Management of Minor Injuries and Illness for Advanced Practice

This module is intended to enhance independent practice by developing your skills, knowledge and critical understanding of minor injury and illness management to an advanced level, applicable to your own field of practice. You will further develop your skills in patient consultation and assessment, and specifically your clinical decision-making skills in managing patients who present with minor injuries and illness.  Emphasis will be placed on utilising effective collaborative approaches in patient management, referral and discharge. 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 management of injuries and illness pertaining to the following systems:

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

Please note that this module encompasses management skills only, and there is no assessment content included – there is an assumption that you have established assessment skills already. If you wish to focus on the assessment aspect, please look at the module which precedes this one – APM050: Assessment of Minor Injuries and Illness for Advanced Practice.

Who is it for?

This course 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 and Nurse Practitioners.

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 3

Day 1 - Tuesday 7 May 2024
Day 2 - Monday 20 May 2024
Day 3 - Monday 3 June 2024
Day 4 - Monday 17 June 2024
Day 5 - Monday 1 July 2024

Assignment Submission Date: Monday 12 August 2024

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 management of patients presenting with minor injuries and illness
• Critically explore multi-professional working for effective management of minor injuries and illness to reduce or avoid hospital admissions
• Advance your role beyond previous practice.

Skills:

• Critically evaluate and interpret the history of the chief complaint, related problems, presenting symptoms, physical findings, and diagnostic information
• Demonstrate the ability to formulate evidence-based diagnoses and determine appropriate therapeutic interventions
• Make appropriate referrals to and work effectively with other professionals to ensure safe, effective care
• Initiate appropriate and timely consultation and/or referral when the problem exceeds the scope of your expertise.

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 your practice.

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

The assessment is a Practice Assessment Document (PAD) and a 2,000-word critical reflection. The PAD requires you to see six patients under supervision in a clinical area and is a pass/fail in clinical practice, therefore you will need to work/arrange to work somewhere where you have access to a mentor/assessor who can supervise you in practice.

As this module is at level 7, it is desirable that you have previously studied at least at level 6.

Credits

This course is worth 15 credits toward eligible programmes.

You should be a registered health professional with a minimum of two years post qualification experience. You should be working in a healthcare setting where you see patients presenting with undifferentiated 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 (see below with regard to the assessment).

For further information please contact Tanya at:

[email protected]

English requirements

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

• Hogan-Quigley, B., Palm, M. L. and Bickley, L. (2017) Bates Nursing Guide to Physical Examination and History Taking International Edition. 2^nd edn. Philadelphia. Wolters Kluwer
• Innes, J. A., Dover, A. R. and Fairhurst, K (eds) (2018) Macleod’s Clinical Examination. 14^th edn. Edinburgh. Elsevier.
• Japp, A. G. and Robertson, C. (2018) Macleods Clinical Diagnosis. 2^nd edn. Edinburgh. Elsevier
• Johnson, G., Hill-Smith, I and Bakhai, C. (2018) The Minor Illness Manual. 5^th edn. Boca Raton. CRC Press
• Purcell, D. (2010) Minor Injuries: A Clinical Guide for Nurses. Edinburgh. Churchill Livingstone.