Advanced Clinical Practice (Neonatal) Apprenticeship

Play a leading role in caring for newborn babies, and expand your clinical knowledge and practical skills in neonatal care as an advanced clinical practitioner.

Postgraduate on the Advanced Neonatal Nurse Practitioner course
On

Programme description

Programme lead: Liz Mills

This page refers to the Advanced Clinical Practice (Neonatal) apprenticeship course. The programme is also available as a traditional masters’ programme.

Expand the role you play in neonatal care and the support you provide for newborn babies. This course is designed for registered nurses, midwives and related healthcare professionals within neonatal care who want to build on their experience to become an advanced clinical practitioner. 

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 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 (such as nursing, midwifery, pharmacy, physiotherapy or 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.

Other English language qualifications we accept


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.


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