Acute Medicine BSc (Hons) / Postgraduate Certificate; MSc; Professional Certificate

Program Overview

Nottingham Trent University's Acute Medicine program empowers healthcare professionals in acute care settings with advanced knowledge and skills in critical assessment and management of patients. Through a blended learning approach, students explore evidence-based practice, acute medicine, and research, preparing them for professional development and career advancement in the field. The course requires students to work within appropriate healthcare settings, fostering the integration of theory and practice.

Program Outline

Degree Overview:

The Acute Medicine course at Nottingham Trent University is designed to support practitioners working in acute care settings to develop critical specialist knowledge and skills in the field of acute medicine care. The program aims to enable students to effectively assess and manage patients within acute care settings, providing person-centered care to individuals with complex conditions. The course values are rooted in a commitment to practice excellence and the delivery of acute nursing care, underpinned by the development of critical thinking to enable students to implement evidence-based practice and service improvement. The course serves as a professional development framework for practitioners and health service providers to meet and advance the standards of practice, develop research skills, and gain relevant qualifications to enhance career progression.

Outline:

The Acute Medicine course is available at the following levels:

• Level 6 Professional Certificate (ProfCert)
• Level 7 Postgraduate Certificate (PGCert)
• Undergraduate degree BSc (Hons)
• Masters degree (MSc)

Modules:

Core Modules (60 credits):

• Fundamentals in Emergency and Acute Medicine (30 credits): This module focuses on contemporary fundamental concepts in Acute Medicine and Emergency Care.
Learners develop core knowledge and critical thinking skills within these specialities. Through a symptom-based focus with constant consideration of application to practice, learners enhance clinical practice by improving their ability to assess patients and plan, manage, and critically evaluate their care. This is achieved through pre-learning, classroom-based, patient scenario, simulation-based activities, and completion of a work-based portfolio.
• Acute Medicine (30 credits): After completing the Fundamentals in Emergency and Acute Medicine, learners on this module focus on the Acute Medicine speciality.
Emphasis is placed on gaining the critical knowledge and enhanced skills required for developing expertise and confidence in this unique speciality. There is a symptom-based approach to the learning and focus on the continuing care of patients.

Core Modules (120 credits):

• Evidence in Clinical Practice (30 credits): This module explores key factors and barriers influencing the adoption of evidence-based practice (EBP) in healthcare.
It examines different types of evidence underpinning clinical practice and helps determine the quality of evidence and its relative value to patient care and outcomes.
• Fundamentals in Emergency and Acute Medicine (30 credits): This module is the same as the Level 6/7 module.
• Acute Medicine (30 credits): This module is the same as the Level 6/7 module.
• Independent Study: Nursing and Health & Social Care Practice (30 credits): This independent study module provides students with the opportunity for originality and intellectual independence into a specific area of their clinical practice.
Students can choose between an impact study (e.g., service evaluation or audit), a clinical change project, or critical review of clinical practice. The module aims to support students in developing a theoretical foundation for their chosen project by providing them with an opportunity to explore and evidence their learning in their chosen field. They will engage in analysis, interpretation, and comparison of data, and integrate the knowledge, understanding, and skills gained from their previous studies.

Core Modules (150 credits):

• Fundamentals in Emergency and Acute Medicine (30 credits): This module is the same as the Level 6/7 module.
• Acute Medicine (30 credits): This module is the same as the Level 6/7 module.
• Research in Nursing, Health and Social Care (30 credits): This module explores contemporary issues and debates in health research.
It prepares students with the knowledge and skills required to undertake research in their chosen field of professional practice.
• Independent Study (60 credits): This module provides students with the opportunity for originality and intellectual independence into a specific area of their practice.
They can choose between an impact study (e.g., service evaluation or audit), a clinical change project, or critical review of practice.

Optional Modules (30 credits):

• Leadership in Nursing, Health & Social Care Practice (30 credits): This module considers contemporary leadership theory, policy, and research and engages learners in critical reflection on their leadership approach.
It aims to support students in developing a critical awareness of different leadership theories and styles, critically analyze the challenges facing leaders working in healthcare and/or social care environments, construct strategies to lead change and innovation in their local area, and consider the role of the leader in addressing resilience of self and colleagues in the healthcare and/or social care environment.
• Maintaining Function and Quality of Life in the Frail Person (30 credits): This module consolidates students' understanding of person-centered care, re-enablement, and the wider determinants of health, and critically evaluates their working practice with emphasis on families and carers as partners in care; and collaborative practice across care settings.
Students will critically reflect on their clinical practice and identify their strengths and limitations, with particular reference to Advanced Care Planning and shared decisions for End of Life Care. The aim is to produce Health Care of Frail People practitioners who demonstrate that they have developed effective and competent practice, informed by appropriate theory, research, and skills to promote optimal outcomes for people living with frailty and comorbidity. Students will be able to demonstrate effective leadership and communication through observed practice and assignment work. The module considers contemporary approaches to the assessment and management of people living with frailty, including management of frailty syndromes, along with strategies to promote patient engagement and participation in self-management. Students will develop their skills to be able to assess, diagnose, and prescribe for a range of conditions, be introduced to the knowledge and skills to work in partnership with other professionals to deliver evidence-based care in diverse health and social care settings, and be equipped with professional values and behaviours to demonstrate self-awareness, leadership, and resilience.
• Clinical Assessment and Management in Emergency and Urgent Care Practice (30 credits): This module aims to produce practitioners who promote optimal outcomes and demonstrate effective and competent practice in clinical assessment and management in both face-to-face and via remote methodologies, for patients presenting with undiagnosed and undifferentiated urgent or emergent injury or illness.
• Contemporary Development in Emergency and Urgent Care Practice (30 credits): This module is designed to support registered health care practitioners working in the Emergency and Urgent Care who want to develop their knowledge and skills in the management of patients presenting with undifferentiated and undiagnosed injury and illness.
• Innovation in Nursing, Health and Social Care Practice (30 credits): In this module, students will explore creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurial thinking in nursing, health, and social care.
They will critically analyze approaches to creative problem solving, and be equipped with the knowledge and skills needed to innovate in response to an ever-changing environment and associated challenges.
• Fundamentals of Neonatal Care (30 credits): In this module, students will gain a critical understanding of anatomy and pathophysiology, which informs neonatal care and therapeutic interventions in the low dependency and special care settings.
Students will critically appraise the psychosocial and cultural needs of the family unit in the neonatal setting, communicate knowledge & associated clinical reasoning to peers drawing on complex situations to synthesize decision making, develop therapeutic relationships between the family unit and the MDT, and develop critical reflective skills to enhance personal & professional development.
• Fundamentals of Renal Care (30 credits): This module aims to develop a critical understanding of acute kidney injury and chronic kidney disease.
The module considers contemporary approaches to the assessment and management of renal conditions, along with strategies to promote patient engagement and participation in self-management.
• Contemporary Approaches in Renal Disease (30 credits): This module aims to develop a critical understanding of active therapeutic interventions which are used in the management of renal pathology.

Teaching:

The teaching strategy is multi-modal and adopts a blended approach, with a clear commitment to face-to-face teaching and learning supported by online learning materials, small group discussions, presentations, and practical exercises. Lectures develop students' subject knowledge and understanding and aim to build on previous learning. Throughout the course, each module encourages students to not only examine the knowledge and skills requirements for advanced and competent practice but also explore specific themes based upon experiences in practice. This allows students to integrate learning across the "theory and practice" divide and emphasize the importance of the practice component. Where appropriate, learning on the course is led and enhanced by the contributions of external professional staff with specialist expertise. This co-delivery of education enables learners to benefit from both clinical and academic expertise to augment their learning and provides a symbiotic approach to professional development.

Assessment:

• Prof/PG Certificate: Viva, Observed structured clinical examination, Written assignment, Multiple choice questions, Portfolio
• BSc: Critical review of the literature, Viva, Observed structured clinical examination, Written assignment, Multiple choice questions, Project report, Portfolio

Other:

The course is designed in collaboration with specialist colleagues from Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) NHS Trust. Students should work within an appropriate healthcare setting while studying this course. This will enable students to reflect on their current practice and apply the knowledge and skills that are learned throughout the course. The course will also use case studies relating to the specialty and workplace along with discussion of professional practice to facilitate the integration of theory and practice.