Physician Associate Studies - MSc

The course is designed to equip you with the knowledge, skills and professional behaviours to work as a Physician Associate (and to have your qualification nationally and internationally recognised), as well as providing you with the personal and intellectual attributes necessary for life-long professional development.
You will be trained to be:

• A safe practitioner under medical supervision in a wide variety of clinical settings, with patients from diverse social and ethnic backgrounds.
• An expert communicator who is empathic in a manner appropriate to a healthcare profession.
• Aware of health inequalities and the challenges of working in a multicultural environment.
• Aware of the limits of your competence and determined to act within those limits.
• Trained in the context of multi-professional working in a team environment.
• Adept in the use of communication and information technology skills for healthcare.
• A capable and motivated lifelong learner continually engaged in active professional development.
• Understanding of the need to maintain and promote health, as well as to cure or palliate disease, and aware of your obligations to the wider community as well as to individuals.
• Trained to integrate theoretical and clinical learning.

To achieve the Postgraduate Diploma you must successfully complete the following core modules:

• Clinical Sciences (30 credits) - In this clinically focused module you will review the fundamental sciences involved in health and disease states that underpins clinical practice.
• Applied Pharmacology (15 credits) - This module will provide you the basis for prescribing in practice.
• Foundations in Clinical Medicine 1 (15 credits) - You will learn an overview of adult clinical medicine through system-based cases to develop an approach to dealing with clinical uncertainty via clinical reasoning and diagnostic skills.
• Foundations in Clinical Medicine 2 (30 credits) - This module will build on adult medicine by incorporating core medical speciality cases whilst continuing to develop your knowledge, skills and attitudes required to practice clinical medicine as a Physician Associate to a high standard.
• Public Health and Health Promotion for Physician Associates (15 credits) - You will gain a comprehensive understanding of public health to Physician Associate Studies and consider the Physician Associates' role in holistic patient care.
• Evidencing Contemporary Physician Associate Practice (15 credits) - By utilising the generation of an e-portfolio, this module will help you develop as a reflective practitioner competent in evidencing your own practice and becoming aware of your professional responsibilities in line with the competence and curriculum framework for Physician Associates.

On successful completion of these modules, you will be eligible to sit for the national professional exam.

To achieve a Masters you must complete the above plus these additional modules:

• Health and Social Care Research: Methods and Methodolgy (15 credits) - This module will develop your critical analysis skills and provide you with an overview of evidence based healthcare which will result in the formulation of a project proposal for your masters dissertation.
• Dissertation (45 credits) - You will produce a comprehensive and critical review of the literature on a given clinically relevant topic.

The University continually enhances our offer by responding to feedback from our students and other stakeholders, ensuring the curriculum is kept up to date and our graduates are equipped with the knowledge and skills they need for the real world. This may result in changes to the course. If changes to your course are approved we will inform you.

This is a clinically focused course, delivered through a variety of taught lectures, small group sessions, problem-based learning, practical clinical skills, and simulated learning, with an underpinning clinical practice element that runs throughout the two years in both primary and secondary care.

The course will be led by an experienced Physician Associate and a team of healthcare lecturers and GPs. This ensures the strong 'real world' focus of this course and means you can expect the highest quality of teaching and learning.

For more details, see our glossary of teaching and learning terms.

The course takes place for 45 weeks a year over two years, with 50% of your time spent on theory and the other 50% on clinical practice.

We will make use of a range of types of assessment on the course, including structured clinical exams, essays based on problem-based learning, presentations and a clinical portfolio of evidence.

For more detail, see our full glossary of assessment terms.