MSc/PgDip/PgCert Advanced Practice (Health and Social Care)

You will normally be a graduate in health and/or social care and be working in an area that will support and facilitate the development of advanced practice and have a written agreement with your employer for minimum learning and financial support.

When undertaking the clinical modules there is a requirement for you to have access to a relevant and sufficient clinical patient/client case-load for the duration of the course.

As part of the requirements for admission to clinical modules, you must identify and have the agreement of a service manager and clinical expert mentor/assessor to facilitate access to the case load.

The mentor/assessor will provide practical training, supervision and ongoing formative assessment via a log of clinical cases. All students on this course are registered or regulated health and social care professionals who are accessing the clinical training within their own work-place.

We welcome applications from students with alternative qualifications and/or significant relevant experience, subject to approval through a process of Accreditation of Prior Learning (APL).

The Accreditation of Prior Learning (APL) process could help you to make your work and life experience count. The APL process can be used for entry onto courses or to give you exemptions from parts of your course.

Two forms of APL may be used for entry: the Accreditation of Prior Certificated Learning (APCL) or the Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning (APEL).

English Language Requirements

International applicants will be required to show a proficiency in English. An IELTS score of 6.0 (no element below 5.5) is proof of this.

Suitable For

Professional health and social care practitioners who are supported by their employing organisation in an advanced practitioner training role. Required competencies are broadly determined by the NHS North West agreement and guidance on Advanced Practice from Department of Health and Royal College of Nursing.

Applicant profile

You will be a registered professional (nurses, midwives and allied health professionals) or from a regulated professional health or social care background.

You will normally have been working the appropriate clinical context for a minimum of two years.

You will be interviewed by your manager and a lecturer from the programme team. Your clinical assessor may also be present.

Most students registering for this course are appointed and supported by their employer to achieve North West NHS strategic workforce objectives and funded for the course by the North West NHS.

The emphasis on work-based learning rather than classroom teaching distinguishes this course from more traditional taught courses. The collaboration between the workplace and academic facilitators is innovative and embraces the ethos of overall course philosophy and design. A learning facilitator will be employed with a particular remit to work with practice-based assessors and mentors in order to assure the quality of clinical and work-based learning/assessments.

This course has a strong clinical focus throughout all modules.