Postgraduate Taught

MSc/ PgDip/ PgCert Person-Centred Practice

Do you want to build on your experience as a health or social care practitioner? Are you keen to develop an understanding of the knowledge and evidence that positively contribute to the health and wellbeing of persons, groups and populations? Our innovative Person-Centred Practice (PCP) Framework offers a flexible suite of course routes that will give you a valuable, career-expanding qualification in person-centred practice.

With part-time and full-time options, this Framework will appeal to health and social care professionals and graduates in health or social care who wish to develop their careers. We have carefully structured the Framework to be as flexible as possible, so you can study the route that best meets your professional background and future aspirations.

Why QMU?

You will engage with contemporary, creative and interactive learning approaches that are designed to help you thrive in your studies.
You will learn from passionate and internationally renowned person-centred practice academics including Professor Brendan McCormack and Professor Jan Dewing.
Flexible pathways, allowing you to personalise your learning to your own situation.

Person-Centred Practice Framework overview

This Framework is for graduates and practitioners who wish to develop their careers in the broad field of health and social care. You can personalise your learning to your own situation – for example mental health, social care, infection control, acute care or community health. You can also sign up to study single modules.

Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) registered nurses already working in, or wishing to work in, the community can undertake a specified group of modules that allows them to achieve a community qualification or registration recognised by the NMC in District Nursing, Health Visiting or School Nursing.

There are three core modules that enable you to obtain a PgCert. You will then study modules appropriate to your desired route.
The routes in the Person-Centred Practice Framework seek to influence and enable the transformative processes of personal and professional development through engagement, facilitation and evaluation of person-centred teaching and learning approaches. It is designed to meet the professional needs of practitioners from all disciplines working in a variety of different health and social care settings.
The Framework is innovative and interactive, emphasising application of theory to your practice context. It will enable you to critically engage with, evaluate and synthesise the evidence and research to promote the development and enhancement of person-centred culture and practice. This develops a pro-active, transformative and reflective approach to meeting the public health and social needs of individuals, families, groups and populations.

We are proud of the varied and progressive approaches to learning which we offer and international students are particularly welcome to apply.

Which option is right for me?

MSc Person-Centred Practice - Graduates and practitioners who wish to develop their careers in the broad field of health and social care.

MSc/ PgDip Person-Centred Practice (Mental Health and Wellbeing) - A broad range of health and welfare workers who wish to employ mental health assessment and intervention skills with patients, or clients, in differing acute and community settings’

MSc/ PgDip/ PgCert Person-Centred Practice (Public Health and Wellbeing) - Graduates and practitioners across all sectors who wish to develop their careers in the broad field of public health.

MSc/ PgDip/ PgCert Person-Centred Practice (Palliative Care) - Graduates and practitioners who wish to develop their careers in the broad field of palliative care

PgDip Person-Centred Practice (District Nursing) - Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) Registered Nurses already working in, or wishing to work in, the community in a district nursing capacity.

PgDip Person-Centred Practice (Health Visiting) - Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) Registered Nurses and midwives already working in, or wishing to work in, the community in a health visiting capacity.

PgDip Person-Centred Practice (School Nursing) - Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) Registered Nurses and midwives already working in, or wishing to work in, the community in a school nursing capacity. employers for their expertise.

Exit awards

MSc (180 credits)/ PgDip (120 credits)/ PgCert (60 credits)

Structure

To obtain a specific postgraduate award at QMU you must complete a number of credit-bearing modules. You can exit all routes with a PgCert or PgDip, and some courses also offer an MSc. You can also register as an associate student to complete a single module for CPD. On completion of a single module, you may wish to complete further modules and progress your studies to a named award.

Teaching, learning and assessment

Our teaching, learning and assessment strategy is framed by our core philosophical concepts of personhood, person-centredness, human valuing, healthful relations, human potential and development, and supportive and enabling environments. Central to this strategy is the need for learners to engage in the learning experiences, a readiness to listen and explore, preparedness to be open to experiences and a resolve to keep going. This environment will generate an ethos of engagement and where students can explore and challenge theories, practices and different sources of knowledge creatively in an atmosphere of high challenge and high support.

We achieve this learning environment through a focus on three pillars of learning activity, namely:
• student-centred experiential and collaborative learning;
• reflexivity and critical discourse and
• sustainable and ethical evidence-based teaching.

Students will be supported to challenge their thinking, values and beliefs — through the posing of complex activities and questions — and develop resilient and sustainable approaches to their learning and practice in response to these. Critical to this process is the use of diverse knowledge, scholarly inquiry processes and evidence-informed materials to engage and enliven the processes of learning.

Assessment strategies will encourage application to practice. This will be achieved through the use of varied strategies which draw on the student’s own areas of practice such as portfolio development, practice proposals, annotated bibliographies, simulation events, games, seminar presentations and self-determined contextual assignment topics. Tutor, peer and self-assessment, including within virtual environments (eg HUB@QMU), will be an important component of approaches to formative and summative assessment.

For students undertaking NMC-recognised specialist qualification and registration (District Nursing, Health Visiting, School Nursing), the course is 50% practice-based and requires placement in an approved practice with a Practice Teacher or Sign-off Mentor or Health Visitor Mentor. Placement will be negotiated with your supporting NHS area.

Teaching hours and attendance

Your attendance requirements at QMU will depend on which module you are studying and whether you are studying full-time or part-time.

Links with industry / professional bodies

The routes allow you to gain the higher level knowledge and skills required for advanced practice. They do not gain accreditation with the NMC unless students are undertaking the Specialist Practitioner Qualification in District Nursing or registration as a Specialist Community Public Health Nurse (SCPHN).

Modules

To achieve a PgCert, you will complete:

Theory and Practice of Person-Centred Health and Social Care (30 credits)
Leading Professional Practice (15 credits)
Making Judgements and Decisions in Practice (15 credits)

To achieve a PgDip, you will also undertake a further 60 credits from an array of modules that include:

Developing Professional Practice (15, 30 or 45 credits)
Practice Development for Person-centred Cultures (15 credits)
Health and Wellbeing for the Individual and the Team (15 credits)
Independent study (15 or 30 credits)
Advancing Practice in Clinical Assessment (30 credits)

To achieve a MSc, you will also complete a dissertation (60 credits).

The modules listed above are correct at time of posting (September 2019) but are subject to change following revalidation in 2020. Please check the website for any updates.

Single modules for CPD

Popular Single module - Non-Medical Prescribing (V300 Prescribing)

This module, which is part of the PgDip PCP (District Nursing) is a very popular choice for single module study. The aim of this module is to prepare Nurses and Midwives to prescribe safely and competently within the context of their professional role as Non-Medical Prescribers. The requirements and outcomes of the module are derived from prescribing standards set by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC). For more information visit www.qmu.ac.uk/study-here/continuing-professional-development-cpd-courses/cpd-courses-folder/non-medical-prescribing-v300-prescribing/.

Careers

Graduates have taken up advanced specialist practice and leadership roles within their specialist field of practice.

Entry requirements

Candidates will normally be graduates with evidence of relevant recent academic study.

International: Where your honours degree has not been studied in English, you will be required to provide evidence of English language competence at no less than IELTS 6.5 with no individual component score less than 6.0

Criminal Records Check: For students undertaking NMC approved qualifications a satisfactory criminal records check will be required. Compliance with the terms of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (1974) and mental health legislation for clinical placement and employability in statutory services, for work with children and in other sensitive areas of employment.