Advanced Clinical Practice

This core module is designed to give you a comprehensive foundation in clinical pedagogy, practice education and approaches to continuing professional development. It will support your development as an advanced clinical practitioner.

It draws on contemporary research, opinion, and wider pedagogic and professional development theory to equip you with the knowledge and skills that underpin effective practice education. These include approaches to education, clinical, managerial and leadership supervision within and across traditional professional boundaries.

The focus on professional learning provides a foundation for your wider advancing practice development. You will have opportunities to learn with and from colleagues, including membership of multi-professional learning sets and pathway-specific tutorials which enable you to plan and contextualise learning within your clinical specialty.

This is a core module that provides in-depth knowledge to develop your critical thinking in complex health environments. It will enhance your ability to respond efficiently to the rapidly changing health landscape and will allow you to make balanced clinical decisions when formulating differential diagnoses, based on systematic patient assessment. The module also provokes thinking about a personalised care strategy when managing health conditions and the wider population needs that impact on health services.

The educational delivery and ethos of this module emphasises and builds on autonomous self-directed learning for independent practice.

This module requires 50 hours of clinical placement in a General Practice setting or an area where you can evaluate and assess patients with a clinical supervisor. Students are responsible for arranging these placement hours at their workplace or elsewhere. Please contact the course director if you have questions about the placement hour requirements or if you may have difficulty arranging these hours.

On this module you will lead, design, and deliver a small-scale, practice-based quality improvement project in your practice field, using the quality improvement project proposal you have learnt about in the Leadership in Advanced Clinical Practice module.

You will consider establishing baseline measures, selecting relevant quality improvement methodologies, and evaluation. You will produce a written project report which includes the rationale for your initiative, the methods and evaluation adopted, analysis and discussion of the outcomes achieved, and a reflection on what you have learnt from the project.

This module is designed to introduce you to a relatively new and expanding science that is bringing about quality improvements and enhancing patient safety by encouraging more effective use of research evidence within practice. It draws on theory and practice from a broad range of other professional disciplines, such as sociology, management, behavioural psychology, science and technology.

You will be encouraged to critically explore a range of strategies to support the integration of research findings with practice, considering this within the context of an ever-changing working environment and policy landscape.

Throughout the module you will engage with a wide range of learning activities that aim to develop both knowledge and skills, offering practical insight into how to make best use of resources and evidence, and helping you to effectively implement ideas within the context of your own professional practice.

This module is designed to give you a comprehensive foundation in clinical leadership, which will support your ongoing development as a leader in advanced clinical practice. It draws on contemporary research, opinion and wider leadership theory to equip you with the knowledge and skills that underpin effective clinical leadership, including approaches to operational and strategic service configuration and quality improvement within and across traditional professional and operational boundaries.

Opportunities to learn with, and from, colleagues include membership of multi-professional learning sets and pathway-specific tutorials for you to plan and contextualise learning within your clinical specialty.

This module will begin your journey into Advanced MSK Practice. Traditional understandings of musculoskeletal health will be dissected, debated and reframed within a biopsychosocial context to consider all factors which may impact MSK health across different levels of organisation; from cellular, to individual, and social levels (Engel, 1977). In keeping with this, core understandings of musculoskeletal function and health will be presented to include current concepts of MSK pathophysiology, pain mechanisms, the impact of multi-systems health, pain sensitising behaviours and psychology, as well as other related personal, familial, cultural, environmental and societal factors. Students will be taught to incorporate these considerations within a high-level of advanced clinical reasoning and perform expert level assessment and holistic, person-centred management of people with both acute and chronic MSK conditions.

Formal teaching will also include an evidence-based overview of lower quadrant MSK disorders and their pathophysiology, red-flag pathologies and their management, clinical assessment of lower quadrant MSK disorders, and advanced biopsychosocial rehabilitation and multi-modal management including behaviour change, psychologically informed practice, exercise therapy, and manual therapy. Crucially, students will learn to become independently capable of interpreting and synthesising the conflicting MSK evidence base in a coherent manner and be able to apply this to individual situations in practice.

This module is compulsory for students on the musculoskeletal pathway.

This module will consolidate your journey into Advanced MSK Practice. The core learning will continue to be framed within biopsychosocially informed MSK assessment and management as described for the Lower Quadrant Module. However, the Upper Quadrant Module will provide an additional focus on advanced biopsychosocial management of people with acute and chronic MSK conditions. An in-depth overview of multimodal management strategies will be provided and critically discussed including neuromuscular adaptations to training, frequency, dosage, progression of exercise therapy, goal setting, and identifying and overcoming barriers to engagement utilising psychological, social, and behaviour change theories in MSK practice.

Formal teaching will also include an evidence-based overview of upper quadrant MSK disorders and their pathophysiology, red-flag pathologies and their management, clinical assessment of lower quadrant MSK disorders, and advanced biopsychosocial rehabilitation and multi-modal management including behaviour change, psychologically informed practice, exercise therapy, and manual therapy. Students will learn how to apply the knowledge and skills acquired from both Lower and Upper Quadrant Modules in Advanced MSK Practice clinical roles with consideration, application and interpretation of advanced assessment techniques including bloods and imaging, and advanced treatment techniques such as pharmacotherapy and soft tissue and joint injections.

This module is compulsory for students on the musculoskeletal pathway.

Mental health is a core healthcare priority. This module prepares health and social care professionals with advanced knowledge of specific patient demographics in mental health, exploring not only clinical relevance, but the importance of equity in patient care. The module will explore intersectionality and the role of the clinician in patient advocacy and promoting inclusive practice.

This module requires 75 hours of clinical practice hours in a variety of mental health settings. Students will work with the module lead to arrange placements.

This is a core module in the MSc ACP (Mental Health) pathway.

This module will finalise your journey into Advanced MSK Practice. In keeping with the core frameworks for Advanced MSK Practice Capabilities (IFOMPT, NHS England, and UK MSK Advanced Practice), students must complete a 150-hour workplace-based supervised clinical placement. Students are responsible for arranging these placement hours at their workplace or elsewhere. Please contact the course director if you have questions about the placement hour requirements or if you may have difficulty arranging these hours.

Students will undertake their placement in an NHS MSK outpatient clinical setting under the clinical supervision of an MSK AP supervisor from our list of approved providers, ensuring the learning environment is suitable for AP trainees. Students will assess and treat patients with MSK conditions under the supervision and scrutiny of the AP supervisor with appropriate time for discussion, reflection and self-directed learning whilst on placement to ensure the student has the opportunity to develop and demonstrate MSK AP capabilities in line with the Frameworks.

This module is essential for transition into Advanced MSK Practice roles and therefore is strongly encouraged for all students in the MSK Pathway. This module is compulsory for students who wish to become accredited MSK Advanced Practitioners. If this is not a requirement then students may forego the Clinical Placement and choose an optional module instead.

This module will help you develop advanced skills in assessment, reasoning and early management planning for patients presenting with undifferentiated acute injuries or illnesses, or acute exacerbations of chronic conditions, in an urgent or emergency setting. It will focus on the effective assessment, referral, safeguarding and health promotion of a range of vulnerable or complex patient groups through the network of urgent and emergency care services in the UK.

The module is compulsory for students on the Urgent and Emergency Care pathway.

Pre-requisites for this module include: Minor Injuries, Minor Illness, D&PDGs or equivalent.

This module is designed for healthcare practitioners working towards advanced roles in primary care and community settings. It offers you the opportunity to evaluate the key challenges underpinning NHS targets within the field of hospital avoidance and ambulatory care.

This module requires 75 hours of clinical placement in a setting where you can evaluate and assess patients with minor illnesses with a clinical supervisor. Students are responsible for arranging these placement hours at their workplace or elsewhere. Please contact the course director if you have questions about the placement hour requirements or if you may have difficulty arranging these hours.

This module is for healthcare professionals, such as nurses or paramedics, wishing to develop knowledge and skills in managing minor injuries in children and adults. It is intended to develop your practice through the efficient use of resources and enable you to manage patients presenting to urgent and primary care settings with minor injuries.

This module requires 50 hours of clinical placement in a setting where you can evaluate and assess patients with minor injuries with a clinical supervisor. Students are responsible for arranging these placement hours at their workplace or elsewhere. Please contact the course director if you have questions about the placement hour requirements or if you may have difficulty arranging these hours.

Mental health is a core healthcare priority. This module prepares health and social care professionals with professional capabilities and advanced mental health assessment clinical skills to make evidence based clinical decisions to manage risk and complexity. The module seeks to promote person centred approaches within mental health practice, and confidence and proficiency in the development of the therapeutic alliance.

This module requires 75 hours of clinical practice hours in a variety of mental health settings. Students will work with the module lead to arrange placements.

This is a core module in the MSc ACP (Mental health) pathway.

The focus of this module is to advance your application of the current concepts of pain, enabling you to manage patients’ pain and to participate in life situations. Pain is considered a multidimensional experience, understanding it requires an in-depth knowledge of pain neuroscience and potential contributing factors which can be psychological, social or cultural. Through undertaking this module, you will develop their skills to evaluate and debate the literature around pain neuroscience and pain drivers. This will enable you to develop a critical approach to assessing an individual’s pain drivers and to create appropriate treatment plans in collaboration with individuals who are experiencing pain.

At the foundation to this is adopting cognitive behavioural principles and an advanced communication approach. Through debate and interactive tutorials you will reflect on you own and societal beliefs about pain and how your communication can influence an individual’s understanding and management of pain.

Botulinum toxin type A (Botox, Dysport, Xeomin) blocks the release of a neurotransmitter known as acetylcholine from nerve cells. Acetylcholine normally transmits nerve impulses to muscle cells, causing them to contract. Without acetylcholine, the affected nerve is unable to send a signal to the muscle it supplies, resulting in a weakened or paralysed muscle. The effect of Botox injections is restricted to the area being treated.

This module has been specifically designed to enable appropriate health professionals to undertake injection therapy using botulinum toxin for the management of patients/clients with limb spasticity or dystonia regardless of the form of botulinum toxin used in their trust. Learners will be supported in developing their skills and techniques in clinical reasoning, injection administration and after care to provide a comprehensive management approach.

This module is designed as an option module or a stand-alone module for qualified healthcare professionals such as physiotherapists, occupational therapists, doctors and nurses working in the field of Botulinum Toxin. The module aims to introduce students to the theory and practice of injection therapy as well as to develop their ability to clinically reason and integrate the use of injection therapy as part of their management of patients/clients with neurological dysfunction. The module consists of two main components. The first component will introduce students to the theory and practice associated with the use of injection therapy and the second component will be a period of mentored practice in the clinical environment. Students are responsible for arranging these placement hours at their workplace or elsewhere. Please contact the course director if you have questions about the placement hour requirements or if you may have difficulty arranging these hours.

The module will enable you to explore the theory and practice of managing key cardiovascular and neurological diseases in the prehospital setting. The particular emphasis will be on the recognition and referral to specialist services for these two major disease groups.

This module will introduce students to key concepts in the social sciences of health and medicine. Recognising the contribution of medical anthropology and sociology to the understanding and practices of health service delivery, this course will provide an accessible entry point for students with no social sciences background. It aims to cover key ideas and debates around power, knowledge, normal versus pathological, the personal and professional, linking them back to everyday clinical practice.

On completion of the module students should be able to engage with relevant social sciences literature and critically analyse its application to practice. Students will learn to employ a ‘sociological perspective’ to better understand and contextualise the social processes that shape health, illness, and medicine. They will e develop a range of skills to achieve this such as independent learning, reflexive practice, critical thinking and reasoning skills. They will have had the chance to practice them, developing and refuting complex arguments and maintaining informed position on social issues. Throughout the course, participants will be encouraged to reflect on the consequences of their learning for clinical practice, and be given opportunities to consider the wider impacts of their learning. The result should help students to be more deliberative practitioners in encounters with patients, colleagues, and health systems, adding to their capacity to practice with professionalism and accountability.

This module will explore the science behind medicine management and consider the safe practice of administration of medicines under PGDs in different clinical settings.

It is intended for clinical practitioners from a range of backgrounds who are administering medicines to patients in a range of settings. It is compulsory for those without a recognised non-medical prescribing qualification and who are not taking the non-medical prescribing module as part of their ACP studies. The module will serve as a foundation for aspiring future prescribers.

Mental health is a core healthcare priority. This module prepares health and social care professionals with advanced knowledge of the biopsychosocial contexts of mental health, and equips practitioners with skills and capabilities to make informed clinical decisions surrounding the enhanced assessment, evaluation and management of people living with mental health conditions.

It is suitable for healthcare professionals working in out of hospital environments.

This module will prepare healthcare practitioners to meet the capabilities outlined under the four pillars emphasised in the Advanced Clinical Practitioner (ACP) Framework (NHS England, 2017).

This module aims to increase practitioner confidence and knowledge in the advanced identification, assessment and management of people with mental health conditions.

The prime aim of this module is to provide practitioners from different specialities and with the knowledge and competencies to manage, maintain, treat and/or transfer patients with diabetes to the appropriate tier of care. The outcomes will include improved personal confidence, more effective referral in the tiered structure of diabetes care, appropriate collaboration and engagement with the specialist team(s) and intelligent use new therapies.

This module is offered through St George's short courses and ACP students may take this module along with other healthcare professionals.

This module is designed to give you a foundational understanding of concepts of image generation, safety considerations and the knowledge to identify common pathological conditions.  The module draws on contemporary imaging practice and guidance from the Royal College of Radiologists. It provides you with opportunities to learn with and from colleagues in multiprofessional learning sets and pathway-specific tutorials so you can  plan  and  contextualise  learning  within  their  own  clinical specialty.

This module introduces health and social care professionals to the subject of human factors in a healthcare setting and allows them to gain a greater understanding of human limitations. By acknowledging these limitations, this module offers ways to minimise and mitigate human frailties and improve patient safety.

The emphasis of the module is to offer an evidenced-based and coherent approach to patient safety and clinical excellence. Human factors, often referred to as ergonomics, is an established scientific discipline used in other safety critical industries. The principles and practices taught on this module will optimise human performance, through better understanding the behaviour of individuals, their interactions with each other and with their environment.

This module is designed to enable students to demonstrate that they have acquired the skills and knowledge to practice as a First Contact Practitioner (FCP). It incorporates the concepts of academic, professional and personal development required for an FCP. It encourages students to further develop their ability to critically reflect and enhance their role. It facilitates the integration and use of skills, knowledge and attitudes learned in other modules for their FCP.

Students are required to produce a portfolio that evidences meeting the FCP capabilities. This portfolio can be reused, adapted and refined throughout an entire career as a Clinical Practitioner.

This module is required for the PgCert FCP (Paramedic) and FCP (Musculoskeletal) pathways.

This module requires 75 hours of clinical placement in a setting where you can evaluate and assess patients as an FCP. Students are responsible for arranging these placement hours at their workplace or elsewhere. Please contact the course director if you have questions about the placement hour requirements or if you may have difficulty arranging these hours.

This module is intended for health care professionals who are working in or towards a specialist or advanced role in prehospital critical care. The module will enable you to explore the theory and practice of critical care in the prehospital setting.

This module requires approximately 100 hours of clinical placement in a AE, theatres, and/or ICU where you can evaluate and assess patients. Students are responsible for arranging these placement hours at their workplace or elsewhere. Please contact the course director if you have questions about the placement hour requirements or if you may have difficulty arranging these hours.

This module is aimed at health professionals who work with patients at the end of life in non-specialist palliative settings.

In this module you will learn the knowledge, skills and capabilities to make key clinical decisions through effective assessment, diagnosis and management. Throughout the module students will develop the advanced communication skills necessary to manage difficult situations at the end of life.

The module will introduce the organisational, policy and legislative frameworks governing palliative care in the UK. Emphasis will be placed on developing deep critical reflective skills which enable students to integrate the clinical, ethical and legal concerns common in managing end-of-life patients. Students will be supported to recognise and effectively respond to the personal impact of challenging situations.

This module will examine the psychology of behaviour and you will develop an in-depth understanding of psychological correlates, psychological well-being and psychological interventions pertaining to healthcare. From this module, you will critically develop an advanced knowledge of the sociological and psychological concepts that inform human behaviour in a healthcare context. You will also foster a knowledge and critique of the implementation of advanced communication skills within a therapeutic relationship and will allow participants to draw on their own practice as a focus.

The module provides healthcare professionals with authentic opportunities to explore autonomous practice in the context of undertaking a comprehensive holistic, structured clinical assessment of the patient using remote/digital technology. The module delivery and assessment are remote, allowing you to put your skills to practice immediately.

This module aims to enable students to extend their scope of practice to include the use of injection therapy. Teaching will include injection techniques. This module is designed to enable you to use injection therapy as part of your expanded advanced musculoskeletal practice. 

This module focuses on a branch of human factors that is based on the systems approach and considers the higher-level factors including organizational, societal, political, regulatory and economical context of work activities and processes.

This macro view proposes that adverse events in healthcare are rarely the result of individual error and effective healthcare results from interactions in a sociotechnical system, of which the person is one component.

By undertaking this module, students will gain a greater understanding of the causes of error within healthcare systems and be better informed to make effective interventions to prevent reoccurrence.

This module will prepare healthcare practitioners to comprehend the different approaches to the investigation of errors in both simple and complex systems.

The learner will be able to apply a range of system-based tools to effectively understand the causes of healthcare errors and find solutions to prevent reoccurrence.

Transition to Advanced practice is a portfolio module designed to prepare you for advanced practice through work-based learning. This module requires 575 placement hours with the development of a portfolio and reflective essays.

This module is designed for practitioners directly involved in the emergency care of polytrauma patients. A range of traumatic injuries will be explored, but the focus will be upon initial assessment and management of these patients in the context of the emergency department.

This standalone Independent and Supplementary Prescribing module is suitable for Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) registrants from the professions, which are approved to become prescribers. The module focuses on developing the pharmacology knowledge base and physical examination with history taking that underpins supplementary and independent prescribing, as well as the theory and practice of prescribing. The module is delivered using a blended learning approach, which incorporates both face-to-face and online activities. A variety of strategies and techniques are employed, including simulation based learning, to encourage critical enquiry and problem solving, in recognition of the complexities that may be encountered in prescribing practice.

All students who successfully complete the module, will be eligible for their HCPC record to be modified to include Independent/Supplementary Prescribing.

This module can be taken as a free-standing module or as part of the Advanced Clinical Practice (MSc, PgDip and PgCert) pathways.

This module requires 78 hours of clinical placement with a prescribing clinical supervisor.

To apply for this as a free-standing module, please click the "Apply" tab at the top of this page.

This standalone Independent and Supplementary Prescribing module is suitable for Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) registrants from the professions, which are approved to become prescribers. The module focuses on developing the pharmacology knowledge base and physical examination with history taking that underpins supplementary and independent prescribing, as well as the theory and practice of prescribing. The module is delivered using a blended learning approach, which incorporates both face-to-face and online activities. A variety of strategies and techniques are employed, including simulation based learning, to encourage critical enquiry and problem solving, in recognition of the complexities that may be encountered in prescribing practice.

All students who successfully complete the module, will be eligible for their HCPC record to be modified to include Independent/Supplementary Prescribing.

This module can be taken as a free-standing module or as part of the Advanced Clinical Practice (MSc, PgDip and PgCert) pathways.

This module requires 78 hours of clinical placement with a prescribing clinical supervisor. Students are responsible for arranging these placement hours at their workplace or elsewhere. Please contact the course director if you have questions about the placement hour requirements or if you may have difficulty arranging these hours.

You should have all of the following:

• Honours degree (2:2 or above) from the UK or Republic of Ireland
• recognised healthcare/health-related professional qualification and current professional registration
• at least two years’ full-time clinical experience (or the equivalent in part-time hours) in health or social care employment (for example nursing, paramedics, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, pharmacy, radiology, etc), within a clinical service area relevant to Advanced Clinical Practice or the specified pathway you wish to follow (specific requirements and entry criteria apply to some modules and these will be indicated in the module outlines)
• employed in a senior clinical role (normally Agenda for Change Band 6 or 7)
• work in a practice setting which enables the achievement of the advanced clinical practice outcomes relating to the National Health Education England (HEE) multi-professional ACP Standards
• written evidence that your employer supports your learning and that there is the opportunity to develop into a role of Advanced Clinical Practice level

We accept equivalent qualifications gained in other countries.

Please see our Postgraduate International Equivalencies. For countries not on this list, we use UK ENIC to assess. Please see our International Student Support pages for more information.

If you have any questions, you can contact us at pgenquiries@sgul.ac.uk

This is a Group 1 course.

Full details can be found on our English Language requirements webpages.

You will be asked to outline your reasons for applying for the course in a brief personal statement on the application form.

You will also need to provide two satisfactory references. One of these should be a recent academic reference and the other should be either a second academic reference or a professional/employer reference. For those unable to provide an academic referee a second professional/employer reference will be permitted.

Go to the ‘Apply’ tab for more information.

Applicants to this module must:

• be registered with the HCPC in one of the relevant Allied Health Professions
• be professionally practising in an environment where there is an identified need for the individual to regularly use independent prescribing or supplementary prescribing
• be able to demonstrate support from their employer/sponsor* including confirmation that the entrant will have appropriate supervised practice in the clinical area in which they are expected to prescribe
• be able to demonstrate medicines and clinical governance arrangements are in place to support safe and effective supplementary and/or independent prescribing
• have an approved medical practitioner who will supervise, support, and assess the student during clinical placement
• have at least 3 years relevant post-qualification experience in the clinical area in which they will be prescribing
• be working at/or towards an advanced practitioner or equivalent level
• be able to demonstrate how they reflect on their own performance and take responsibility for their own Continuing Professional Development (CPD) including development of networks for support, reflection and learning
• provide evidence of a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) in England and Wales, or in Northern Ireland, an AccessNI check within the last three years or, in Scotland, be a current member of the Protection of Vulnerable Groups (PVG) scheme
• demonstrate evidence of physical assessment and history taking skills e.g. successful achievement of the ‘Clinical reasoning in physical assessment: lifespan perspectives’ 30 credit level 6 module, or equivalent certificated learning.

When completing your application, you will be asked to provide contact details of two referees. Please ensure these details are accurate. As soon as you have submitted your application, your referees will be contacted by the university asking them to upload a reference to your online application.

One must be a recent academic reference. The other should be either a second academic reference or a professional/employer reference. They should cover your suitability for the course and your academic ability.

Your referees should know you well enough, in an official capacity, to write about you and your suitability for higher education. We do not accept references from family, friends, partners, ex-partners or yourself.

We will send reminder emails to your referees but it is your responsibility to ensure that contact details are correct and referees are available to submit a reference. References should be uploaded within two weeks of making your application.