Person Centred Care Applications in Healthcare

During this course, you will learn about the core theoretical principles of person-centred care, and consider how they can be applied across a range of health and care services through optimised techniques, customised communication, and appropriate used to specialised equipment.

This course is tailed to be inclusive of the needs of different populations accessing health and care services and the professionals  who provide them.

Who is it for?

Recent healthcare graduates and postgraduate learners, clinical practitioners, managers, researchers, and educators who wish to advance their knowledge and understanding of the principles of person-centred healthcare.

Timetable

Term 3

Monday 22, Tuesday 23, and Wednesday 24 June 2026

Tutorial: A dedicated tutorial to support learners with their coursework assignment will be arranged in early July 2026 (date to be confirmed)

Benefits

This short course brings together professionals from a diverse range of healthcare backgrounds to share knowledge, experiences, and personal insights in a supportive, multi-disciplinary learning environment. Learning is facilitated by individuals with lived experience, as well as educators and researchers.

This short course is designed to be flexible in supporting 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.

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 15 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 will offer an introduction to the theoretical principles of person-centred care, and further consider key concepts and terminologies to recognise care implications for different patient groups and health conditions, and how these may affect the patient journey. It will also offer detailed examples, presented by a range of invited speakers, of how individuals’ experiences of health and care services can be enhanced through personalised care approaches. Indicative course content includes conditions such as dementia, cancer, and chronic pain, as well as individual, cultural and social factors such as neurodivergence, ethnicity, religion, and gender.

Knowledge and understanding:

* Examine contemporary guidelines in person-centred care practice and consider how inclusive these are in relation to different health conditions.

* Explore the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of person-centred care provisions for the patients, staff, for the profession, and the NHS.

* Develop knowledge on how to expertly identify within current relevant literature a relevant clinical question to investigate, focussing on impact of person-centred care on clinical practice, workflows and patient pathway

Skills:

* Justify the importance, relevance of person-centred care for everyone in healthcare settings.

* Critically evaluate literature and other research work related to this topic.

* Develop the ability to recognise a person with a hidden disability.

* Practise communication techniques to help the patients state their needs to healthcare professionals

Values and attitudes:

* Demonstrate respect for the intellectual work of others in the field by accurate referencing of published work

* Respect privacy and confidentiality

* Respect the opinions of others and behave with integrity

* Consider the ethical and practical implications of the lack of clear person-centred care guidelines in your practice.

Teaching

You will be taught through lectures, workshops, and online discussions, supplemented by self-directed study using relevant scientific and grey literature.

Your lectures will be taught on-campus, in person, alongside other postgraduate healthcare students and clinical professionals. Live class discussions will provide you with the opportunity to learn through sharing of best practice and genuine lived experiences. You are actively encouraged to ask questions; listening to, and reflecting on key concepts such as patient personhood, and considerations for enhancing patient experiences. You will also be expected to interact with your colleagues by actively contributing to discussions via the online forum.

Assessment

You will be assessed by a written essay on a case study of your choice relating to your practice and how you could provide truly person-centred care. You will receive formative feedback on your proposed essay topic and suggestions for person-centred approaches to care.

You are also required to engage with your peers on key topics of person-centred care via the online discussion forum over a minimum of five online forum posts.

Learning Routes

This module has two routes namely, "CPD for attendance only" and "CPD for credits":

1. CPD “for attendance only” route: for students that wish to take this module as attendance only, this will grant you access to all lectures and online learning materials on Moodle. However, this route does not include the assessments, therefore you will not achieve any academic credits upon completion. A 25% discount is applied to the module fee. You will also receive a certificate of attendance at the end of the academic term.

2. CPD “for credits” route (Attendance & Assessment): for students that wish to take this module with assessments, this route will grant you access to all the lectures and online learning materials on Moodle. Upon successful completion of the assessment, you will have achieved the respective academic credits, as per individual module (there will range from 15 to 30 credits). No discount is applied to the module and the full fee will need to be paid.

For attendance only: 25% discount applied to the full fee (Please note: fees for overseas students will be a different rate, as per original fees on website)

For credit: (Attendance & Assessment): Full fees apply, as per individual module.

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

Credits

This course is worth 15 credits toward eligible programmes.

You can enrol on this module as part of your healthcare Master’s programme at City St George’s, University of London. This course is also offered as an attendance-only CPD module to individuals in the UK, Europe, and internationally, subject to the following conditions of entry:

• Applicants will normally hold a BSc (Hons) degree (2:2 or above) in a related healthcare subject from a recognised UK institution, or hold an equivalent professional qualification
• Healthcare qualifications held by prospective international students will be reviewed by our international team - they may only be acceptable if equivalent to a level 6 UK degree (BSc degree). Both originals and certified translations will have to be submitted to our programme team, before your application can be considered
• Non-standard entrants will be considered on a case-by-case basis, subject to availability of places on the programme (early application is therefore strongly recommended). These candidates may be invited to attend an introductory interview with the programme team, if appropriate.

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 St George’s, 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

1. Care Quality Commission (2025) Regulation 9: Person-centred care [Online] Available at: https://www.cqc.org.uk/guidance-regulation/providers/regulations-service-providers-and-managers/health-social-care-act/regulation-9
2. Health Education England (2017) Person-centred approaches: Empowering people in their lives and communities to enable an upgrade in prevention, wellbeing, health, care, and support [Online] Available at: https://www.skillsforhealth.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Person-Centred-Approaches-Framework.pdf
3. Pingitore & Iacono (2023) The patient as a person: An integrated and systemic approach to patient and disease (1^st edition). Springer Nature, Switzerland.
4. Strudwick et al (2024) Person-centred care in radiography: Skills for providing effective patient care (1^st edition). Wiley Blackwell, UK.
5. The Health Foundation (2016) Person-centred care made simple: What everyone should known about person-centred care [Online] Available at: https://www.health.org.uk/sites/default/files/PersonCentredCareMadeSimple.pdf