Allied health professionals play a vital role in healthcare. This specialised professional development course in independent and supplementary prescribing is designed to support your progress in clinical practice. It reflects the specific needs of allied health professionals and employers and aims to educate students in prescribing practices that meet local or national guidelines.

Key information

Award:

AdvDip(CPD)

Mode of Study:

Part-time

Duration:

26 weeks

Location:

University of Bolton

Start date:

To be confirmed

Course Details

Allied health professionals (AHPs) make up one of the largest and arguably most important groups of professionals in the UK. Increasingly in high demand, AHPs come from a range of medical and related backgrounds, bringing diverse skill sets to their roles.

Ideal for AHPs with at least three years of experience, this course will challenge you to apply planning, cooperation, critical analysis and decision-making skills to your work, taking account of local or national guidelines.

You'll explore a wide range of subjects, including clinical pharmacology, the psychology of prescribing and professional accountability, and have the opportunity to complete practice-based learning under the supervision of your mentor.

The programme is designed to meet the needs of AHPs and their employers. It aims to equip you with the communication skills, diagnostic abilities and legal and professional understanding necessary for safe, appropriate and cost-effective prescribing.

With a professional development qualification in non-medical independent and supplementary prescribing from the University of Bolton, you'll have the chance to build on your knowledge and experience, offer advanced patient care and become more competitive in the jobs market.

This course is known colloquially as V300, although this term is purely an NMC term.

Highlights

Our academic staff have a wealth of industry experience in NHS settings and relevant research positions.
We've been offering high-quality courses specifically designed to meet the needs of the health and social care sector for over 30 years.
This course combines knowledge of theory and practice. We'll support you in developing your prescribing consultation skills and applying your growing understanding of pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics in practice.
When you successfully complete the course, you'll be eligible to register your qualification as an Independent/Supplementary Prescriber with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC). You'll also possess 40 credits at Level HE6 that can be used to contribute to a larger award in the University of Bolton's professional development framework.

Key Features

Our courses are developed to reflect the requirements of the NHS Knowledge and Skills Framework and are updated regularly in accordance with the changing healthcare landscape.
As part of this course, you'll have the opportunity to develop employability skills, values and behaviours, including action planning, personal impact and confidence.
You'll explore how to communicate effectively with patients and carers and assess patients' needs for medicines, taking account of their wishes, values, ethnicity and choices in their treatment.
We review the course curriculum regularly to ensure we incorporate contemporary theories and advancements.
This course is designed to help you achieve your potential and encourages you to take charge of your development to advance your career in healthcare.
Your employer may give you financial support to undertake this course, or you may be self-funded.
When you successfully complete this course, the University of Bolton will award you an Advanced Diploma of CPD in Non-Medical Independent and Supplementary Prescribing for Allied Health Professionals worth 40 credits at Level HE6.

Professional recognition

This course is validated and approved by the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC).

When you successfully complete the course, you'll be eligible to register your qualification as an Independent/Supplementary Prescriber with the Health and Care Professions Council.

You must be registered with the appropriate professional body in the UK and practicing within the UK in order to be eligible to join the course. This means that we’re unable to consider most international applicants.
You must be currently registered as a Physiotherapist, Podiatrist, Paramedic or Therapeutic Radiographer with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC).
You should also have a minimum of three years of appropriate post-registration experience, with the last 12 months specifically in the area of practice where there is an identified need for you to regularly use independent and supplementary prescribing.
You'll become part of a tripartite learning agreement. The other parties are the Academic Assessor and a Designated Practice Educator.
You'll need to arrange to have the support of a Designated Practice Educator in practice who can provide guidance and supervision of your practice-based learning whilst you're on the course. This mentor may be a doctor or appropriate NMP with whom you usually work, and they must meet specific criteria outlined in the Nomination Form. Your mentor will be supplied with full documentation in support of their role.
You'll also need to show that you possess basic computer literacy skills.
To be eligible to register as an Independent/Supplementary Prescriber with the Health and Care Professions Council when you complete this course, you must complete the V300 Nomination Form before you enrol. You can download the V300 Nomination Form from the Health and Education Co-operative's website at https://www.hecooperative.co.uk/nmp-area/nmp-courses-uk/
This course involves regulated activity so you must gain an Enhanced Disclosure certificate from the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) before starting your studies. Charges are payable to cover the cost of the DBS Enhanced Disclosure application and annual registration with the online (Normally your sponsoring organisation will organise this.) Please note that your DBS must have been completed within three years of the course start date.Update Service.
You may be required to attend an interview and/or provide a portfolio of work.
If English isn’t your first language, you’ll also need IELTS 7.0 with normally no less than 6.5 in any band (or equivalent). We also accept a range of other English language qualifications – please visit our English Language Requirements web page for more details.
Please note that this course is subject to the University of Bolton's Fitness to Practise procedure.

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.

Course fees

Home students starting this course in the first year will be required to pay a Home fee of £1,600 for the academic year 2024/25.

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.

Bursaries

Click here for more information about the scholarships and bursaries available to University of Bolton students.

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-team@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.

We take a blended approach offering a combination of face-to-face and online activities, including lectures, workshops, tutorials, role-play, discussions, and e-learning via the virtual learning environment. In classroom sessions, you'll focus mainly on studying the theory of independent and supplementary prescribing.

To cover the fundamentals of practice, we'll expect you to complete 12 days of hands-on experience to develop and demonstrate competence in prescribing within your area of clinical practice. During the course, you'll have access to staff support and meetings with your tutor at least twice each trimester. However, you'll be primarily responsible for managing your learning and must commit to considerable independent study time.

During assessments, you'll need to demonstrate that you can prescribe medicines safely and effectively for patients within the current legal, ethical and professional frameworks relating to prescribing practice. You'll also need to demonstrate that you're competent to prescribe within the context of your clinical placement. We'll expect you to create a portfolio and reflective learning log relevant to your prescribing practice in your own clinical setting. You'll also sit several written examinations, and your Designated Practice Educator will assess your communication, consultation and clinical decision-making skills in practice.

Modules

Non-Medical Independent and Supplementary Prescribing for Allied Health Care Professionals (26 weeks)

Assessment methods

Level	Assesment method
Level one	Coursework 50%, Written exams 50%

Learning activities

Level	Learning activity
Level one	Guided independent study 25%, Placement/study abroad 50%, Scheduled learning and teaching activities 25%

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.