Programme Specification for the 2023/4 academic year
MSc Advanced Clinical Practice (P/T 3 year)
1. Programme Details
Programme name | MSc Advanced Clinical Practice (P/T 3 year) | Programme code | PTS3EMSEMS07 |
---|---|---|---|
Study mode(s) | Part Time |
Academic year | 2023/4 |
Campus(es) | St Luke's (Exeter) |
NQF Level of the Final Award | 7 (Masters) |
2. Description of the Programme
The Advanced Clinical Practice programme will enable you to develop the skills and expertise required to respond to the challenges facing our modern-day health service. It will provide you with theoretical concepts and practical skills and afford you the opportunity to develop your existing professional roles, while gaining an appreciation of the core requirements of advanced clinical practice.
‘To apply for the MSc Advanced Clinical Practice programme you must have a current UK health professional registration with a regulatory body (e.g. Nursing & Midwifery Council (NMC) or Health and Care Professional Council (HCPC)). You need to have a current job contract in a clinical area in a trainee/advanced clinical practice role or a role that provides the opportunity to develop advanced clinical practice skills, knowledge and behaviours and evidence of employer support to undertake the programme, inclusive of a mentor with ‘occupational competence’ and the availability of appropriate clinical supervision.’
In July 2017, Health Education England (HEE), in partnership with NHS Improvement and NHS England, launched a national framework that set out a vision for the further development of Advanced Clinical Practitioners (ACPs). The Multi-professional Framework for Advanced Clinical Practice in England included a national definition and provided standards for the multi-professional advanced level of practice. This enabled a clear understanding of what constitutes advanced practice and provided principles and guidance for Nurses, Midwives and Allied Health Professionals that is applicable to all healthcare settings. These guidelines consisted of the four pillars of advanced practice:
- Clinical Practice
- Leadership and Management
- Education
- Research
Alongside these four pillars, the framework provides a standardised definition of advance clinical practice:
Advanced clinical practice is delivered by experienced, registered health and care practitioners. It is a level of practice characterised by a high degree of autonomy and complex decision making. This is underpinned by a master’s level award or equivalent that encompasses the four pillars of clinical practice, leadership and management, education and research with demonstration of core capabilities and area specific clinical competence.
Advanced clinical practice embodies the ability to manage clinical care in partnership with individuals, families and carers. It includes the analysis and synthesis of complex problems across a range of settings, enabling innovative solutions to enhance people’s experiences and improve outcomes. (Health Education England 2017, p.8)
In conjunction with the advanced practice framework, momentum for the advanced practice agenda has continued with the publication of multiple high-level strategic documents including the new GP contract and most notably the NHS Long Term Plan (https://www.longtermplan.nhs.uk/). This document outlines how, with support from Health Education England, there will be strong focus on staff development in order to improve retention. In addition, there is recognition that appropriately trained staff are able to effectively and safely expand their scope of practice in order to create a more adaptable workforce in order to meet the needs of patients.
The MSc Advanced Clinical Practice at the University of Exeter will offer you the opportunity to undertake modules which will not only support each of the four domains of advanced practice, but will allow for the exploration and development of a specialism relative to your own profession. With our wide range of postgraduate module offerings, study at the University of Exeter will enable you to link theory to practice, providing you with the knowledge, understanding and experience to develop as an autonomous and reflective practitioner.
Within our MSc programme, you will be encouraged to apply your learning to practical situations and will be able to study issues of personal interest or areas related to your future career goals. Our ethos of small group, evidence-based learning, augmented with engaging and practical online resources enables significant contact with academic staff whilst concurrently supporting independent flexible study.
MSc Advanced Practice variant
If you are an international student and do not have concurrent clinical practice, or if you are a student who wishes to study on a full time basis, we can offer MSc Advanced Practice. This programme variant shares some of the compulsory modules with the MSc Advanced Clinical Practice and in addition gives you access to the same range of optional modules. The MSc Advanced Practice will allow you to develop the theoretical underpinning of the domains of advanced practice and provide you with the opportunity to learn in a multidisciplinary environment.
1. Health Education England (2017). Multi-Professional Framework for Advanced Clinical Practice in
England. ACP Framework
2. NHS.UK (2019) NHS Long Term Plan (https://www.longtermplan.nhs.uk/)
3. Educational Aims of the Programme
The aims of the programme are:
- To develop your clinical practice, enabling you to work autonomously and flexibly in order to make complex decisions about how people should be cared for and treated.
- To ensure that you understand the professional, legal and ethical issues within which you work as clinical professionals undertaking advanced practice.
- To promote multidisciplinary practice by involving clinicians and practitioners from a variety of disciplines to understand the wider clinical context of health care service needs.
- To provide you with a sound educational grounding that will encourage critical analysis of literature, documents and policies associated with advanced practice.
To prepare you to undertake research, audit and evaluative activities that develop your personal knowledge and expertise and can be disseminated in a community of practice, improving evidence-based patient care across systems.
The programme will use a range of teaching methods including lectures from clinical specialists and academics across a range of professional backgrounds teaching in their areas of research and expertise. Problem-based learning groups where you can explore cases, develop peer support networks and share clinical experiences will support the plenary lectures. Blended learning will be used to support the face-to-face education and a range of online resources will be shared with you to support your learning.
The programme aims to provide you with a strong academic underpinning regarding the role of the Advanced Clinical Practitioner in addition to ensuring students are able to explore opportunities to expand their scope of practice in response to clinical need.
4. Programme Structure
The MSc Advanced Clinical Practice can be taken as a 24-month or 36-month part time programme of study. It is delivered at National Qualification Framework (NQF) level 7 (as confirmed against the FHEQ). The programme is also divided into units of study called ‘modules’ which are assigned a number of ‘credits’. The credit rating of a module is proportional to the total workload, with 1 credit being nominally equivalent to 10 hours of work.
The MSc requires 180 credits, of which 150 are taught modules and 30 is an Advanced Clinical Practice Improvement Project module.
The Postgraduate Certificate (PGCert) consists of 60 credits of taught modules.
The Postgraduate Diploma (PGDip) consists of 120 credits of taught modules.
These awards are offered in the following configurations and may be structured as follows:
- PGCert Advanced Practice, 1 year part-time – 1 x 30 credit compulsory taught module plus 30 credits of optional modules
- PGDip Advanced Clinical Practice, 2 years part-time – 2 x 30 credit compulsory taught modules plus 60 credits of optional modules
- MSc Advanced Clinical Practice, 2 years part-time: you would typically take no more than 90 credits per year. There are 3 x 30 credit compulsory modules to be taken between Years 1 and 2.
- MSc Advanced Clinical Practice, 3 years part-time: you would typically take no more than 60 credits per year. There are 3 x 30 credit compulsory modules to be taken between Years 1 to 3.
MSc Advanced Practice (full-time variant):
- MSc Advanced Practice, 1 year full-time: 2 x 30 credit compulsory modules plus 120 credits of optional modules.
Note: All programmes address the same set of ILOs. However, PGDip and MSc are able to address ILOs in greater depth. Some of the assessment methods mapped to ILOs are module specific.
5. Programme Modules
Our PGT programmes are designed as standalone courses but the College also aims to provide flexibility where possible. We recognise that you may sometimes wish to take a module from elsewhere in the College, or the wider University, to fit in with their specific research or professional interests. A taught Masters degree is made up of 180 credits, usually 120 credits of taught modules and 60 credits of dissertation. Normally at least 90 credits of taught modules (but an absolute minimum of 60 credits), plus the dissertation, will need be taken from within the named award in order to graduate with that award. That means that 30 credits could be made up from one or more appropriate modules from another Masters level programme(s) in place of your scheduled ones, depending on the module prerequisites, the contact days of the modules, and your funding source. There may be an additional fee associated with certain postgraduate modules. It is also important to note that the timing of your new module’s contact days and assessments might conflict with your existing programme of studies. If after considering these factors you would like to explore this option further, please discuss this with the MSc’s Programme Director. The CMH PGT Support team can then advise about the application process, which would then go for approval from the Programme Director of your current programme and the Module Lead and Programme Director of the programme(s) in which your new module(s) sits
Stage 1
The following tables describe the PGCert/PGDip/MSc programmes and constituent modules. Constituent modules may be updated, deleted or replaced as a consequence of the annual programme review of this programme. Details of the modules currently offered may be obtained from the College web site:
You may take Optional Modules (dependent on there being capacity within that module) as long as any prerequisites have been satisfied, where the timetable allows and if you have not already taken the module in question or an equivalent module.
Please note that all optional modules are non-condonable when taken as part of the MSc Advanced Clinical Practice 2-year and 3-year part-time programmes. This ensures that the MSc Advanced Clinical Practice Programme can meet Health Education England (HEE) accreditation requirements (the Programme Team are currently pursuing HEE accreditation; the programme is not currently accredited).
The PGCert Advanced Practice and the PGDip Advanced Clinical Practice and the full time MSc Advanced Practice are not suitable for accreditation by HEE.
Please note, if you wish to progress through PGCert and PGDip programmes onto the MSc Advanced Clinical Practice (2-year or 3-year part-time) programme, condoned optional modules will not be permitted.
Descriptions of the individual modules are given in full on the College web site:
You may take Optional Modules (dependent on there being capacity within that module) as long as any prerequisites have been satisfied, where the timetable allows and if you have not already taken the module in question or an equivalent module.
Please note that all optional modules are non-condonable when taken as part of the MSc Advanced Clinical Practice 2-year and 3-year part-time programmes. This ensures that the MSc Advanced Clinical Practice Programme can meet Health Education England (HEE) accreditation requirements (the Programme Team are currently pursuing HEE accreditation; the programme is not currently accredited).
The PGCert Advanced Practice and the PGDip Advanced Clinical Practice and the full time MSc Advanced Practice are not suitable for accreditation by HEE.
Please note, if you wish to progress through PGCert and PGDip programmes onto the MSc Advanced Clinical Practice (2-year or 3-year part-time) programme, condoned optional modules will not be permitted.
https://medicine.exeter.ac.uk/study/pgtmodules
Compulsory Modules
Code | Module | Credits | Non-condonable? |
---|---|---|---|
HPDM128 | Principles of Advanced Clinical Practice | 30 | Yes |
HPDM133 | Advanced Clinical Assessment and Decision-Making Skills | 30 | Yes |
HPDM152 | Advanced Clinical Practice Improvement Project | 30 | Yes |
Optional Modules
Code | Module | Credits | Non-condonable? |
---|---|---|---|
HLS MSc ACP-AP optional modules 23.24 | |||
Optional modules:You should ensure that they choose at least one module from each of the four advanced practice domains with an opportunity to take at least one clinical module where appropriate with regards to the learning and assessment requirements. (a) - These modules align to the some of the clinical elements of advanced clinical practice. They may require evidence of concurrent clinical practice as a condition of enrolment HPDM153(a) - HPDM156(a) - HPDM157(a) - HPDM065(a) - HPDM102(a) - HPDM112(a) - HPDM129(a)*HPDM147(a) - HPDM127(a) - HPDM111(a) - HPDM138(a) - HPDM118(a) - HPDM132(a) - HPDM130(a)*
(b) - The modules relate to the education domain of advanced clinical practice HPDM142(b) - HPDM110(b) - HPDM103(b)** - HPDM105(b)**
(c) - The modules relate to the leadership domain of advanced clinical practice HPDM059(c) - HPDM080(c) - HPDM081(c)
(d) - The modules relate to the research domain of advanced clinical practice HPDM092(d) - HPDM055(d) - HPDM054Z(d) - HPDM136(d)HPDM163***Additional notes:* These modules do not run every year and availability would need to be checked with the programme team |
|||
HPDM153 | Minor Illness: Managing Common and Not-So-Common Conditions | 15 | Yes |
HPDM156 | Long-term Condition Care (Respiratory, Endocrine and Renal) | 15 | Yes |
HPDM157 | Long-term Condition Care (Cardiovascular) | 15 | Yes |
HPDM065 | Care of the Older Adult | 15 | Yes |
HPDM102 | Human Factors - Situational Awareness | 15 | Yes |
HPDM147 | Practice Certificate in Independent and Supplementary Prescribing | 45 | Yes |
HPDM127 | Principles of Primary Care | 15 | Yes |
HPDM111 | Health Challenges in Sport and Exercise Medicine | 15 | Yes |
HPDM112 | Orthopaedic Challenges in Sport and Exercise Medicine | 15 | Yes |
HPDM138 | MRI: Integrated Theory and Practice | 30 | Yes |
HPDM118 | Structuring and Solving Public Health Problems | 15 | Yes |
HPDM129 | Axial Skeletal Reporting | 30 | Yes |
HPDM130 | Appendicular Skeletal Reporting | 30 | Yes |
HPDM105 | Education Essentials | 15 | Yes |
HPDM103 | Teaching Practitioner | 15 | Yes |
HPDM142 | Principles of Supervision, Mentoring and Coaching | 15 | Yes |
HPDM110 | Teaching in a Digital World | 15 | Yes |
HPDM059 | Leading Change in Health Services | 15 | Yes |
HPDM081 | Management in Healthcare | 15 | Yes |
HPDM080 | Leadership in Healthcare | 15 | Yes |
HPDM092 | Fundamentals of Research Design | 15 | Yes |
HPDM055 | Qualitative Methods and Process Evaluations | 15 | Yes |
HPDM054Z | Statistics as Applied To Health | 15 | Yes |
HPDM136 | Evidence to Decision: Health Technology Assessment, Health Policy and Resource Allocation | 15 | Yes |
HPDM132 | Advanced Skill Development | 45 | Yes |
HPDM163 | Advanced Clinical Reasoning in Primary Care | 30 | Yes |
6. Programme Outcomes Linked to Teaching, Learning and Assessment Methods
Intended Learning Outcomes
A: Specialised Subject Skills and Knowledge
Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs) On successfully completing this programme you will be able to: | Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs) will be... | |
---|---|---|
...accommodated and facilitated by the following learning and teaching activities (in/out of class): | ...and evidenced by the following assessment methods: | |
1. Make valid connections to local and national policies and procedures, codes of conduct as relevant to your own profession and the importance of working within boundaries of practice | The programme features a range of learning methods to facilitate knowledge and develop understanding. These include lectures, tutorials, workshops, seminars, and problem based learning, group tasks and laboratories/practical sessions as well as ELE based activities. Independent study also forms a large part of the teaching and learning methods. | The ILOs are assessed by the following individual methods or a combination of these:
Case studies OSCE's Oral and poster presentations Portfolio: relevant to professional competency/practice development Written coursework/essay |
Intended Learning Outcomes
B: Academic Discipline Core Skills and Knowledge
Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs) On successfully completing this programme you will be able to: | Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs) will be... | |
---|---|---|
...accommodated and facilitated by the following learning and teaching activities (in/out of class): | ...and evidenced by the following assessment methods: | |
5. Ability to synthesise information from a number of sources in order to gain a coherent understanding of theory and practice, to evaluate research and evidence critically | All ILOs are developed through lectures, tutorials, seminars, practical classes, e-learning based teaching, and supervised research project work, supported by directed research of texts and journals. Practical statistic workshops and use of STAT and SPSS. Independent study and practice also forms a major part of our teaching and learning methods. | The ILOs are assessed by the following individual methods or a combination of these:
Case studies OSCE's Oral and poster presentations Portfolio: relevant to professional competency/practice development Written coursework/essay |
Intended Learning Outcomes
C: Personal/Transferable/Employment Skills and Knowledge
Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs) On successfully completing this programme you will be able to: | Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs) will be... | |
---|---|---|
...accommodated and facilitated by the following learning and teaching activities (in/out of class): | ...and evidenced by the following assessment methods: | |
9. Identify, evaluate and maintain qualities to support effective communication in a range of complex and specialised contexts | Participation in seminars, group work, practical and problem based learning. Students will also develop their critical and analytical skills via lectures tutorials and collaborative learning.
Independent study and practice also forms a major part of our teaching and learning methods. | The ILOs are assessed by the following individual methods or a combination of these:
Case studies OSCE's Oral and poster presentations Portfolio: relevant to professional competency/practice development Written coursework/essay |
7. Programme Regulations
Full details of assessment regulations for all taught programmes can be found in the TQA Manual, specifically in the Credit and Qualifications Framework, and the Assessment, Progression and Awarding: Taught Programmes Handbook.
Additional information, including Generic Marking Criteria, can be found in the Learning and Teaching Support Handbook.
Classification
8. College Support for Students and Students' Learning
Academic tutoring: It is University policy that all Colleges should have in place a system of academic tutors. The role of academic tutors is to support you on individual modules; the role of personal tutors is to provide you with advice and support for the duration of the programme and extends to providing you with details of how to obtain support and guidance on personal difficulties such as accommodation, financial difficulties and sickness. You can also make an appointment to see individual teaching staff.
College entry –
You will be allocated a personal tutor who will remain with you throughout the programme, where possible. Personal tutors are able to provide guidance and feedback on assessment performance, guidance in generic academic skills and pastoral support. They are also able to refer you to more specialist support services, both within the College and elsewhere across the University.
In addition, you can expect reasonable access to all teaching staff through drop-in ‘office hours’ and specific appointments, and will in addition receive formative feedback from various discussion groups/in-lecture exercises throughout the delivery of each module and therefore receive essentially continuous feedback during the taught component of the programme. Your progress will be monitored, and you can receive up-to-date records of the assessment, achievements and progress at any stage.
All module-based learning resources and student handbooks are hosted by the Exeter Learning Environment (ELE), the University's on-line Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). ELE provides an online set of integrated tools to support e-Learning activities and enables students to access course materials and use tools such as Discussion Forums and Quizzes to interact online
There is also a Director of Postgraduate Studies who will monitor student absences and progress, and meet any students needing additional support. In addition, there is a Programme Director who will offer support and advice to all students on a programme.
In addition, you will be provided with
- Student handbook and module guides
- Access to Discipline Disability Officer
Student/Staff Liaison Committee enables students & staff to jointly participate in the management and review of the teaching and learning provision.
9. University Support for Students and Students' Learning
10. Admissions Criteria
To apply for the MSc Advanced Clinical Practice programme you must have a current UK health professional registration with a regulatory body (e.g. Nursing & Midwifery Council (NMC) or Health and Care Professional Council (HCPC)). You need to have a current job contract in a clinical area in a trainee/advanced clinical practice role or a role that provides the opportunity to develop advanced clinical practice skills, knowledge and behaviours and evidence of employer support to undertake the programme, inclusive of a mentor with ‘occupational competence’ and the availability of appropriate clinical supervision.
11. Regulation of Assessment and Academic Standards
12. Indicators of Quality and Standards
Certain programmes are subject to accreditation and/or review by professional and statutory regulatory bodies (PSRBs).
The Practice Certificate in Independent and Supplementary Prescribing is accredited by the Health Care and Professions Council (HCPC), the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) and the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC).
13. Methods for Evaluating and Improving Quality and Standards
14. Awarding Institution
University of Exeter
15. Lead College / Teaching Institution
Faculty of Health and Life Sciences
16. Partner College / Institution
Partner College(s)
Not applicable to this programme
Partner Institution
Not applicable to this programme.
17. Programme Accredited / Validated by
62
18. Final Award
MSc Advanced Clinical Practice (P/T 3 year)
19. UCAS Code
Not applicable to this programme.
20. NQF Level of Final Award
7 (Masters)
21. Credit
CATS credits | ECTS credits |
---|
22. QAA Subject Benchmarking Group
23. Dates
Origin Date | 21/02/2019 |
Date of last revision | 03/03/2023 |
---|