Advanced Clinical Practice (General Practice) Apprenticeship
Take your healthcare career to the next level as an advanced clinical practitioner. This apprenticeship enables you to expand the scope of your practice and become a leader within general practice.
Programme description
Programme lead: Liz Mills
This page refers to the Advanced Clinical Practice (General Practice) apprenticeship course. The programme is also available as a traditional masters’ programme.
This course gives you the knowledge and skills required to play an expanded role in providing care for your patients. It’s designed for registered nurses, pharmacists, physiotherapists, paramedics and related healthcare practitioners within general practice who want to work at an advanced level of clinical practice.
Our programme covers all four pillars of advanced clinical practice: clinical practice, leadership and management, education, and research. You will gain advanced skills in anatomy, history taking and clinical examination, develop your understanding of evidence-based practice and learn how to deal with complex clinical situations and improve patient services. You’ll also cover the training necessary to become an independent prescriber.
You’ll be taught by a multidisciplinary team of academics and practitioners, who are experienced in supporting mature and distance learners. You will combine your university studies with work-based learning under the supervision of a local mentor - usually a GP - who can support and assess your knowledge, skills and capabilities.
In your final year you’ll enter Gateway, a period of time between completing your university training and your final end-point assessment (EPA) during which you’ll demonstrate the knowledge, skills and behaviours that you’ve gained throughout the course.
Find out more about Advanced Clinical Practice (Health Education England)
Accreditation
Both our standard and apprenticeship programmes have received accreditation from the Centre for Advancing Practice.
The course is also fully aligned with the ACP integrated degree standards set out by the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE).
Duration
Three years, part time
Teaching
You will learn through lectures, skills workshops, simulations, seminars, case-based discussions, supervised clinical practice, tripartite reviews and reflection.
Assessment
You will be assessed through case presentations, reports, examinations including objective structured clinical exams (OSCEs), presentations, essays and a specialist electronic portfolio.
At the end of your three years, you will complete an End Point Assessment (EPA).
Entry requirements
You will:
- have a minimum 2:2 undergraduate honours degree in a health discipline (e.g. nursing, midwifery, pharmacy, physiotherapy, paramedic science)
- be a qualified UK-registered healthcare professional, working in the pathway-specific area for a minimum of three years
- hold a current trainee advanced clinical practitioner contract in the pathway-specific setting for the duration of the programme for a minimum of 30 hours per week
Other requirements
- GCSEs: Grade 4/C or above in Maths and English Language
Local mentor
You will need to identify a local mentor who will agree to help, support and supervise you during the programme.
International qualifications
We also consider a wide range of international qualifications:
Entry requirements for international students
English language requirements
Overall IELTS score of 7.0 with 6.5 in each other component, or equivalent.
Apply
It can take up to six weeks for an offer to be made. Please do not contact us for a decision before this time has passed.
Before you complete your University of Sheffield application, you must have been interviewed for and secured a trainee advanced clinical practitioner post. This will ensure you have the correct funding and supervision in place. As an apprentice, you must be employed by your organisation for a minimum of 30 hours per week to undertake a job with training to recognised industry standards.
Once you have completed all the apprenticeship requirements you will receive a link to a University of Sheffield online application form and be asked to download and complete our ACP admissions checklist. Your completed checklist and all required information should then be uploaded to the application form for your programme. Failure to do this will mean your application can not be considered.
HCPC registrants can also apply if they already hold the independent prescriber qualification.
HEE 4 Pillars (Professional Framework)
Fees and funding
Full funding for the cost of the apprenticeship programme fee is available for levy-paying employers (up to the relevant funding cap).
Partial funding for the cost of the apprenticeship programme fee is available for non levy-paying employers (up to the relevant funding cap). The government will fund up to 90% of the apprenticeship programme fees.