Professional Practice Project

The course gives you the flexibility to design your own project related to user engagement and/or inter-professional working, considering your own interests and professional development goals. You will be supported to reflect and build upon your prior experience and learning to develop advanced, situated knowledge within the workplace context.

The content of lectures will include:

• analysing the drivers for change in complex organisations
• project management methodologies
• service user engagement in quality improvement
• interprofessional collaboration in project management
• using technology to communicate ideas, information and arguments.

Who is it for?

This course is for health and social care practitioners who have a commitment to the enhancement of personal and professional development.

Timetable

This course is scheduled to take place in the summer term. You will be taught using the following methods: lectures (8 hours), seminars (8 hours), and facilitated peer groups (14 hours). It is expected that you will undertake 120 hours of self-directed study.

Benefits

This course is worth 30 Credits at Level 7.

On successful completion of this course, you will be able to:

Knowledge and Understanding

• Critically evaluate and synthesise models and dimensions of reflective learning and their application to professional practice environments.
• Systematically demonstrate criticality in undertaking a literature review related to your chosen topic.
• Synthesise and utilise knowledge to generate new ideas and advance current practice.
• Critically appraise, evaluate and integrate theories and perspectives relevant to your chosen project and articulate implications for practice development and innovation.

Skills

• Initiate, undertake and evaluate a work-based project as an independent learner.
• Accurately employ established techniques of data collection, analysis and practice enquiry to develop a project in organised, written and oral formats.
• Critically appraise research and literature relating to your specialist area of professional practice, and outline strategies for introducing and utilising the findings.
• Demonstrate self-direction and originality in undertaking your chosen project and act autonomously in planning, implementing and evaluating tasks in your own area of practice.
• Evaluate the needs and experiences of stakeholders who are relevant for your project.
• Demonstrate confidence in presenting project information using video format.

Values and Attitudes

• Incorporate a critical awareness of the wider social, environmental and policy context of your professional practice.
• Demonstrate self-awareness and critically discuss and evaluate how your own values, principles and assumptions may affect your practice and the practice of others.
• Demonstrate respect for the ideas and contributions of others when working collaboratively and across professional boundaries.

Teaching

Course content will be delivered during lectures. In the seminars, you will critically discuss this content in the context of your own experience and in-depth reading of the subject area. In small, facilitated peer-review groups, you will present and receive feedback on your self-directed learning objectives and project ideas (including the project methodology, implementation and evaluation). Key learning and teaching resources will be available on Moodle (The University’s virtual learning environment).

Assessment

You will be asked to undertake small, formative pieces of work throughout the course. These will be related to aspects such as the rationale for your project selection, your project plan, the project implementation, and the project evaluation. You will receive feedback on this work from your course leader and through peer discussion.

Your summative assessment has two parts:

• Reflective Portfolio: You will be required to submit a reflective portfolio, which will consist of a number of tasks related to the planning, implementation and evaluation of your project (5,000 words).
• Digital Presentation: You will submit a 3-minute digital presentation related to one of the portfolio tasks (for example, you might produce a video related to an element of your project management methodology, such as your service-user engagement strategy).

The minimum qualifying mark for both assessments is 50% and you need to pass both assessments to pass the course.

Credits

This course is worth 30 credits toward eligible programmes.

You will be a health or social care practitioner with a First Degree (minimum 2:2) or evidence of higher-level study undertaken within the last five years.

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.

• Greenhalgh, T., Humphrey, C., and Woodard, F. (2010) User Involvement in Health Care. Chichester: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
• Helyer, R (2015). The work-based learning student handbook. 2nd Edition. Basingstoke: Macmillan Education/Palgrave Study Skills.
• Kerzner, H. (2019) Innovative Project Management: Methods, Case Studies, and Tools for Managing Innovation Projects. New Jersey, US: Wiley
• Martin,V (2012). Managing projects in health and social care. London: Routledge.
• Sipes, C (2016) Project Management for the Advanced Practice Nurse. New York, US: Springer Publishing Company.
• Thompson, S (2018) The Critically Reflective Practitioner. Basingstoke: Macmillan Education.