MSc Advanced Professional Practice (Clinical Practitioner)

Are you a registered health or social care professional looking to develop your clinical career? This clinically-focused specialist pathway has been designed to prepare and support nurses, midwives and allied health professionals to develop understanding of the underpinning principles of clinical assessment and examination to inform safe and effective clinical decision making. You will also gain the knowledge and skills required to work in any sector of the health service.

Key features

• Gain the knowledge and skills to work in any sector of the health service (e.g. pre-hospital, primary care and secondary care settings).
• Develop your skills and knowledge in relation to assessment, clinical reasoning and formulation of appropriate differential diagnosis, diagnostic decision making and initiation or delivery of appropriate, timely care evidence-based care.
• Embed independent and supplementary prescribing into your masters degree (subject to profession).  
• Undertake assessments linked to your own practice to ensure that your learning needs are met within your specific practice area.
• Opportunities to study in an inter-professional setting with inter-professional core and optional modules delivered by an academic team with extensive experience as well as a close relationship with clinicians contributing to teaching.
• Research informed teaching is embedded throughout the curriculum and you will be given the chance to design and undertake your own research to enhance and develop patient care and/or service provision.
• Be equipped to take on lead roles in management, clinical practice and/or education
• Part time programme offering flexible delivery and exit points to support a learner centred approach.
  
  

  Course details

  • Programme overview
  • Postgraduate certificate - to achieve a postgraduate certificate, you will need to earn 60 credits by undertaking two core and one pathway specific module. 
    
    Postgraduate diploma - to achieve a postgraduate diploma, you will need to earn 120 credits by undertaking up to six modules: two core, two pathway specific and up to two optional.
    
    Master of Science - for a full masters degree, you will need to earn a total of 180 credits. You will study the same core modules as the postgraduate diploma, with two further core modules in the final year.
    For further information on the modules that make up this programme please visit MSc Advanced Professional Practice modules for the School of Nursing and Midwifery page. 
    
    Please note: You will also need to complete two 0 credit rated modules over two years to gain this qualification – APP712 – Professional Practice 1 and APP713 – Professional Practice 2.
    

    Core modules

    • APP701Advancing Practice in Context
    • APP702Advancing Research Knowledge in Practice 1
    • APP710Advanced Assessment for Clinical Practice
    • APP712
      You must gain 40 credits from optional modules in Year 2 to gain a postgraduate diploma.
      Examples of the optional modules available
      HEA577 – Supplementary prescribing
      HEAD709 – Non-medical prescribing: Independent and supplementary prescribing for designated allied health professionals (physiotherapists and podiatrists)
      NMP702 - Non-medical prescribing: Independent and supplementary prescribing for nurses and midwives
      APP716 – Clinical skills in community and primary care
      APP717 – The fundamentals of health assessmentProfessional 

      Entry requirements

      You will normally have a first degree (BSc (Hons) at 2:2 or above or European first cycle equivalent plus a professional qualification in health or social care). You will be assessed individually for your ability to study at this level and therefore an interview may be necessary. 
      
      If you do not have a first degree at 2:2 or above (or the European first equivalent) but have appropriate practice-related experience relevant to the programme you may still be eligible to apply. In these cases, you would also be required to submit a short piece of writing as part of the admissions process.
      
      You will also need to be working in an environment that will enable you to meet the programme learning outcomes and have a clinical mentor in practice (e.g. a Doctor or Advanced Clinical/Nurse Practitioner with a masters degree) who has agreed to supervise your clinical learning.
      
      Applicants whose first language is not English must also provide evidence of competence in written and spoken English in accordance with the University’s Admissions Code of Practice - IELTS of 6.5 overall with a minimum of 5.5 in each category.
      
      AP(E)L:
      Claims for credit for prior learning, whether certificated or experiential are accepted and will be assessed following University regulations and faculty procedures.
      
      European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS):
      This programme is equivalent to 90 ECTS credits (second cycle) with 30 ECTS credits at postgraduate certificate, 60 credits at postgraduate diploma and 90 credits at masters degree. Each 20 credit module has the equivalent of 10 ECTS credits and assumes a notional student effort of between 200-300 hours. 
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