Assessment of Minor Injuries and Illness for Advanced Practice

This module is intended to develop your clinical skills, knowledge and critical understanding of minor injury and illness assessment to an advanced level, applicable to your own field of practice. You will develop your skills in patient consultation, history-taking, and physical assessment of patients who present with undifferentiated and undiagnosed minor injuries and illness. You will learn how to distinguish between normal and abnormal findings. On completion of the module, you will be working at/towards advanced clinical practice.

This module is suitable for nurses and healthcare professionals working in acute and unscheduled care settings, such as emergency departments, walk in clinics, urgent care centres, primary care or other community and first contact settings. This includes, but is not limited to, paramedics, practice nurses, nurse practitioners, pharmacists and practitioners in similar areas, such as occupational health or working in the criminal justice system. It can be taken as a stand-alone module, or as part of the MSc in Advanced Clinical Practice (MSc ACP) or Advanced Practice Health & Social Care (MSc APHSC).

The module explores the assessment of the following systems:

• Musculoskeletal
• Ophthalmology and ENT
• Abdominal and respiratory
• Wound and soft tissue
• Dermatology

Please note that this module encompasses assessment skills only, and there is no management content included. If you wish to focus on the management aspect, please look at the module which follows this one – APM051: Management of Minor Injuries and Illness for Advanced Practice.

Who is it for?

This module is suitable for nurses and healthcare professionals working in acute and unscheduled care settings.

Timetable

The course consists of five study days, of 6 hours each. As well as this 30 hours of classroom-based teaching, students are also expected to undertake 120 hours of self-directed study.

Study days are as follows:

*Term 2 - 2026-7 (Provisional dates)*

Monday 25 January2026
Monday 8 February 2026
Monday 22 February2026
Monday 8 March 2026
Monday 22 March 2026

Benefits

The course aims to contribute to the development of a practitioner who can fulfil the competencies and domains implicit in advanced practice, and so on completion of the course, it is expected that you will be working towards the goal of advanced practice.

By the end of the course you will be able to demonstrate success in the following areas:

Knowledge and understanding

• Utilise a variety of structured approaches in the assessment of patients presenting with minor injuries and illness
• Competently use diagnostic, interpersonal and clinical examination skills to assess individuals presenting with minor ailments and injuries
• Detect symptoms which suggest significant pathology (red flags) and evaluate physical signs to differentiate between normal and abnormal
• Advance your role beyond previous practice.

Skills

• Elicit an age-appropriate comprehensive health history using skillful consultation with the patient and/or family
• Use a presenting problem to guide your assessment strategy Demonstrate competence in assessment techniques of different systems, including musculo-skeletal, ENT and ophthalmological
• Develop skills in recognising normal and abnormal findings
• Demonstrate safe and effective use of diagnostic equipment.

Values and attitudes

• Demonstrate compassion in care delivery based on empathy, respect and dignity
• Demonstrate professionalism and expertise when working in partnership with clients and colleagues
• Critically reflect on an assessment you have undertaken and respond constructively to feedback.

You will be taught through a variety of methods including lectures, guided independent study and tutorials.

The assessment is a 3,000-word critical evaluation essay detailing the clinical assessment of a patient. As this module is at level 7, it is desirable that you have previously studied at least at level 6.

Success in the course will result in the award of 15 credits at Level 7, and a transcript.

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

Credits

This course is worth 15 credits toward eligible programmes.

Participants should be registered health professionals with a minimum of two years post-qualification experience. You should be working in a healthcare setting where you see patients presenting with minor injury and/or illness. Relevant workplace opportunities and organisational support should be in place to enable you to achieve successful completion of the module.

For further information please contact Tanya at:

xbbc300@city.ac.uk

English requirements

For those students whose first language is not English, the following qualification is also required: IELTS:  7.0

Essential reading:

Davies, F. Bruce, C. E. and Taylor-Robinson, K. J. (2017) Emergency Care of Minor Trauma in Children. 3rd edn. London. CRC Press.

Hill-Smith, I., Johnson, G., Reyner, L. and Bakhai, C. (2019) Little Book of Red Flags: Recognising the symptoms of serious illness. Clinical Edition. Bedfordshire. NMIC Publishing.

Johnson, G., Hill-Smith, I and Bakhai, C. (2024) The Minor Illness Manual. 6th edn. Boca Raton. CRC Press

Purcell, D. (2022) Minor Injuries: A Clinical Guide for Nurses. 4th edn. Edinburgh. Churchill Livingstone.

Students will be advised of further recommended reading prior to the start of the course. It is advisable that you review your A&P so that you are familiar with it prior to each study day.