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MSc

Advanced Clinical Practitioner

Develop your understanding of altered physiology to effectively assess patients' health or ill health status.

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Key Course Details

  • Start Date

    September

  • Location

    Pontypridd

  • Campus Code

    A

Fees

  • Home students

    £1,200*

  • Full-time fees are per year. Part-time fees are per 20 credits.
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The MSc Advanced Clinical Practitioner will allow you to develop your skills at an advanced level, thereby meeting the requirements set by National Leadership and Innovation Agency for Healthcare (NLIAH).

DESIGNED FOR

Healthcare professionals who want to extend the scope of their practice regarding consultation, assessment, diagnosis and therapeutic interventions.

Career Paths

  • Advanced Clinical Practice Nurse

Skills Taught

  • Assessment of patients
  • Diagnosis
  • Research

We make a difference in practice, not just on paper. Our courses are designed by people who offer jobs - and taught by people who have real work experience.

Nursing lecturer with students in a ward setting.
Student nurse listening to lecturer whilst treating a dummy in the clinical simulation centre
Two student nurses looking at medical notes in the clinical simulation centre
A lecturer using a stethoscope on a patient in a simulated practical session.

Course Highlights

Outstanding Facilities

The course benefits from an extensive clinical simulation suite in which a range of practical skills are taught, practised and examined.

Interactive Learning

Learn by a variety of methods including tutorials, lectures, case study presentations, peer presentations, and problem-based learning.

Overview

You will develop your understanding of altered physiology to effectively assess patients' health or ill health status. In addition, you will study research methods, influences on current health care practices and independent prescribing.

Clinical Conditions 1
This module will develop your understanding of altered physiological processes in relation to cardiovascular, respiratory and musculoskeletal disease processes, for example Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), heart failure and Myasthenia Gravis disease.


Research Methods
You will learn how to critically evaluate a range of research methodologies.

Clinical Skills 1
This module will involve further developing your knowledge and skills in relation to examining patients with cardiac, respiratory and musculoskeletal diseases. This will include completing a comprehensive patient medical history, thoroughly examining each system mentioned above and identifying their treatment and management plan based on an individual clinical presentation.

You will develop your understanding of altered physiology to effectively assess patients' health or ill health status. In addition, you will study research methods, influences on current health care practices and independent prescribing.

Clinical Conditions 2
In this module you will develop your understanding of altered physiological processes in relation to endocrine, neurological and abdominal disease processes, for example Diabetes and Thyroid disease, Parkinson’s disease, liver and gut diseases.

Influences on Practice
You will debate the political, legal and professional influences on advanced practice in context with today’s healthcare system. Professional influences include considering the role of advanced practice within the Welsh Advanced Practice Framework. Legal influences include accountability and political influences will address the requirements advocated by Welsh Government.

Clinical Skills 2
You will continue to develop your knowledge and skills in relation to examining patients with endocrine, neurological and abdominal disease. This will include completing a comprehensive patient medical history, thoroughly examining each system mentioned above and identifying their treatment and management plan based on an individual clinical presentation.

A dissertation of 15,000 words (for the 60-credit module) 
You will choose a topic relevant to your own area of practice and critically evaluate the role of the advanced practitioner within that area.

A dissertation of 10,000 (for the 40-credit module) 
You will choose a topic relevant to your own area of practice and critically evaluate the role of the advanced practitioner within that area, and one of the optional modules below.

Independent Prescribing (40 credits)
Completing this module would allow practitioners to prescribe within the relevant area of practice. You will also need to study one of the optional modules below.

Optional Modules

  • Professional Portfolio Development (20 Credits)
  • Leading Effective Teams in Health and Social Care (20 credits)

Course Highlights

How you’ll learn

The MSc Advanced Clinical Practitioner is taught by a variety of methods including tutorials, lectures, case study presentations, peer presentations, and problem-based learning. You will also undertake practicals in our Clinical Simulation Suite as well as in actual clinical practice.

Assessments include written examinations, assignments and OSCEs (Objective Structured Clinical Examinations).

Teaching staff

  • David O’Neill, award leader
  • Bridie Jones
  • Eileen Munson
  • Professor Keith Weeks
  • Professor David Pontin
  • Dr Gareth Parsons
  • Mark Davies
  • Meirion Williams
  • Sara Morgan
  • Dr Ray Higginson
  • Cheryl Phillips
  • Dr Paul Burrows

Facilities

Our state of the art Clinical Simulation Centre is set up to replicate an acute care NHS environment, providing realistic clinical facilities for our pre-registration students and qualified healthcare professionals.

Careers and Employability

Possible career paths

The MSc Advanced Clinical Practitioner will develop a range of clinical skills in greater depth and gain the knowledge to assess, diagnose and treat patients. Study of relevant protocols, policy and research will complement this to allow safe practice at an advanced level. Typical career progression is to Advanced Clinical Practice Nurse. Students can also progress to a PhD or a research degree.

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS

Typical qualification requirements:

Applicants must be a registered nurse, midwife, SCPHN, health visitor, physiotherapist or pharmacist, or paramedic educated to at least degree level 2:2 or above. Candidates must have a minimum of three years, full-time, post-registration experience (or equivalent part-time) and be in current employment. Accreditation of recognised prior learning (RPL) will also be considered. You will also need to have access to a medical mentor who will assess and approve your clinical competencies throughout the Advanced Clinical Practitioner course.

The application process does not currently include an interview, other than for the Independent Prescribing module which is in the third year. Your application is vetted firstly by ensuring you meet the entry criteria as outlined. If you only fill out the basic information, your application is likely to be referred back to you. Please take the time to complete the personal statement and demonstrate an appropriate level of understanding of Advanced Practice and its application to your role.

If you have been offered an unconditional place on the course, please accept the offer as soon as possible, otherwise you may lose the place. You can always change your decision afterwards or defer.  However, you can only defer your application for one year. If you decide not to attend after this deferral you will have to apply again.

 

 

International applications welcomed:

We welcome international applications with equivalent qualifications of our entry requirements. For more details related to your country of residence, please view our dedicated country pages.

English language requirements

International applicants will need to have achieved an overall of IELTS 6.0 with a minimum of 5.5 in each component/TOEFL 72 overall and a minimum of 18 in reading, 17 in listening, 20 in speaking and 17 in writing or equivalent.

Equivalents can be located on our English Language pages.

If you have previously studied through the medium of English, IELTS might not be required, please visit our country specific page for further details. If your country is not featured, please contact us.

If you do not meet the English entry criteria, please visit our Pre-Sessional course pages.

Contextual offers

We may make you a lower offer based on a range of factors, including your background (where you live and the school or college that you attended, for example), your experiences and individual circumstances (as a care leaver, for example). This is referred to as a contextual offer, and we receive data from UCAS to support us in making these decisions.

USW prides itself on its student experience and we support our students to achieve their goals and become a successful graduate. This approach helps us to support students who have the potential to succeed and who may have faced barriers that make it more difficult to access university.

 

We're here to help

Whether you a have a question about your course, fees and funding, the application process or anything else, there are plenty of ways you can get in touch, and we'd love to talk to you. You can contact our friendly admissions team by phone, email or chat to us online.

 

Fees and Funding

UK Part-time Fee

£1,200

per 20 credits*

Further Information

Studying at university is one of the most significant investments you'll ever make. Whilst you’re studying, you’ll have two main financial obligations – tuition fees and living costs. There’s lots of financial help available from the University of South Wales and external funding sources, that may provide loans (which have to be paid back) and grants, scholarships and bursaries (that don't).

*Full-time fees are per year. Part-time fees are per 20 credits. Once enrolled, the fee is anticipated to remain at the same rate throughout the duration of your study on this course except as described below.

Please be aware that we may increase the maximum fee for home students on full-time undergraduate courses only where the Welsh Government increases the permitted level of inflation of fees. Fees for all students (including part-time, postgraduate and international students) may be amended in accordance with our applicable Fees and Debt Management Policy.  We will ensure that students are given clear, intelligible, unambiguous and timely information about our courses and costs in good time, ahead of the next academic year.

 

Fees and Funding Scholarships and Busaries Alumni Discount

Additional Costs

As a student of USW, you’ll have access to lots of free resources to support your study and learning, such as textbooks, publications, online journals, laptops, and plenty of remote-access resources. Whilst in most cases these resources are more than sufficient in supporting you with completing your course, additional costs, both obligatory and optional, may be required or requested for the likes of travel, memberships, experience days, stationery, printing, or equipment.

Learners will require a stethoscope as the course involves examining others.

Cost: £80

University Quality Assurance

At USW, we regularly review our courses in response to changing patterns of employment and skills demand to ensure we offer learning designed to reflect today’s student needs and tomorrow’s employer demands.

If during a review process course content is significantly changed, we’ll write to inform you and talk you through the changes for the coming year. But whatever the outcome, we aim to equip our students with the skillset and the mindset to succeed whatever tomorrow may bring. Your future, future-proofed.

Studying at USW

Our courses are designed with industry leaders and provide the practical skills and experiences industry demands. Our flexible courses reflect the need for life-long learning. If you value education in practice, not just in theory, then USW is for you.

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Postgraduate fees and funding
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Pontypridd Campus, Glyntaff
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How to apply

There is an online application process for this course. Please choose the application form for your preferred start date and mode of study (i.e. full-time or part-time).

International admissions

Please see our international admissions advice for further information about how to apply as a prospective international student.

Related Courses

Acute and Critical Care - PGCert Learn more
Professional Practice - MSc Learn more

Next Steps

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