Cert(CPD) Continuing Professional Development Certificate in First Contact Practice in Primary Care

Program Overview

Course Details

First contact practitioners (FCPs) work as diagnostic clinicians at the first point of contact in primary care. This stand-alone professional development certificate is ideal if you're an experienced allied health professional seeking to become an FCP. To complete this course, you must undertake a minimum of 75 hours of clinical practice learning in primary care under the supervision of a suitably qualified clinical mentor.

The University of Bolton's expert team will support you in developing the complex clinical reasoning skills demanded for the FCP role. We'll help you build the knowledge and understanding needed to assess and diagnose issues, advise patients on managing their conditions, and refer them to specialist services when necessary. You'll learn about patient presentation at the first point of contact, including emergency presentations and the presentation of chronic conditions. You'll explore the clinical management of patients in primary care, helping you determine whether to refer, test or treat them. We'll consider red flag symptoms in cancer diagnosis, disease progression, acute oncology and oncological emergencies and discuss their clinical management. We'll also emphasise communication and consultation skills and explore alternative consultation styles and the use of digital assessment tools.

Our experienced and knowledgeable team will promote your understanding of the primary care landscape, referral pathways and processes, national policies and guidelines, clinical targets, quality frameworks, and the role of FCPs in primary care. We'll encourage you to consider the implications for patients and staff based in secondary and tertiary care. You'll explore the clinical and safeguarding issues for vulnerable groups, including paediatrics, older people, people with dementia and those with learning disabilities. By encouraging you to consider patient safety, service development, and innovation to improve patients' experiences, we hope to prepare you to facilitate quality improvements in primary care.

Throughout the course, we promote your capacity for advanced clinical thinking, clinical reasoning and higher-level clinical practice skills. We aim to support you in developing a critical awareness and comprehensive understanding of the presentation, assessment and clinical management of patients at the first point of contact, including evaluating the need for investigations and referrals for patients with complex and undifferentiated diagnoses.

Please note that if you do not already have suitable employment in primary care, you'll need to secure an appropriate placement before enrolling on this course.

Highlights

Key Features

Program Outline

This professional development course offers academic and professional progression in the specialist field of first contact practice in primary care. Completing this short course will support you to become an FCP if you're an allied health professional.

You can take this course as a stand-alone module or as part of our PgCert First Contact Practice in Primary Care. After completing this course, you may wish to pursue one of the University of Bolton's postgraduate degrees in MSc Advanced Clinical Practice.