Advanced Clinical Practice Portfolio course

This is a student-led course facilitated in clinical practice by your clinical supervisor to guide your clinical development as an advanced clinical practitioner (ACP). The course does this against the 36 core capabilities and area-specific competencies in the Multi-Professional Framework for Advanced Clinical Practice in England (HEE, 2017).

You will identify, in partnership with your clinical supervisor and course lead, a learning plan to enable the development of specialty or sector-specific clinical competencies across the four pillars of advanced clinical practice (clinical practice, leadership & management, research, and education).

Who is it for?

This course has been designed for trainee advanced clinical practitioners.

Benefits

To develop and evidence your development as an Advanced Clinical Practitioner within you clinical area or setting.

By the end of the course you will be able to:

Knowledge and understanding

• Demonstrate a deep and systematic understanding of research and evidence-based knowledge and its application to a specialty, sector or setting
• Demonstrate critical awareness of current problems and/or new insights which are at the leading edge of advanced clinical practice
• Critically evaluate personal skills, knowledge and behaviour in relation to a specialty, sector or setting
• Critically access ways in which to maintain professional accountability and responsibility as an advanced clinical practitioner.

Skills

• Demonstrate core capabilities in a speciality, sector or setting, as well as clinical competencies as an advanced clinical practitioner
• Exercise significant judgement in a range of complex operational contexts
• Effectively communicate information to specialist and non-specialist audiences
• Critically assess and interpret new and potentially contradictory evidence concerning policy and legislation, service needs and professional practice without guidance using a wide range of appropriate techniques
• Critically appraise research and literature relating to your specialty or area of practice, and outline strategies for utilising or introducing findings
• Autonomously apply theoretical and evidence-based knowledge in your own clinical context, demonstrating sound practice understanding.

Values and attitudes

• Incorporate a critical awareness of the wider social, environmental and policy context of your professional practice
• Demonstrate respect for the ideas and contributions of others when working collaboratively and across inter-professional, discipline-specific and organisational boundaries
• Autonomously take responsibility for your clinical and professional development, and recognise learning opportunities for yourself and others in everyday practice
• Promote the value of diversity.

This course adopts a blended learning approach using our Virtual Learning Environment (Moodle) and employs the following learning strategies:

• online tutorials
• self-directed learning
• reflections
• clinical supervision with clinical supervisor
• supervised clinical practice (direct and indirect).

Assessment

Formative

1. A proposal for the negotiated project with your clinical supervisor and course leader outlining your project to evaluate the impact of your role as an Advanced Clinical Practitioner.

Summative

The summative assessment will be in two parts:

1. A 2,500 report on your negotiated project to evaluate the impact of your role as an advanced clinical practitioner
2. A Practice-Based Portfolio that includes a log of your 500 supervised clinical hours. The practice-based portfolio based on the multi-professional framework for advanced clinical practitioners (HEE 2017). HEE 2017 requires that you demonstrate your core capabilities and specialist competencies across the four pillars of advanced clinical practitioner within your area of practice.

You must achieve 50% to pass the 2,500 word negotiated project. The Advanced Clinical Practice Portfolio is pass/fail.

Credits

This course is worth 15 credits toward eligible programmes.

Professional

You must have a current health professional registration with a regulatory body or equivalent (e.g. Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) or Health and Care Professionals Council (HCPC).

Academic

Applicants will have a second class or above (2:2 classification) honours degree in a relevant subject from an approved institution of higher education.

Clinically experienced, senior health professionals with a degree classification lower than second class or without a degree and who are unable to demonstrate evidence of master’s level study (level 7) within the previous five years will need to successfully complete a level 7 course from within the School of Health & Psychological Sciences before undertaking the course.

Practice

Working in a clinical area where you have had the opportunity to develop advanced clinical practice skills, knowledge and behaviours.

Minimum of 3-years post-registration experience, 2 of which must be within an area relevant to specialty, setting or sector.

Provide written confirmation from your employer that they will support you in the following ways:

• that you have a suitable qualified individual within your workplace to act as your clinical supervisor, and;
• that they are willing to provide you with the support required to successfully complete the programme

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.

The majority of your reading will relate to advanced clinical practice in your area, specialty or field of practice. These will include peer-reviewed journal articles, national and international guidelines and (where appropriate) specialty-specific online learning courses (e.g. e-learning for health).