MSc Advanced Clinical Practice | Part-time

Within this module the content covered will be:

• The role of the ACP within healthcare
• Underpinning legislation, political drivers and healthcare agenda
• Ethical and legal principles relating to the role
• The development of the autonomous practitioner
• Scope of practice and limitations
• Managing complexity, risk and uncertainty within practice

Module content will include:

• History taking and holistic assessment of physical and mental health,
• Advanced communication skills,
• Pathophysiology,
• Physical examination,
• Interpretation of routine diagnostic investigations
• Clinical decision making incorporating therapeutic interventions.
• Safe, high quality and evidence based patient-centred care
• Typical and complex patient presentations
• Clinical judgement, risk and referrals
• Differential diagnosis 
• Therapeutic and person-centred approaches

Within this module you will cover:

• Qualitative and quantitative methodologies
• Critical appraisal of literature and searching the evidence
• sources of evidence including technological sources (i.e. social media) 
• Interpretation of the data 
• Good practice research - ethics and governance
• Research dissemination
• Research in practice
• Identifying gaps in practice evidence
• outcomes of research for organisational and healthcare change 

Within this module, you will cover:

• Multiprofessional teamworking and leadership perspectives
• Role modelling within your organisation
• Evaluating own and others' practice and responding to feedback
• Organisational cultures around risk, patient safety and escalating concerns within a healthcare organisation
• Techniques to evaluate the quality and effectiveness of service delivery and the response to feedback
• Approaches to service improvement, innovation and change within the health sector
• Consultancy and sharing best practice as a leader to enhance quality of clinical practice
• Sustainability and projections for future development in healthcare
• National and local policy and political drivers affecting the health sector

Within this module the student will be developing knowledge relating to the theories of learning and education as applied to clinical practice.  The module takes a pyramid approach to teaching and learning starting with the self, then moving onto individual support for others, team learning approaches and culminating in organisational culture.  The perspectives that will be considered will be both macro and micro; from the approaches taken across the organisation to embed educational models and processes, to the supervision and educational support of the individual including the recognition of learning needs, and the process of feedback and peer-review. This is further underpinned by critical reflection of the students learning and development and how this is applied to the students areas of practice. 

The module is run for 15 weeks and consists of 12 x 3 hour weekly face to face sessions with lectures, seminars, group discussion, directed and independent learning. An assessment is submitted in week 15 of the module. 

This module aligns to the following Multiprofessional Framework Capabilities for Advanced Clinical Practice (NHS, 2017):

2.4; 3.1; 3.2; 3.4; 3.5; 3.6; 3.7, 3.8

This module encompasses elements of all four of the pillars in advanced clinical practice including the following:

1. Research: Critical Appraisal - Synthesis - Evidence Base - Dissemination
2. Leadership: Service-redesign
3. Education: Organisational culture of learning
4. Clinical: Scope of practice

Within this module the student is supported to consider the following:

• Consideration of an identified area of change within own scope of practice
• How to conduct a robust and methodological systematic review of the literature
• Analysis of the evidence and the development of critical discussion
• Appropriate recommendations that can be drawn from the data analysis
• Disseminations methods and options

The module is delivered through tutorial support as the student is guided and supported throughout their advanced clinical practice journey on the programme and in particular within the immediately preceding core module (7009NAPPG Advanced Practice Inquiry) to progress towards this achievement of assessment opportunity. The module consists of two assessments:

1. Open book examination 
2. Presentation of practice (consisting of two elements; Oral presentation assessment and submission of a clinical practice change report)

Within this module the student will be supported to consider the following in relation to their own area of specialist practice:

• Enhancing clinical practice within their own sphere of influence
• Enhancing and driving quality
• promoting and sharing best practice 
• Developing practice within the context of health needs of the population
• Effective communication and working in partnership

Within this module you will cover the following:

• Emergency care - context and setting
• Trauma management - how this differs in in and out of hospital settings
• Policies and drivers for trauma response - reflections on national incidents - JESOP
• Contemporary management and innovation in emergency care
• Managing emergency presentations
• Systems based presentations including, bleeding, head injury, cardiovascular collapse, drowning and hypothermia, overdose and reduced consciousness
• Mental Health assessment
• Metabolic emergencies

This module will allow students to

• Explore the applied pathophysiology of commonly presenting mental health conditions, respiratory, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, renal and urological, neurological, haematological and immunological diseases.
• Understand how and genetic and environmental factors affect physiological mechanisms that lead to disease
• Develop understanding of how therapeutic interventions can change underlying pathophysiology and reduce the impact of disease 

The module will cover:

• Appropriate assessment of the presenting complaint
• Common and acute surgical presentations covering general surgery, cardiothoracic and vascular, colorectal, urological, gynaecology, ENT and plastic surgery
• Diagnostic investigations pertinent to acute medical presentations
• Analysis of policies and guidance relating to surgical preparation of the patient 
• Post-operative management and complications

The module will cover:

• Appropriate assessment of the patient with an acute medical presentation
• Common acute medical presentations
• Diagnostic investigations pertinent to acute medical presentations
• Developing clinical reasoning skills for defensible decision making in acute medicine
• Analysis of policies and guidance relating to acute medicine 

   

The module will cover:

• Key areas of public health focus as set out in the NHS Long Term Plan (2019); Prevention, Smoking, Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes, Diet and Alcohol, Antimicrobial Resistance and Vaccinations, Cancer, Mental Health, Air Pollution, Children and Maternity Care and Gambling.

• Approaches to health education, health promotion and public health

• Empowering people to manage their health

• Social marketing and communication.

• Political and ethical issues relating to health education, health promotion, and public health

• Barriers and challenges related to improving the health of the public

Module content will cover:

• An overview of urgent care services including general practice, 111, walk-in-centres and urgent care centres
• Prioritising healthcare need through advanced assessment and triage
• Recognising red flags in patient presentations across the lifespan 
• Common and rarer presentations in urgent care across the lifespan and the associated therapeutic interventions
• Clinical decision making in urgent care
• Scope of practice, professional boundaries and competence

Managing the deteriorating patient allows the learner to explore the complexity associated with recognising and responding to early signs of deterioration in patients across a range of settings. Based on national patient safety guidance it entails in-depth exploration of the factors that influence incidents relating to deterioration and the underlying causes for these. It also enables the student to develop knowledge in the early recognition of signs and symptoms that present during early deterioration across a range of systems including the deteriorating neurological, respiratory, renal and septic patients, and compensatory mechanisms, and considers patient examples and how to escalate and manage care within different settings. 

This module runs over 15 weeks including the assessment point and each session is 3 hours in length. 

This module aligns to following capabilities within the Multiprofessional Framework for Advanced Clinical Practitioners (HEE, 2017):

1.1; 1.6; 1.8; 2.8; 2.10; 4.4. 

This module will help you to develop your knowledge and skills so that you are able to provide high quality care that is based on sound clinical judgement and robust evidence. It will cover areas including:

• The evolution of cardiovascular care and the role of evidence
• Advanced anatomy and physiology of the heart and circulation
• Physical assessment of the cardiac patient
• Haemodynamic assessment and intervention
• Single and 12 lead ECG interpretation
• Introduction to biochemistry and haematology
• Cardiac pharmacology and patient concordance
• Care of the patient post cardiac intervention
• Managing patients with complex heart failure in the acute setting
• Advanced life support
• Promoting healthy behaviour change through cardiac rehabilitation and secondary prevention
• Supporting patients from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds to navigate the healthcare systems
• Caring for patients who are nearing the end of life and supporting grieving families

This module is suitable for students wishing to develop an understanding of common mental health conditions and psychosis as an acute presentation. 

This module will run for 15 weeks and will consist of 12 x 3 hour face to face 'lectures' with additional 'online' learning time allocated to the module delivery.

This module has been mapped to the following capabilities of the Multiprofessional Framework for Advanced Clinical Practice In England (HEE, 2017):

1.4; 1.5; 1.7; 

Aimed at healthcare professionals registered with the HCPC & NMC, this module enables you to prescribe, safely, appropriately and cost-effectively as independent and/or supplementary prescribers, in accordance with both legal and professional requirements.

The module will prepare you to:

• complete an assessment of a patient/client/service users whilst developing a management plan in relation to their diagnosis/differential diagnosis. 
• complete an episode of care through prescribing or deprescribing safety

All students who wish to undertake Independent & Supplementary Prescribing also known as V300 Non-Medical Prescribing will have to complete an additional 'North West Non-Medical Prescribing Application form' which will be approved by the prescribing programme team prior to commencement on the independent and supplementary prescribing programme.

This module will centre on the major physiological systems and build upon students’ prior knowledge and expertise. This will inform greater understanding of the causes and management of common childhood illnesses, and their diagnosis. Wider determinants of health and associated risk factors will be considered to inform decision making and ensure safe practice. Issues related to professional development and advancing clinical practice will be discussed.

This module will help you to develop a critical understanding of psychosocial suicide prevention approaches. You will be able to critically appraise and reflect on the application of these approaches in practice.