PgDip Person-centred Practice (Health Visiting)

We have recently developed our innovative Masters in Person-Centred Practice (PcP) Framework with a suite of course routes which place the values of person-centredness at their core. These routes offer practitioners the opportunity to build upon their experience and develop an understanding of the knowledge and evidence that positively contributes to the health and wellbeing of persons, groups and populations. You can opt to study the route which best meets your professional background and future aspirations.

Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) Registered Nurses already working in, or wishing to work in, the community can undertake a specified group of modules that allows them to achieve a community qualification or registration recognised by the NMC in District Nursing, Health Visiting or School Nursing.

There are three core modules that enable you to obtain a PgCert. You will then study modules appropriate to your desired route.

The routes in the Person-Centred Practice Framework seek to influence and enable the transformative processes of personal and professional development through engagement, facilitation and evaluation of person-centred teaching and learning approaches. It is designed to meet the professional needs of practitioners from all disciplines working in a variety of different health and social care settings.

The Framework is innovative and interactive, emphasising application of theory to your practice context. It will enable you to critically engage with, evaluate and synthesise the evidence and research to promote the development and enhancement of person centred culture and practice. This develops a pro-active, transformative and reflective approach to meeting the public health and social needs of individuals, families, groups and populations.

You can personalise your learning to your own situation eg mental health, social care, infection control, acute care and community health. International students are particularly welcome as they offer a varied and different perspective to the context in which the learning occurs.

Learning, teaching and assessment

Our teaching, learning and assessment strategy is framed by our core philosophical concepts of personhood, person-centredness, human valuing, healthful relations, human potential and development, supportive and enabling environments. Central to this strategy is the need for learners to engage in the learning experiences, a readiness to listen and explore, preparedness to be open to

experiences and a resolve to keep going. This environment will generate an ethos of engagement and criticality where students can explore and challenge theories, practices and different sources of knowledge creatively in an atmosphere of high challenge and high support. We will achieve this learning environment through a focus on three pillars of learning activity namely:

- Student-centred experiential and collaborative learning;

- Reflexivity and critical discourse;

- Sustainable and ethical evidence-based teaching.

Students will be supported to challenge their thinking, values and beliefs; through the posing of complex activities and questions, and develop resilient and sustainable approaches to their learning and practice in response to these. Critical to this process is the use of diverse knowledge, scholarly inquiry processes and evidence informed materials to engage and enliven the processes of learning.

Assessment strategies will encourage application to practice. In line with the framework’s philosophy, a wide range of sustainable strategies are used to ensure assessment diversity. This will be achieved through the use of varied strategies which draw on the student’s own areas of practice such as portfolio development, practice proposals, annotated bibliographies, simulation events, games, seminar presentations and self-determined contextual assignment topics. Tutor, peer and self-assessment, including within virtual environments (eg [email protected], Values Exchange), will be an important component of approaches to formative and summative assessment.

For students undertaking NMC recognised specialist qualification and registration (District Nursing, Health Visiting, School Nursing), the course is 50% practice-based and requires placement in an approved practice with a Practice Teacher or Sign-off Mentor or Health Visitor Mentor. Placement will be negotiated with your supporting NHS area.

Teaching hours and attendance

Your attendance requirements at QMU will depend on which module you are studying and whether you are studying full or part-time.

Links with professional bodies

The routes allow you to gain the higher level knowledge and skills required for advanced practice. It does not gain accreditation with the NMC unless students are undertaking the Specialist Practitioner Qualification in District Nursing or registration as a Specialist Community Public Health Nurse (SCPHN)

Modules

Core modules: Theory and Practice of Child and Family Centred Health and Social Care (30 credits)/ Leading Professional Practice (15 credits)/ Making Judgements and Decisions in Practice (15 credits)

Route specific modules: Childhood Development 1 (15 credits)/ Childhood Development 2 (15 credits)/ Child Protection and Safeguarding (30 credits)/ Practice Placements: Health Visiting Context

Other entry requirements information

International: Where your degree has not been studied in English, you will be required to take an IELTS test receiving an overall score of 6.5 and no individual component score below 6.0.

Criminal records check: For students undertaking NMC approved qualifications a satisfactory criminal records check will be required. Compliance with the terms of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (1974) and mental health legislation for clinical placement and employability in statutory services, for work with children and in other sensitive areas of employment.

Visit the PgDip Person-centred Practice (Health Visiting) page on the Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh website for more details!