MSc Advanced Professional Practice (Clinical Practitioner)

• Gain the knowledge and skills to work in any sector of the health service (e.g. pre-hospital, primary care and secondary care settings).
  
• Develop your skills and knowledge in relation to assessment, clinical reasoning and formulation of appropriate differential diagnosis, diagnostic decision making and initiation or delivery of appropriate, timely care evidence-based care.
  
• Embed independent and supplementary prescribing into your masters degree (subject to profession). 
• Undertake assessments linked to your own practice to ensure that your learning needs are met within your specific practice area.
  
• Opportunities to study in an inter-professional setting with inter-professional core and optional modules delivered by an academic team with extensive experience as well as a close relationship with clinicians contributing to teaching.
  
• Research informed teaching is embedded throughout the curriculum and you will be given the chance to design and undertake your own research to enhance and develop patient care and/or service provision.
  
• Be equipped to take on lead roles in management, clinical practice and/or education
  
• Part time programme offering flexible delivery and exit points to support a learner centred approach.
  

This programme is also available as an Apprenticeship MSc Advanced Clinical Practice. For further information on the apprenticeship route and details of how your employer can apply for you please visit our apprenticeship webpage

• Year 1

• Postgraduate Certificate
  

  To achieve a postgraduate certificate, you will need to obtain 60 credits by completing the three core modules below.

  Core modules

  APP701 Advancing Practice in Context 20 Credits
  

  APP710 Advanced Assessment for Clinical Practice 20 Credits

  APP758 Advanced concepts in research: methodology and methods 20 Credits

• Year 2

• Postgraduate Diploma

  To achieve a postgraduate diploma, you will have first completed the PgCert and need to obtain an additional 60 credits (to give 120 credits in total). This must include the core module and two optional modules of your choice.

  Core module

  APP711 Managing Clinical Complexity 20 Credits
  

  Optional modules

  Optional modules can be two 20 credit modules or one 40 credit.

  Optional modules can be chosen from the Masters level modules A-Z list. Please contact the Professional Development Unit Admissions Team to discuss your options.

• Final year

• MSc

  To achieve a full master degree, you will have first completed the PgDip and need to obtain an additional 60 credits (to give 180 credits in total). This must include the core module and an optional module of your choice.

  Core module

  SPP702 Substantive Professional Project 40 Credits

  Optional module

  Optional module 20 Credits

  Optional modules can be chosen from the Masters level modules A-Z list. Please contact the Professional Development Unit Admissions Team to discuss your options.

Every postgraduate taught course has a detailed programme specification document describing the programme aims, the programme structure, the teaching and learning methods, the learning outcomes and the rules of assessment.

The following programme specification represents the latest programme structure and may be subject to change:

MSc APP Clinical Practitioner Pathway Specification 6131

You will normally have a first degree (BSc (Hons) at 2:2 or above or European first cycle equivalent plus a professional qualification in health or social care) plus a minimum of three years post-registration experience.You will be assessed individually for your ability to study at this level and therefore an interview may be necessary.

If you do not have a first degree at 2:2 or above (or the European first equivalent) but have appropriate practice-related experience relevant to the programme you may still be eligible to apply. In these cases, you would also be required to submit a short piece of writing as part of the admissions process.

The clinical supervisor/mentor must be a doctor at a registrar or above level OR an Advanced Clinical Practitioner with a PgDip or above in Advanced Clinical Practice and working in the clinical environment.

Applicants whose first language is not English must also provide evidence of competence in written and spoken English in accordance with the University’s Admissions Code of Practice - IELTS of 6.5 overall with a minimum of 5.5 in each category.

AP(E)L:

Claims for credit for prior learning, whether certificated or experiential are accepted and will be assessed following University regulations and faculty procedures.

European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS):

This programme is equivalent to 90 ECTS credits (second cycle) with 30 ECTS credits at postgraduate certificate, 60 credits at postgraduate diploma and 90 credits at masters degree. Each 20 credit module has the equivalent of 10 ECTS credits and assumes a notional student effort of between 200-300 hours. 

We welcome applicants with international qualifications. To view other accepted qualifications please refer to our tariff glossary.

Expressions of interest are welcomed – please contact mscadvancedpractice@plymouth.ac.uk and one of the team will respond to your query.

Applying for this programme

Please visit our PDU admissions homepage for full details on the application process and to download the relevant forms.

Please return your completed forms to:

Email: pduadmissions@plymouth.ac.uk

Professional Development Unit
4th floor, Rolle Building
University of Plymouth
Drake Circus
Plymouth, PL4 8AA

Tel: +44 (0)1752 586951

What happens after I apply?

After your application is received by the PDU Admissions team, it will be processed and sent to the Programme Lead for a decision to be made on your suitability to study. You may be asked to provide additional information or to take part in an interview (for overseas students this may be by telephone or video conference). Once this decision has been made, you will be sent an email either confirming your place on the programme, or rejecting your application and giving the reasons for this decision (you may request further feedback in order to improve your chances of selection at a later date).

Please note that you will be enrolled on the full MSc programme. You may choose to exit with the qualification of PgCert upon completion of an appropriate 60 credits, or a PgDip upon completion of an appropriate 120 credits. More information is contained within the programme specification.

For applicants with disabilities

If you have a disability and would like further information about the support provided by the University of Plymouth, please visit our Disability Services webpage.