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    MMedSci
    2025 start September 

    Advanced Clinical Practice (Paediatrics)

    School of Allied Health Professions, Nursing and Midwifery, Faculty of Health

    Expand the role you play in caring for babies, children and young people, and develop your knowledge, skills and leadership in paediatrics as an advanced clinical practitioner.
    Advanced Clinical Practice (Paediatrics) MMedSci

    Course description

    This course provides training for expanded primary and secondary care roles that focus on babies, children and young people. It’s designed for registered nurses, pharmacists, physiotherapists and related healthcare practitioners within paediatrics who want to work at an advanced level of clinical practice. The course can be taken as a standard degree programme or apprenticeship.

    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.

    Applying

    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 application, please ensure you have been interviewed and secured a trainee ACP post as this will ensure you have the correct funding and supervision in place.

    After this, 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)

    Do you have a question? Talk to us

    Book a 15-minute online meeting with our programme lead to find out more information and ask further questions.

    Book an appointment with Elizabeth Mills or email the ACP team at ahpnm-acpcourse@sheffield.ac.uk.

    Accreditation

    This programme is accredited by the Centre for Advancing Practice.

    Health Education England’s Centre for Advancing Practice has been established to standardise post-registration education by accrediting advanced practice courses that achieve the standards outlined in the multi-professional Advanced Practice Framework.

    Practitioners who have completed accredited education programmes will be eligible to be listed on the Centre’s Advanced Practice Directory.

    Modules

    A selection of modules is available each year - some examples are below. There may be changes before you start your course. From May of the year of entry, formal programme regulations will be available in our Programme Regulations Finder.

    CPD modules

    If you are not ready to apply for the three-year MMedSci programme, most of the modules on this programme can be taken as a standalone CPD module. Find out more on our continuing professional development web pages. 

    Paediatric Episode Management

    This module explores and identifies specialist paediatric knowledge to support the clinical management of common clinical episodes of care in children. The student will augment their advanced clinical skills of comprehensive history taking, assessment, diagnosis and therapeutic management of the sick child by reviewing children in their sphere of practice. The knowledge and skills related to different assessment foci will be explored so that client management and advanced clinical reasoning can be fostered alongside developing justification for differential diagnoses, investigations and treatments.

    15 credits
    Advanced Paediatric Assessment

    Advanced clinical skill development is a key feature of the advanced paediatric clinical practitioner role and the completion of this module will provide advanced paediatric clinical practitioner students with the relevant underpinning anatomy, physiology and pathophysiology knowledge to gain mastery in their role. The knowledge and expertise gained on this module will facilitate mastery and autonomy in comprehensive history taking, assessment, diagnosis and therapeutic management of the sick child. The knowledge and skills related to client management and advanced clinical reasoning will be fostered alongside developing justification for differential diagnoses, investigations and treatments.

    30 credits
    Evidence Based Practice (Online)

    This unit is designed to enable the student to consider sources of knowledge that impact on the development of health and social care practices. The nature of evidence and the skills of searching, retrieval, appraisal, utilisation, dissemination and implementation of evidence will be conceded in the light of health and social care service efficacy. A variety of teaching and learning strategies will be offered to facilitate the development of the knowledge and skills required for evaluation of evidence in practice, culminating in the development of a defensible proposal to support practice/service enhancement.

    15 credits

    The content of our courses is reviewed annually to make sure it's up-to-date and relevant. Individual modules are occasionally updated or withdrawn. This is in response to discoveries through our world-leading research; funding changes; professional accreditation requirements; student or employer feedback; outcomes of reviews; and variations in staff or student numbers. In the event of any change we'll consult and inform students in good time and take reasonable steps to minimise disruption.

    Open days

    An open day gives you the best opportunity to hear first-hand from our current students and staff about our courses.
    Open days and campus tours

    Duration

    3 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.

    Your career

    Graduates from this course can work as advanced clinical practitioners, specialising in paediatrics.

    ACPs are experienced and knowledgeable healthcare professionals who have expanded their scope of practice to better meet the needs of the patients in their care. They’re an integral part of the NHS Long-Term plan, and following graduation, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to progress your career as a highly-skilled, autonomous healthcare leader.

    Past students have gone on to secure senior roles within health settings such as the NHS, The Resuscitation Council and the Department of Health. These roles include:

    • Nurse consultant
    • Research nurse
    • Matron
    • Patient transport lead

    Other students have gone on to find success in teaching roles in UK universities.

    Find out more about Advanced Clinical Practice (Health Education England)

    Entry requirements

    Minimum 2:2 undergraduate honours degree in a health discipline (e.g. nursing, midwifery, pharmacy, physiotherapy, paramedic science).

    Minimum of a grade 4/C in GCSE English Language and Maths or equivalent (please upload evidence of this to your application).

    We also consider a wide range of international qualifications:

    Entry requirements for international students

    We assess each application on the basis of the applicant’s preparation and achievement as a whole. We may accept applicants whose qualifications don’t meet the published entry criteria but have other experience relevant to the course.

    The lists of required degree subjects and modules are indicative only.  Sometimes we may accept subjects or modules that aren’t listed, and sometimes we may not accept subjects or modules that are listed, depending on the content studied.

    English language requirements

    IELTS 7 (with 6.5 in writing and 7 in each other component).

    Other requirements

    You must be a healthcare professional registered with an appropriate professional body e.g. NMC, HPC. You should upload evidence of this to your application.

    You must have been working in the pathway-specific area for a minimum of three years. You must hold a current relevant employment contract in the pathway-specific setting for the duration of the programme for a minimum of 30 hours per week.

    If you have any questions about entry requirements, please contact the school/department.

    Fees and funding

    Fee status help

    Applicants may be eligible through learning beyond registration and NHS grants via their NHS Trust.

    NHS England funding

    Applicants from England may be eligible for full master’s funding from NHS England via the regional faculties for advancing practice.

    Find contact details for your regional faculty

    Apply

    To apply for this course, you must have been interviewed for and secured a trainee advanced clinical practitioner post. After this, you will receive a link to a University of Sheffield online application form and further instructions to complete your application.

    Contact

    ahpnm-acpcourse@sheffield.ac.uk 

    +44 114 222 2030

    Any supervisors and research areas listed are indicative and may change before the start of the course.

    Our student protection plan

    Recognition of professional qualifications: from 1 January 2021, in order to have any UK professional qualifications recognised for work in an EU country across a number of regulated and other professions you need to apply to the host country for recognition. Read information from the UK government and the EU Regulated Professions Database.