Course Enquiries - UK
Tel: 0207 815 7500
Mode: Part-time
Advanced practitioners are now in demand in all sectors of the health service. This course provides the opportunity to study with the highly regarded School of Health and Social Care at LSBU, which has over 20 years experience educating nurses and more recently allied health professionals and pharmacists to work safely and effectively at an advanced level of clinical practice.
There are three routes available: Adult, Child and Mental Health. Each has been has been designed to equip graduates with the knowledge, skills and behaviours commensurate with the Health Education England Multiprofessional Framework for Advanced Clinical Practice in England (2017). This comprises of four pillars (Clinical Practice, Management/Leadership, Education and Research) with a range of capabilities specified under each.
Our course provides thorough preparation not only for advanced nurse practitioners, but also for advanced clinical practitioners and health professionals who wish to work at a higher level of practice.
It has been developed for both experienced qualified registered nurses and other health professionals working in primary, secondary and tertiary healthcare settings.
Other distinctive features of the course:
Mode | Duration | Start date | Location |
---|---|---|---|
Mode Mental Health, Part-time |
Duration 3 years |
Start Date January; September |
Location
Southwark Campus
|
Mode Mental Health, Part-time (Slow track) |
Duration 4 years |
Start Date January; September |
Location
Southwark Campus
|
Mode Child, Part-time |
Duration 3 years |
Start Date January; September |
Location
Southwark Campus
|
Mode Child, Part-time (Slow track) |
Duration 4 years |
Start Date January; September |
Location
Southwark Campus
|
Mode Adult, Part-time |
Duration 3 years |
Start Date January; September |
Location
Southwark Campus
|
Mode Adult, Part-time (Slow track) |
Duration 4 years |
Start Date January; September |
Location
Southwark Campus
|
The course will be taken on a part-time, one-day-a-week basis. The full MSc comprises six 20 credit modules plus either the Non Medical Prescribing module (40 credits) or the alternative of a core 20 credit module and a 20 credit optional module.
Students will normally study between 40 – 60 credits per academic year depending on their desired rate of progression with an overall MSc ACP duration of 3 or 4 years up to a maximum timeframe of 5 years.
Further details of the modules related to the Adult, Child and Mental Health routes are provided on accessing the application link.
Each route includes the option for students to study the 40 credit Non Medical Prescribing course to become independent prescribers to better meet patient’s needs and provision of timely treatment. Current prescribing legislation enables nurses, midwives, physiotherapists, pharmacists, chiropodists, podiatrists, therapeutic radiographers and paramedics to train to become independent prescribers.
For other healthcare professionals who are currently unable to undertake the Prescribing course due to legislative restrictions, we offer an alternative package comprising two 20 credit modules:
Our graduates are making a positive impact on patient care and service innovation in general practices, urgent care centres, ambulatory care, emergency departments, projects for refugees, asylum seekers and homeless populations, elderly care facilities, “out of hours” developments, rapid response services, intermediate care teams, prison services, acute medical and surgical teams, critical-care outreach and many specialist hospital services.
Other areas include paediatric primary, secondary and tertiary services and retrieval teams. In mental health, our students are making their mark in psychiatric liaison and services for clients with serious mental illness, giving more holistic care that takes into account their physical health existing and potential needs.
Most of our graduates have gained employment as advanced practitioners. Some have gone on to become lead nurses within social enterprises, nurse partners in general practices, representatives on commissioning boards and consultant nurses.
We currently have or have had students from over 55 trusts across London and the surrounding area, as well as renowned centres of excellence for children and mental health services.
We are University of the Year for Graduate Employment for the second year in a row - The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2018, 2019.
At LSBU, we want to set you up for a successful career. During your studies – and for two years after you graduate – you’ll have access to our Employability Service, which includes:
Our Student Enterprise team can also help you start your own business and develop valuable entrepreneurial skills.
The course is RCN accredited. Their standards are currently the only quality marker for advanced practitioner preparation in England. While not all of the students undertaking this course will be nurses, other healthcare professionals will benefit from the rigorous standards set by the RCN.
Accreditation indicates that this course has been evaluated against 15 standards and associated criteria for educational preparation, and judged to prepare practitioners to an advanced level (RCN, 2018).
Recent guest lecturers include:
Each 20 credit module accounts for 200 hours of total student effort. This typically comprises of 36 – 42 classroom contact hours, 14 blended learning activity hours and practice-based learning hours (equivalent to a minimum of 3 hours per week). Students should undertake private study for a minimum of 11 hours per module, per week.
The course starts with a two-day induction to orientate students to the university and the course. Students then attend on a one-day-a-week part-time basis. Teaching sessions are delivered in the morning or afternoon according to the module timetable. There are no evening or weekend teaching sessions. Assessments normally take place in January for Semester 1 modules and May/June for Semester 2 modules.
The academic year at LSBU is organised into two semesters. Each module is normally run over a semester comprising 15 weeks, where the final week is focused on completion of assessments. Attendance is also required for workshops to develop specific knowledge and skills. Dates are provided with sufficient notice to allow for planning.
The teaching team are all experienced Senior Lecturers. They have all worked as advanced practitioners and most continue to do so regularly.
A range of strategies are used for assessment on this course:
Students on this course do not undertake placements in the traditional sense. Rather learning takes place primarily within their workplace. The term “practice based learning” is used on this course to describe any learning that takes place within a clinical setting.
One of the key requirements for the course is that the practice experience provides learning opportunities that enable students to achieve the course learning outcomes (RCN, 2018). This is particularly important for preparation for a course of this nature; for any students, even those with many years of experience, some of the areas covered by the programme will be new, such as history-taking, physical examination skills, ordering and interpreting investigations, making differential diagnoses, pharmacology, and mental health assessment, etc.
This can be formally planned, organized to meet specific learning needs and opportunistic. It encompasses individual activities through to formal teaching with mixed professional groups within the workplace.Focused practice based learning activities are specified for this course in a Practice Based Learning Handbook. These activities complement classroom learning and are intended to develop the student’s clinical and professional scope of practice to an advanced level.
In order to ensure this happens, aspects of learning in practice are purposely structured and assessed. To achieve this we require that every student spends the equivalent of a minimum of 3 hours per week working in a “supernumerary capacity” in order to focus specifically on their clinical and professional development. This requirement extends beyond the University semesters to include the Christmas, Easter and summer periods
Practice Based Learning is supported through identification of a doctor/qualified advanced practitioner to act as the student’s “Practice Facilitator” to initially supervise and subsequently support their clinical development.
The Practice Facilitator must be either:
For both, they need to have been working in the same organisation and setting as the student for a minimum of one year.
Other experienced senior clinicians can also support student development. Details of these activities and the role of the Practice Facilitator are provided in the Practice Based Learning Handbook.They are also reviewed and discussed at a specific session for students and their Practice Facilitators within the induction, at the start of the course.
Evidence of practice based learning (36 hours of direct supervision and 180 hours of indirect supervised clinical practice), review of specific competencies and feedback on progress is used as one of the elements of assessment on specified modules.
For those students who take the Non Medical Prescribing module, this has its own arrangements for recording practice based learning, including a verified log of clinical hours to account for a minimum of 78 hours for nurses, midwives, and AHP’s and 90 hours for pharmacists. A minimum of one third must be under direct supervision of their Practice Assessor of 26 or 30 hours respectively.
The LSBU criteria for the Practice Assessor are:
In order to be considered for entry to the course, applicants will be required to have the following:
Applicants must also be able to demonstrate employer support for all of the following (even where individuals are self-funding) for the applicant to undertake this course at LSBU:
International (non Home/EU) applicants should follow our international how to apply guide.
Mode | Duration | Start date | Application code | Application method |
---|---|---|---|---|
Mode Mental Health, Part-time |
Duration 3 years |
Start date January; September |
Application code 5533 |
Application method |
Mode Mental Health, Part-time (Slow track) |
Duration 4 years |
Start date January; September |
Application code 5534 |
Application method |
Mode Child, Part-time |
Duration 3 years |
Start date January; September |
Application code 5535 |
Application method |
Mode Child, Part-time (Slow track) |
Duration 4 years |
Start date January; September |
Application code 5536 |
Application method |
Mode Adult, Part-time |
Duration 3 years |
Start date January; September |
Application code 5537 |
Application method |
Mode Adult, Part-time (Slow track) |
Duration 4 years |
Start date January; September |
Application code 5538 |
Application method |
Apply for this course through the online CPPD prospectus.
Home/EU postgraduate students and research students should apply through our dedicated application system.
Full details of how to do this are supplied on our How to apply section for postgraduate students and our How to apply section for research students.
International applicants should use our international application system. Full details can be found on our How to apply section for international students.
See our admissions policy (PDF File 1,043 KB) and complaints policy (PDF File 516 KB).
Your application will be circulated to a number of potential supervisors who will look at your academic qualifications, experience and the research proposal to decide whether your research interest is something that could be supervised at LSBU.
There will also be an interview either by telephone or at the University. If you are successful you will be offered a place on a course and informed of the next enrolment date. The whole process normally takes between six to eight weeks, from receipt of your application to a decision being made about your application at the School.
We help our students prepare for university even before the semester starts. To find out when you should apply for your LSBU accommodation or student finance read the How to apply tab for this course.
Before you start your course we’ll send you information on what you’ll need to do before you arrive and during your first few days on campus. You can read about the process on our Enrolment pages.
Speak with your employer/trust regarding professional development funding that may be available to you.
The individual fee for this course is shown above. For more information, including how and when to pay, see our fees and funding section for postgraduate students.
See our Tuition Fees Regulations (PDF File 201 KB) and Refund Policy (PDF File 775 KB).
We have a range of PhD Scholarships available in partnership with businesses and organisations; read notices of PhD studentships.
Course Enquiries - UK
Tel: 0207 815 7500
Order a prospectus