Course overview

Advanced clinical practice is a rapidly expanding role across all areas in healthcare. This multi-professional course is developed around a national framework and the four capabilities of advanced clinical practice – clinical, research, education and leadership.

This course is also available as a degree apprenticeship. This course enables you to develop your personal and professional autonomy, providing you with a comprehensive and critical understanding of professional practice, ensuring that you are fit for future challenges within health and social care.

The course is flexible for multi-professional individuals from all areas of advanced practice within acute and primary care sectors – you access the same core modules. The negotiated competencies within the first-year portfolio module allow you the flexibility to ensure maximum relevance and application to your clinical area. You have the opportunity to develop advanced and core transferable skills relevant to your area of practice – you develop your advanced clinical decision-making skills, using evidence-based approaches to care, lead innovation and practice, and develop high levels of autonomy. The course is developed in partnership with key stakeholders from practice and delivered by an experienced team with knowledge and academic credibility both within and outside of the University. This multi-professional team has a wealth of experience in developing and delivering modules of this nature for healthcare professions at all academic levels. You study this course on a part-time basis over three years. You are supported through your studies by an academic supervisor and you also need to identify a practice supervisor. To access the apprenticeship route you must be working in a healthcare setting with relevant registration and be sponsored by your organisation.

How you are assessed

Modules within this course have summative assessments to assess the module learning outcomes. The modules use a variety of assessment methods to help develop advanced knowledge and skills for clinical practice. You are assessed on the four pillars of advanced practice throughout the course. Assessment methods include a written assignment, work-based learning through advanced clinical practitioner competencies, consultation clinics, reflective accounts, portfolio development, critical appraisal and evaluation of the evidence base, modified objective structured clinical examination record, viva (oral exam), patient case studies to develop and exhibit high levels of clinical reasoning and practical exams to demonstrate advanced decision-making skills.

Summative assessment within the core modules require you to critically evaluate key areas in relation to your area of work. Group discussions and student-led seminars enable both peer and tutor feedback in relation to learning.