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“At the University of Bolton, we take great pride in providing a quality, supportive learning environment for our students.” Professor George E Holmes DL | President & Vice Chancellor
“...tutors are very supportive and you’re not just a student ID number, at this university you are an individual with a name.” Ellisse Vernon | BSc (Hons) Adult Nursing
This stand-alone professional development course in clinical decision making, Diagnostics and Therapeutics, investigates the diagnostic value and application of commonly used clinical tests. Our expert team will guide you as you learn how to use this information to make decisions regarding clinical care safely, and select appropriate therapeutic options and care pathways.
Key information
Award:
AdvDip(CPD)
Mode of Study:
Part-time
Duration:
14 weeks
Location:
University of Bolton
Start date:
29/01/2024
Course Details
If you’re a practitioner who can take a history and use clinical examination skills, this course offers you the opportunity to develop your knowledge and understanding of how to select the appropriate care for each patient. After successful completion of this course, you‘ll be able to take an undifferentiated patient and form at least a differential diagnosis for common complaints, as well as be aware of some of the rarer conditions that may need to remain in a differential diagnosis. Our dedicated experts will cover all body systems, enabling generalists to perform their roles, and specialists to recognise common presentations outside their usual scope of practice, improving patient safety.
We’ll guide you as you explore commonly used investigations along with their normal and abnormal findings. Supporting you to develop the ability to interpret abnormal findings during the formation of a diagnosis is a key element of this course. These investigations may include a range of diagnostic tests, such as the interpretation of common blood analyses, electrocardiograms, commonly used plain X-Rays and other tests in common usage. In addition, you’ll spend time developing an awareness of other forms of investigations and imaging, and how to interpret the resulting reports.
Once the diagnosis has been achieved, you’ll explore how to select the correct care plan. We’ll focus on medications, but we’ll also help you develop an understanding of when to refer patients to surgical or other services. Throughout the course, understanding and developing approaches to risk, bias and sound clinical decision making will be covered.
Highlights
Our dedicated academic team brings extensive health and social care experience to the course content. Along with their passion for service excellence in health and social care settings, they’re also currently engaged in highly relevant research, which means they can add valuable context and insight to your learning.
The course is designed to provide the flexibility to fit in with busy home and working lives.
Our supportive team will help you develop a comprehensive understanding of common presentations and increase your awareness of rarer presentations.
As you study this course, we’ll encourage you to develop the skills, values and behaviours so popular with employers. These include action planning, personal impact and confidence, self-awareness, social and ethical responsibility, respect, and commitment to quality.
The course is part of a professional development framework, and you can use the credits you’ll gain by completing the course successfully towards the University of Bolton’s MSc Clinical Practice or MSc Health and Social Care.
Key Features
The University of Bolton has been offering high-quality courses designed to meet the health and social care sector’s needs for over 30 years, so we have the knowledge and experience to anticipate and respond to changes in the health and social care sector.
Our courses and programmes respond directly to the requirements of the NHS Knowledge and Skills Framework (KSF), which is at the heart of the career and pay progression aspect of Agenda for Change.
We review the course curriculum regularly to ensure we include and apply contemporary theories and practice.
On successful completion of this course, you’ll be awarded an Advanced Professional Development qualification in Diagnostics and Therapeutics worth 20 credits at Level HE7.
You’re normally expected to have successfully completed an honours degree (or equivalent) in a relevant subject and have appropriate work experience. In most cases, you’ll be a practicing health professional with at least a Lower Second Class Honours degree (2.2) in a subject relevant to health or social care.
You’ll need to have a well-developed understanding of anatomy, disease mechanisms and examination skills before undertaking this module – this will be assessed when you apply. You are advised to complete both our Advanced Professional Development modules in Clinical Examination Skills and Biological Basis of Disease before undertaking this course, or to have a knowledge and skills base that is commensurate with the content and assessment of these modules.
Depending on your previous experience, you may be required to attend an interview and/or provide a portfolio of work.
Where changes are made to material information contained in this course description or a decision is taken to suspend a course between the offer of admissions and enrolment, we will inform applicants at the earliest possible opportunity and will outline the various options available to the applicant.
This course offers academic progression in the specialist field of clinical decision making.
Course fees
Home students starting this course in the first year will be required to pay a Home fee of £800 for the academic year 2023/24.
Overseas students starting this course in the first year will be required to pay a Overseas fee of £800 for the academic year 2023/24.
Important note regarding tuition fees for the 2023-2024 academic year:
EU nationals who meet residency requirements (have settled or pre-settled status) may be eligible for 'Home' fee status.
If you do not meet these residency requirements, overseas fees will apply. Irish citizens living in the UK or Ireland will be eligible for 'Home' fee status under the Common Travel Area arrangement.
Please read the student finance for EU students web page on www.gov.uk for information.
The fees for a student's course of study will be set for the
normal duration of that course subject only to inflationary increases – measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) recorded in
March each year to take effect for subsequent start dates.
For details of how to apply for this course, please choose your status from the options below:
You may apply directly to the University using the University's online application form. Please select your chosen
start date from the list below:
You should have to hand:
Details of the educational establishments you attended and dates
Your certificates for the qualifications you are using to gain entry to the course –
you will need to enter the completion date and upload copies
Details of any employment history including name, address, dates and role
Personal statement – this can be either input into the relevant field or uploaded separately
Details including e-mail addresses of two referees, at least one of which should be
someone who can provide an academic reference
Please make sure any documents you wish to upload in support of your application are in pdf or jpeg format.
Personal statements may be word documents.
Please ensure your data is correct at each stage of the application before you proceed to the next page.
If you use the back button at any time during the application, you should check the validity of the data
you have already input.
If you experience difficulties during the application process, contact the Admissions Team on 01204 903394
or admissions@bolton.ac.uk
International applications are not possible for this course
As an international student you are not allowed to study this course because of the
restrictions on your visa.
We offer a wide range of full-time courses in lots of different subjects, many of our courses start in
September and January. If you would like to see what courses are available please visit our
Course Search.
In this advanced professional development course we’ll use the principles of problem-based learning to help develop your enquiry skills and place this within the context of patient care.
Our experienced team will introduce topics through key note lectures. Afterwards, you’ll be assigned a case history along with a set of investigation results that are pertinent to the topic being developed. You’ll then be expected to research the results during your personal study time before you discuss the case with the wider group at the next session. This approach offers you the opportunity to encounter and learn from a wide range of case histories and abnormal findings. Discussing your thought process and decision-making with the wider group helps to develop your ability to make defensible decisions.
In terms of assessment, you can expect in-class written and practical assessments, and coursework that takes the form of a clinical case study. These contribute to your final module mark and allow you to demonstrate that you have met the learning outcomes.
We also use other forms of assessment to help you learn, provide you with feedback, and inform your development. These do not, however, count towards your final module mark.
Modules
Diagnostics and Therapeutics
Assessment methods
Level
Assesment method
Level one
Coursework 30%, Practical exams 20%, Written exams 50%
Learning activities
Level
Learning activity
Level one
Guided independent study 79%, Scheduled learning and teaching activities 21%
Disclaimer
The university will use all reasonable endeavours to deliver your course as described in its published material and the programme specification for the academic year in which you begin your course. The university considers changes to courses very carefully and the university will minimise any changes. Please be aware that our courses are subject to review on an ongoing basis and changes may be necessary due to legitimate staffing, financial, regulatory and academic reasons. The content of course modules and mode of associated assessments may be updated on an annual basis. This is to ensure that all modules are up-to-date and responsive to employment and sector needs. The published course material and the programme specification contain indicative ‘optional modules’ that may be subject to change due to circumstances outside of our control. For this reason, we cannot guarantee to run any specific optional module.
