Advanced Clinical Practice (Occupational Therapy) PgCert, PgDip and MSc

Are you an experienced occupational therapist? Do you want to take your career to the next level, perhaps in academic research or a leadership role? This course will provide you with the practical skills and the knowledge to really make a difference in a holistic, multidisciplinary team.

You’ll advance your clinical expertise, enabling you to become an effective leader and practitioner. You’ll graduate with the skills to lead a team, helping to improve the lives of patients through rehabilitation in healthcare settings or in the community.

The full master's course can be studied 1 year full-time or 3 years part-time starting in September. If you don’t want to commit to full or part-time study of the entire master's, you can develop your educational portfolio over a longer period of time by undertaking staged study that leads to the award of Postgraduate Certificate (PgCert), Postgraduate Diploma (PgDip) and MSc in separate stages. Each stage can be studied 1 year part-time starting in September. 

You’ll benefit from a course designed to incorporate a multidisciplinary perspective that fulfils the Advanced Clinical Practice framework as set out by Health Education England. You’ll study key modules in advanced clinical practice, clinical leadership, evidence-based practice and research. Alongside this, your specialist modules will cover areas specific to occupational therapy. You'll explore the unique and individual client-centred dynamic of ‘person-environment-occupation-wellbeing’ to help you understand the changing needs of the lifecycle from premature neonates to older adults with physical, mental, behavioural, emotional, and end-of-life health issues.

The specialised modules will support you to understand people as occupational beings, develop complex decision-making skills, apply evidence-based practice and develop innovative solutions that will enhance patient, family, and carer experience and improve clinical outcomes.

You'll also be able to support your study learning portfolio by choosing from a range of optional modules from our Advanced Clinical Practice named specialist pathways; Cardiovascular Health, Critical Care, Musculoskeletal Rehabilitation, Neurological Rehabilitation and Pelvic Health.

At Brunel, we understand the challenges of fitting study around work and family life. For this reason, we have designed this course to be flexible, so that it can fit around your current commitments. You can study full-time, part-time, or even just take one or more CPPD modules for your professional development and return to complete your course at a later date.

This course can be studied 1 year full-time, 3 years part-time or 1 year (staged study) part-time, starting in September.

On this course you'll extend your knowledge base and skills. You'll develop personally and professionally, enabling you to manage and lead clinical services for children, adults and older adults. This course is also ideal if you're looking to progress into an academic research role.

All applicants must have a pre-registration degree in relevant allied health profession and the following of relevant experience as a minimum:

1. Students currently working in the UK - At least 1 year of post qualification clinical work experience in the specialism they have applied for. Typically this should be work experience from a ‘Band 6’ level role.
2. Students currently working outside of the UK – At least 2 years post qualification clinical work experience, ideally including at least 1 year in the specialism you have applied for.

All applicants must have met the minimum work experience requirement at the point they apply for the programme. This is to make sure that they will definitely have enough experience when they join the course. This does not include internships as they are supervised and therefore technically still part of their training.

• IELTS: 7 (min 6.5 in all areas)
• Pearson: 64 (59 in all subscores)
• BrunELT: 68% (63% in all areas)
• TOEFL: 98 (min 23 in all areas) 

UK Staged Master £3,500 per stage.

International Staged Master £7,155 per stage.

The course uses a range of flexible and engaging approaches to assessment. You'll be assessed through exams, critical essays, portfolios, oral presentations, and your dissertation.

The choice of the specific type of assessment will be appropriate to the intended learning outcomes of the taught modules. The assessment strategies will balance the need to demonstrate knowledge and competencies with more in-depth and critical approaches to learning. Such assessment approaches will include examinations, presentations of relevant clinical case scenarios, and coursework, which will take the form of critical assessment of literature and research, critical essays, and the development of the selected portfolio of learning.

Finally, the dissertation provides demonstration of an ability to synthesise and critically evaluate current research underpinning clinical practice, and to develop and undertake relevant research as well as its dissemination.