Health Professions

Why QMU?

The School of Health Sciences at QMU, provides the largest range of health care professional courses in Scotland, and we aim to create educational programmes at the leading edge of today’s issues, with graduates who are in demand, work healthy, able to progress in their chosen profession and challenge current health care practices.

We strive to ensure that we closely link our research and professional practice and wherever possible engage students with promoting their chosen profession.For example, the Scottish Occupational Therapy Student Conference, arranged for the last three years at QMU, brings key practitioners and researchers to QMU to allow dissemination and debate on current and future Occupational Therapy practice.

The range of undergraduate courses include: Dietetics, Nursing, Occupational Therapy, Physiotherapy, Podiatry, Radiography (Diagnostic and Therapeutic) and Speech and Language Therapy. We also offer the Higher Education Diploma in Health and Social Care and the Higher Education Diploma in Hearing Aid Audiology. Undergraduate teaching is often linked to our Masters pre-registration courses where students in Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy, Dietetics, Speech & Language Therapy, Audiology, Dance and Movement Psychotherapy, Music Therapy and Art Therapy mix to share learning and experiences. This mix of undergraduate students with more experienced students allows much greater learning opportunities and support through the challenges of our courses. The range of courses we offer allows students to be at the heart of healthcare learning and development, and to mix with other professional learners who will be their peers in the working environment. Therefore cross School teaching and Inter-professional Education are important components of our courses. Working together as students helps to break down barriers before we get into the workplace. All our courses are validated and recognised by the Health Professions Council, where required, and this is augmented by the excellent links we have with the NHS Health Boards across Scotland and through our collaborations with private, occupational, social service and other care providers.

Specialist visiting lecturers in all professional areas engage students with up-to-date health related issues and help prepare students towards working in practice. All students benefit from a well-equipped School with specialised teaching facilities and access to state-of-the-art skills laboratories where students can hone their practical skills before going on clinical placement.

We also have a range of research laboratories including those for biological sciences, and a suite of laboratories for the measurement of human movement using 3-dimensional motion analysis, human performance and Neuromuscular analysis. Many current research projects undertaken in these laboratories allow novel research findings to be fed directly into teaching practice.

Our approach to learning and teaching

All the professional courses in healthcare engage clinical practice and experience as the core of learning, and we aim to provide experiences in as many aspects of provision as possible. These will occur across the whole of Scotland with opportunities in some courses to arrange your own elective placements overseas. The range and type of placement will vary from student to student but clinical practice is core to health care and we help students to prepare for this from the start of our courses. All module work, theoretical or practical, throughout the courses relates to professional practice or directly to the work engaged on clinical placement. Practical hands-on experience is a core element of preparation for practice and we have the use of state-of-the-art simulation laboratories and clinic and treatment rooms to emulate practice. Visiting clinicians and patients also help to bring the real health learning experience into the University. Interprofessional learning occurs in all four years of the undergraduate courses, for most students, and they will work with other learners from the broad range of the nursing and Allied Health Professions at QMU. Interprofessional learning starts by introducing the students to team working

and enhancing communication skills, and then progresses to allow small groups to work with volunteer patients in the safe environment of the University and on to understanding healthcare systems and organisations. The students learn to understand the role and boundaries of each profession and become aware of different or shared working practices. Students will also discuss the changing practices of healthcare in the UK and the wider workings of the NHS, private practice or industry.

We support student learning through classroom sessions, tutorials, work groups, and practical classes and through web-based learning which is particularly important for clinical placement. Use of a clinical and/ or a personal development portfolio is undertaken on some courses, and this complements the wide range of assessments used across the disciplines. Optional module choice is available in some health courses but this is limited due to the demands of professional learning.

Research

Research within the School of Health Sciences collates into four main research themes: Physical Therapies, Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism in Health & Disease, Speech and Communication and Health Care Policy and Practice. These themes capture the wide range of research being undertaken in the School and all students have the opportunity to engage with this work in several ways: as novice researchers during project work, being trial participants, or attendance at keynote lectures and seminars which are arranged either by professional areas or for the whole School. Clinical research can only be undertaken in collaboration with frontline health providers and we have numerous collaborators in all NHS Boards in Scotland, private and social services and internationally in Europe and further afield. You will be taught by lecturers and PhD students who are actively engaged with research and who publish in high impact academic and professional journals. Our aim is to ensure that our research findings link with your learning to keep this as up-to-date as possible. Understanding research helps to develop and enhance critical thinking and clinical questioning, which are essential in the challenging healthcare practice of today.

Career Prospects

Our undergraduate degrees will prepare you for a rewarding career in which ever health path you choose and you will all meet graduates from QMU in many of your student placement experiences. Alongside your professional learning, we will help you to develop your transferable skills which will be useful not just in healthcare professions but many other roles in life.

Many of these skills are embedded in our teaching and practice, and we will actively encourage your learning in verbal and non-verbal communication, understanding team work, presentation skills, delegation, etc. Healthcare graduates from QMU gain posts in clinical hospital positions throughout the world but some choose to enter different career pathways for example in research, healthcare management, private practice and industry, sports related work or in health promotion and fitness. Those graduates who wish to enter employment in the NHS often start with part-time or a “bank” position in the first instance gaining experiences in a variety of clinical areas and types before a more permanent choice is made. More and more new opportunities for recent graduates are developing in the private sector, social services, or industry, which all require a healthcare background. Some students, however, choose to progress straight to higher degree learning on MSc or PhD programmes, and there will be opportunities for you to engage in the work of MSc and PhD students whilst you are at QMU.

CASE STUDY

Kirsty Maciver, BSc (Hons) Physiotherapy

I always wanted to work in healthcare and in a role where I would be able to help others. I looked at many healthcare professions, but it was physiotherapy that interested me. On leaving school, I came to QMU as I was keen to study in Edinburgh and the university had a great reputation for it’s physiotherapy degree. I really enjoyed the course. Whilst it was very challenging at times, the high practical content made it interesting and I enjoyed working with and learning from my classmates. In Years One and Two, we focused on learning the theory, knowledge of specific conditions and developing our assessment and treatment skills. There was a good balance of lectures, tutorials and practical group-based sessions, allowing us to constantly relate the theory to the practice and improve our overall learning. The practical sessions were fun and interactive and an ideal opportunity to both practice on and learn from one another. Years Three and Four were mainly practice-based learning/clinical placements and our honours research project. For me, placements were the best aspect of the course and indeed the most enjoyable: they allowed me to directly put my skills and theory into practice and gain a greater understanding of my own professional role as a physiotherapist. I undertook six placements, including one elective placement in an area of my choice. The placements were diverse and allowed me to gain experience in both core and specialist areas of physiotherapy, in settings from critical care to the community. Each one was a steep learning curve, but I gained so much more knowledge, skills and confidence and they prepared me to assess and treat patients with a broad range of conditions and complex needs. They helped me to become a well rounded, versatile physiotherapist with the skills and abilities to work confidently across both the acute and community setting – and ultimately help me to obtain my first physiotherapy post.

I have now gained my first band 5 (junior) post working as a physiotherapist in a busy, acute hospital for Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust. It is a rotational post, allowing me to gain experience in a variety of different clinical specialties and continue to build upon the skills I learned as a student. It is an ideal job: I have the opportunity to work in the profession I was trained to do – in a large, acute trust with a very supportive learning environment – and continue to engage in the process of lifelong learning. On a daily basis I am using the skills and knowledge that I developed at QMU. Physiotherapy is a very rewarding career with opportunities to work in many different clinical specialties and settings. I want to continue to broaden my knowledge and experience in different clinical areas and I would not rule out further study in the future.

Our courses

»BSc (Hons) Diagnostic Radiography

»BSc (Hons) Dietetics

»Diploma in Higher Education in Hearing Aid Audiology

»BSc (Hons) Nursing

»BSc (Hons) Occupational Therapy

»BSc (Hons) Physiotherapy

»BSc (Hons) Podiatry

»BSc Podiatry Conversion, BSc Radiography Conversion,
BSc Occupational Therapy Conversion, BSc Physiotherapy Conversion

»BSc (Hons) Speech and Language Therapy

»BSc (Hons) Therapeutic Radiography

» Back to full course listing