • Scenario planning tests workforce, bed, medicine and supplier disruption assumptions
  • Contingency stock policies balance expiry, storage costs and critical availability
  • Supplier risk segmentation ranks criticality, substitutability, lead time and concentration
  • Mutual-aid arrangements specify activation criteria, liabilities and replenishment responsibilities
  • Surge capacity plans quantify space, staff, supplies and supporting services
  • Costed options support transparent trade-offs during constrained resource allocation

Participants can convert incident evidence into accountable improvement actions and governance reporting.

  • After Action Review questions examine expectations, events, causes and improvements
  • Learning reviews distinguish accountability actions from system improvement opportunities
  • Five Whys exposes contributory conditions without stopping at individual error
  • Corrective action registers assign owners, due dates, evidence and assurance checks
  • Governance dashboards track recommendation completion, recurrence and residual risk
  • Share learning through safety briefs, protocols and leadership review cycles

Participants can translate course methods into a measurable resilience improvement plan for their service.

  • 90-day resilience plan prioritises actions, owners, milestones and measures
  • Readiness assessments score current capability against defined resilience criteria
  • Implementation roadmaps sequence quick wins, dependencies, approvals and resource needs
  • Benefits realisation logic links interventions to safety, flow and workforce outcomes
  • Review cadences maintain ownership through executive checkpoints and team huddles
  • Personal leadership commitments translate course decisions into workplace actions

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Health-system resilience assessment template
  2. Common operating picture dashboard model
  3. HICS incident action plan template
  4. Workforce readiness and fatigue-risk checklist
  5. Stakeholder communication message-map template
  6. 90-day resilience implementation plan

Who should attend

  • Hospital Operations Managers — responsible for maintaining patient flow, capacity and service continuity
  • Clinical Service Managers — leading safe care delivery during staffing, demand or supply pressures
  • Healthcare Executives — accountable for strategic decisions, governance and recovery priorities
  • Emergency Preparedness Managers — coordinating plans, command arrangements and incident readiness
  • Nursing and Allied Health Leaders — managing workforce deployment, staff wellbeing and care standards
  • Public Health Programme Managers — coordinating partners and protecting essential population services

Skills and tools covered

Adaptive health leadershipIncident command managementWorkforce resilience planningService continuity planningQuality improvement methodsCrisis communication

Tools and standards

WHO Health System Building Blocks, Hospital Incident Command System (HICS), SBAR communication framework, Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycle

How the course runs

Training methodology

The programme uses short instructor briefings to introduce frameworks, followed by health-service cases, facilitated group work and decision simulations. Participants interpret operational data, set escalation thresholds, assign incident roles, assess workforce risks and develop response communications. Simulations test leadership judgement during realistic disruption scenarios, including demand surges and supply constraints. Facilitated reflection connects each method to participants' own services. The course closes with structured application planning, allowing each participant to prepare a practical resilience improvement plan.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have experience supervising services, teams, programmes or operational projects in healthcare, public health, social care or a related support function. Familiarity with local escalation procedures, patient-safety reporting or service-performance measures is useful, but not essential. The course assumes participants can interpret basic operational information such as staffing levels, demand figures and incident reports. Formal emergency-management certification, clinical registration, prior HICS training, statistical expertise and previous crisis-command experience are not required.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

Participants should have experience managing a healthcare, public-health, social-care or support-service function. Prior incident-command training is useful but not required, and the course does not require clinical registration.

Participants should bring a current operational challenge, such as staffing pressure, delayed patient flow, service backlog or supply risk. Where permitted, they may also bring non-confidential performance measures, continuity plans or incident-review findings.

The course suits managers who lead services, teams, programmes or corporate functions affecting care delivery. It is relevant to hospital, public-health, social-care and health-system leaders with responsibility for continuity, safety or workforce capacity.

Emergency-management courses commonly focus on formal response procedures, while quality-improvement courses concentrate on planned service change. This course connects incident leadership, workforce resilience, operational decision-making, recovery and learning after disruption.

Participants can use the templates to clarify escalation thresholds, improve safety huddles, map critical dependencies and review workforce readiness. The 90-day plan gives each participant a defined starting point for discussions with their manager and team.

The programme provides approximately 32.5 contact hours, normally delivered from 08:30 to 16:30 each day. Time is divided between instructor input, case analysis, group exercises, simulations, reflection and application planning.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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