Advanced Clinical Assessment, Critical Thinking and Diagnostic Reasoning Across the Lifespan

This course will develop your skills in patient assessments and diagnosis, allowing you to gain experience using a systematic and comprehensive approach to clinical assessment. It’s designed for healthcare professionals who are working in or towards an advanced or enhanced healthcare role.

It’s a face-to-face course teaching diagnostic decision making alongside clinical assessment. Often these two elements are taught separately, even though they’re inextricably linked.

The course builds the links between theoretical biology and the applied process of assessing a patient. You’ll understand how different conditions manifest in a patient and what signs can lead you to a diagnosis. You’ll also develop your knowledge of clinical decision making processes.

Our lecturers are all current healthcare practitioners, who share their own clinical experiences along with their extensive theoretical knowledge.

Who is it for?

This course is for registered healthcare professionals. Anyone working in a profession that is registered with the Health & Care Professions Council or the Nursing and Midwifery Council is welcome to apply. Nurses, physiotherapists, radiographers, occupational therapists, paramedics and pharmacists are among those who would benefit from this course.

Timetable

This course runs over 14 weeks with one study day per week between 9am and 5pm.

There will be 2 intakes per term for 2024/5 - one running on a Wednesday and one running on a Thursday.

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Term 1

Wednesday intake:

Sep: Wednesday 18 and 25 September 2024
Oct: Wednesday 2, 9, 16 and 30 October 2024 
Nov: Wednesday 6, 13, 20 and 27 November 2024 
Dec: Wednesday 4 and 11 December 2024

Thursday intake:

Sep: Thursday 19 and 25 September 2024
Oct: Thursday 3, 10, 17 and 31 October 2024
Nov: Thursday 7, 14, 21 and 28 November 2024
Dec: Thursday 5 and 12 December 2024

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Term 2
*No further applications are being accepted for this intake as we have reached full capacity.

Wednesday intake:

Jan: Wednesday 22 and 29 January 2025 
Feb: Wednesday 5, 12 and 19 February 2025
Mar: Wednesday 5, 12, 19 and 26 March 2025
Apr: Wednesday 2, 9 and 16 April 2025

Thursday intake:

Jan: Thursday 23 and 30 January 2025
Feb: Thursday 6, 13 and 20 February 2025 
Mar: Thursday 6, 13, 20 and 27 March 2025
Apr: Thursday 3, 10 and 17 April 2025

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Term 3

Due to high demand applications have now closed for this intake with a long waitlist in place. Our next intake will run in September 2025 - applications will be open for 2025/6 this summer.

Wednesday intake:

Apr: Wednesday 30 April 2025
May: Wednesday 7, 14, 21 and 28 May 2025
Jun: Wednesday 4, 11, 18 and 25 June 2025
Jul: Wednesday 2, 9, 16 and 23 July 2025

Thursday intake:

May: Thursday 1, 8, 15, 22 and 39 May 2025 
Jun: Thursday 5, 12, 19 and 26 June 2025
Jul: Thursday 3, 10, 17 and 24 July 2025

Benefits

You’ll develop a tangible set of skills that give you the confidence to carry out systematic patient examinations across all the core body systems. You’ll also learn to apply key clinical decision making processes in your work.

By developing different ways of thinking and making decisions, you can take all your experience of working in healthcare and apply it in new ways to benefit patients.

This course also provides an excellent foundation for any professionals who want to go into prescribing.

This short course module is designed to be flexible in allowing you to study and reach your goals at your own pace. Our health CPD courses are credit-bearing modules that contribute to a University degree or award.

Transfer course credits towards postgraduate taught degree

As a health care professional, once you've completed this course you could offset 30 credits as part of a postgraduate programme, continuing your study with further modules to make up a Postgraduate Certificate (PGCert) 60 credits, Postgraduate Diploma (PGDip) 120 credits or Master of Science (MSc) 180 credits qualification (all credits must be awarded within five years of study commencing).

This course is about developing your clinical decision making and advanced assessment and diagnostic skills to help you provide better care for patients.

You’ll build on your existing knowledge and skills by drawing on relevant theoretical, clinical and research perspectives related to effective patient consultation and physical assessment.

The course also focuses on holistic and humanistic care. You’ll be encouraged to take a collaborative approach to patient management, referral and discharge.

The course content includes:

• Patient consultation, history taking and documentation techniques
• Special considerations of child, infant and older adult assessment
• Use of equipment in physical assessment
• The General Survey
• Systems approach assessments (to include where relevant inspection, palpatation, percussion and auscultation)
  • Integumentary and lymphatic assessment
  • Head, neck, eye and vision assessment
  • Ear, nose and throat assessment
  • Cardiovascular assessment
  • Respiratory assessment
  • Abdominal/gastrointestinal assessment
  • Genitourinary assessment
  • Neurological assessment
  • Muskuloskeletal assessment.

By the end of this course, you’ll be able to:

• Take a comprehensive, age-appropriate patient health history
• Carry out enhanced or advanced patient assessments, critcally evaluating the patient’s biophysical and psychosocial evidence to come to a working diagnosis
• Critically evaluate the biological and psychological evidence to physically assess and manage the patient
• Conduct assessments across all of the body’s key systems and demonstrate competence in examination techniques including inspection, palpatation, percussion and auscultation
• Draw distinctions between normal biophysical findings and findings suggestive of patient-specific deviations
• Formulate evidence-based diagnoses and determine appropriate therapeautic interventions
• Recognise problems, consider credible problem solving approaches and initiate evidence-based therapeautic interventions
• Create action plans based on scientific rationales and appropriate evidence-based standards and practice guidelines
• Critically evaluate and interpret the history of the chief complaint, related problems, presenting symptoms, physical findings and diagnostic information
• Critically evaluate the effectiveness of the evidence-based therapeautic interventions
• Share considerable knowledge and expertise with other health and social care teams and guide their learning and practice.

Teaching

This course is taught in one, 13-week term. You’ll attend the university for one day per week during this time. You’ll receive 13 weeks of teaching, with an oral presentation exam in the final (14th) week.

The majority of the lecturers who teach on this course still work in clinical roles and see patients on a regular basis. They have a wealth of experience of working in modern healthcare environments that they’ll share with you.

You’ll have access to the virtual learning environment (VLE) where you can find materials to help you prepare for each week’s sessions.

Most weeks are a blend of biology teaching, theory sessions in the classroom, and tutorials where you will discuss and present on clinical cases. You will also have two full days in the clinical skills lab to consolidate your skills in clinical examination.

Assessment

There are three components to the assessment for this course:

• An oral presentation examination at the university where you will demonstrate your critical thinking and diagnostic reasoning
• A skills validation portfolio with a mentor in your own practice setting. To complete this assessment you are required to work under supervision for 90 hours carring out history taking and clinical examination of different body systems
• A 3,000-word critical reflection essay about a patient that you have assessed in your own practice.

You must achieve at least 50% in the essay to pass. Both the OSCE and skills validation portfolio are pass/fail assessments.

Award

This is an accredited CPD course that’s worth 30 credits at masters level. It can also be used as evidence for your revalidation. You’ll receive a certificate of completion at the end of the course.

This is also a core module on the MSc Advanced Clinical Practioner.

This course is provided by the School of Health & Psychological Sciences.

Credits

This course is worth 30 credits toward eligible programmes.

You need to be a practicing healthcare professional working in or moving into an enhanced or advanced role, with at least three, but ideally five or more, years’ experience. Ideally you’ll have a degree of 2.2 or above. However, we do accept applicants without a first degree, as long as they can provide evidence that they can work at the required academic level and have access to a suitable clinical mentor, e.g. a GMC registered doctor or an advanced clinical practitioner.

Non EEA students can only apply as part of a programme, not as a stand-alone course.

1. Should have a first degree at 2.2 and above.
   1. Where applicant has not got the above, they must show they are capable of studying at M level with a current academic programme at level 6 and above.
2. Must have at least 2 years post registration experience.
3. Should be at least Band 6 or above.
4. Must be working in an area where advanced assessment skills are utilised or have intention of doing so or looking at undertaking the Non-medical prescribing course.
   1. Where applicant is currently undertaking locum work(Agency) they must fulfil no. 5 below.
5. Must have mentor or supervisor working at Advanced level or Doctor.
6. Must be committed to attend all lectures/seminars for the duration of the course.

English requirements

If your first language is not English, one of the following is required:

• A first degree from a UK university
• A first degree from an overseas institution recognised by City, University of London as providing adequate evidence of proficiency in the English language, for example, from institutions from Australia, Canada or the United States of America.
• International English Language Test Service (IELTS) a score of 7.0 is required with no subtest below 7.0
• Pearson Test of English (Academic) score 72 required
• TOEFL 100 overall with 24 in Writing, 20 in Listening, 19 Reading and 20 Speaking
• Other evidence of proficiency in the English language, which satisfies the board of studies concerned, including registration with your professional regulator.