This course is suitable for nurses and allied healthcare professionals currently employed in clinical practice, in any healthcare discipline. Applicants are expected to be working in an advanced clinical practice role before commencing this postgraduate course.
The course is relevant for qualified healthcare practitioners in the community or acute care setting including emergency care, critical care, chronic disease management and other specialist areas.
Please note that there are a limited number of spaces available on each optional module. You will have the opportunity to discuss your choices with your personal tutor.
This programme is intended for experienced healthcare clinical practitioners who are seeking to advance their practice, enhance their knowledge of research and evidence-based healthcare, and develop their roles.
A typical academic year for students of this course might have approximately 150 hours (25% of total hours) in a combination of lectures, seminars, tutorials, project supervision and workshops, and approximately 450 hours (75% of total hours) of independent study such as preparing for scheduled sessions, follow-up work, wider reading, and completion of assessment task or revision. This will vary according to the optional modules chosen. Students are expected to undertake on average 14.5 hours of self-study per week.
Contact time is based on 24 academic weeks, whereas self-study time is based on 31 academic weeks.
Typically, one credit equates to 10 hours of work.
Students are assessed through a combination of coursework and examinations with emphasis on clinical competency assessment in advanced clinical practice. This can include written assignments such as essays, portfolios and dissertations. In addition, some modules will require students to undertake a presentation as part of the module assessment. A small number of modules are assessed by an exam such as OSCEs (objective structured clinical examination) or a computer based assessment.
All students will also have to complete a clinical competency assessment document based on the NHS England 2017 ACP Multi-Professional Framework. The study time and assessment methods detailed above are typical and give you a good indication of what to expect. However, they may change if the course modules change.