University of Notre Dame Australia

Master of Nursing (Executive Leadership) Online

  • Delivery: Online
  • Study Level: Postgraduate
  • Duration: 18 months
  • Course Type: Master's

Develop advanced leadership and management capabilities through specialist study and an independent research project, preparing for senior nursing leadership roles across contemporary healthcare settings.

Course overview

The Master of Nursing (Executive Leadership) from The University of Notre Dame Australia is designed for registered nurses who have completed a Graduate Certificate in Nursing Leadership and Management and wish to extend their leadership expertise through advanced study and research. Delivered online over 1.5 years full-time or equivalent part-time, the program enables nurses to further develop the knowledge and capabilities required for senior leadership and management roles in healthcare. 

Throughout the program, you will strengthen your knowledge of leadership development, healthcare management, patient care quality, evidence-based practice and professional decision-making while undertaking approved postgraduate electives aligned with your professional interests. Supported by a research supervisor, you will develop and complete an independent research project relevant to your area of nursing practice. 

The program combines advanced coursework with supervised research, allowing you to tailor your studies through approved elective courses while developing the research capabilities to support evidence-informed leadership and management in contemporary healthcare settings. 

Key facts

Delivery
Online
Course Type
Master's
Duration
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Can be studied part time
18 months (Full time)
Price Per Unit
From $3,225
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The estimated fee is determined by individual units of study and the year the course was commenced.
Intake
8th February, 2027
12th July, 2027
Units
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You may be required to complete 0 credit point units throughout your course. The university will confirm this as part of your enrolment.

The unit total reflects the number of units required for course completion, not the total credit point weight. Some units may be double- or triple-weighted, so the number of units you complete may be lower.
12
Fees
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FEE-HELP loans are available to assist eligible full-fee paying domestic students with the cost of a university course.
FEE-HELP

What you will study

To earn the Master of Nursing (Executive Leadership), you must successfully complete units totalling 300 credit points, as detailed below. Unless otherwise noted, each course is worth 25 credit points. 

Core units
  • Leadership Development Strategies in Health
  • Patient Care, Quality and Best Practice
  • Management
  • Evidence-Based Practice
  • Ethical Issues in Professional Life
  • Project Proposal Development (50 credit points)
  • Supervised Dissertation in Nursing (50 credit points)
Elective units

Recognition of Prior Learning

You may be eligible for recognition of prior learning if you have previously studied or have relevant work experience. This will help reduce the number of units you need to study to finish your course. Contact the university for more information.

Entry requirements

The program is open to you if you are a registered nurse who has a previous degree in nursing or equivalent and has a minimum of one year of relevant post-registration nursing experience.

Outcomes

Career outcomes

With a Master of Nursing (Executive Leadership), you can pursue careers as 

  • Nurse unit manager
  • Nurse practitioner
  • Nurse educator
  • Forensic nurse
  • Acute care nurse
  • Clinical nurse.

Learning outcomes

Upon successful completion of the Master of Nursing (Executive Leadership), graduates will be able to:

  • Analyse and interpret nursing scenarios to provide evidence-based quality practice.
  • Use reflective practice techniques in a range of learning activities to promote professional practice.
  • Apply leadership and collaborative skills within an interprofessional healthcare environment.
  • Apply concepts of global, medico-legal, social and cultural diversity.
  • Identify the distinguishing characteristics of nursing research in terms of purposes, underlying assumptions and available methodologies.
  • Explore the principal paradigms employed in health and nursing research and differentiate between them in terms of their epistemological bases and their respective strengths and limitations in addressing different types of research.
  • Formulate questions amenable to research and align those questions to appropriate research designs, data collection procedures, techniques and data analysis.
  • Critique examples of research studies and models, identifying strengths and limitations of design that might threaten the internal validity and generalisability (external validity) of the findings.
  • Identify the important ethical or other issues when conducting nursing research and apply value appropriate safeguards to the interests of all stake-holders involved a research project.
  • Apply advanced technical skills and reflective practice within the domain of nursing research.

Fees and FEE-HELP

Indicative annual fee in 2026: $38,700 (Full-fee paying place)

Indicative annual fees are based on your first year of study.

A student’s annual fee may vary by:

  • The number of units studied.
  • Choice of units.
  • Credit from previous study or work experience.
  • Eligibility for government-funded loans.

Student fees shown are subject to change. Contact the university directly to confirm.

FEE-HELP loans are available to assist eligible full-fee paying domestic students with the cost of a university program.