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MSc Primary Care

Programme information was correct at 23 July 2013.

Programme

A unique professional development programme for GPs and primary care professionals that can be studied part-time, online and in the workplace.

Qualifications and durations

This is a distance-learning programme.

  • MSc Primary Care (up to 8 years)
  • Postgraduate Diploma (4-6 years)
  • Postgraduate Certificate (2-4 years)

Some units can be taken independently as part of our Continuing Professional Development programme (you can then transfer to the full named programme).

Overview

The postgraduate programme in Primary Care is designed for GPs and Specialist Registrars in General Practice providing a lifelong learning framework for professional and practice development.  The programme offers an innovative blend of knowledge-based, activity-based and experiential learning, designed in partnership with GPs, to be highly relevant to contemporary General Practice.

Programme features

  • select from a range of clinical and non-clinical units
  • study in a variety of part-time modes- distance, face-to-face and online
  • select practice-based learning and work-based projects
  • provides an evidence-based, problem-solving and clinically reasoned approach to primary care
  • developed in partnership with Postgraduate Deaneries
  • complementary to GP Curriculum
  • developing specialist clinical competencies
  • accreditation of prior learning from other relevant courses
  • fast track entry recognising prior achievement
  • recognition of prior experience

Programme structure

Available and planned units include:

  • Musculoskeletal medicine- common and advanced, Sports Injuries and Rehabilitation
  • Exercise for Health, Palliative Care, Dermatology, Diabetes, Mental Health
  • Practice-based Enquiry, Evidence-based Practice, Professional Practice
  • Learning and Teaching, Leadership, Commissioning for Primary Care

View summary table or Programme & Unit Catalogue for further information.

Please note:

  • The programme catalogue and units listed above are applicable for the 2012/13 academic year only and should be treated as an example of the programme content. Students beginning or continuing their studies in 2013/14 and beyond should not assume that later years of a programme will be in the format displayed here.
  • Programmes and Units are subject to change at any time, in accordance with normal University procedures.
  • Availability of units will be subject to constraints such as staff availability, minimum and maximum group sizes, and timetabling factors as well as a student's ability to meet any pre-requisite rules.

Learning and teaching

Our programmes are modular, consisting of self-contained units, are offered on a part-time and year-round basis. They are delivered in a variety of formats depending on the need of the subjects studied so you might experience e-learning, distance education, face-to-face teaching or work-based units, or combinations of these modes.

You should ensure you are aware of the delivery mode and time period when selecting your study units.  As you progress through each unit and successfully pass the assessment, you will receive credit for the units, which will provide you with a clear indication of your academic progress.

Methods of Assessment

Each unit is assessed individually. Assessment varies between units, but typically is delivered online and must also be submitted online. Assessment can consist of a combination of work-based projects, coursework essays, critical reviews, oral presentations and clinical examinations. We also place strong emphasis on developing presentation and communication skills including critical academic writing, which, in many units, is part of the assessed work.

Career development

The Primary Care Programme is specifically designed as a lifelong learning programme in which students can take units at any time to suit their career and practice needs and professional development.

It is appropriate for GPs Specialist registers in General Practice in terms of:

  • developing as a GP with Special Interest
  • developing a portfolio career
  • preparing for CCT
  • developing employability skills
  • re-accreditation and revalidation
  • developing a specific practice speciality
  • assuming a leadership or partnership role
  • preparing for an educational role
  • developing an academic interest

Other health professionals will find similar benefits for their own professional area.

Accreditation of Prior Learning (APL)

If you have a previous qualification, or undertaken postgraduate units from another institution, you may be eligible to transfer credit for this prior learning.

Depending on the programme of study, you can gain APL for up to 50% of the total credits required (this credit must have been obtained within the previous five years).

Claims for APL will be considered on a case-by-case basis. Please contact us for further details or view the FAQ page.

Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning (APEL)

You may also apply for APEL by submitting a portfolio of evidence, demonstrating that you have successfully achieved the learning outcomes for the specific unit(s) you seek exemption from.

We recommend you discuss this with the Director of Studies first to ensure this is suitable, as creating your portfolio can be very time consuming.

We will not permit exemptions of fractional units, and so the minimum threshold for the applications of APEL procedures will be a single, free standing unit (including three credit units). The maximum threshold for exemption will normally be 50% of the total credits required for a programme of study, for example, a 45-credit exemption towards a 90-credit Masters degree.

Entry requirements

Academic requirements

  • A medical degree from a recognised university.

Professional requirements

You must provide evidence of the following in your application:

  • Current unrestricted medical registration certificate (e.g. GMC).
  • Currently be practicing medicine, preferably in a field that allows exposure to Primary Care.

International students are welcome to apply, and will need to be in a position to fulfill primary care practice requirements in their own country.

English Language requirements

Certificates must be dated to within two years of the start of the programme of study.

  • IELTS 6.5 (with not less than 6.0 in each of the four components)
  • TOEFL 580 (paper-based test) or 237 (computer-based test) with a score of not less than 4 in TWE or 92 (internet-based test) with not less than 24 in each of the components.

If you wish to improve your English proficiency before commencing your studies, pre-sessional language training can be arranged through the English Language Centre.

References

  • One academic or professional reference supporting your suitability for study on a masters level Primary Care programme.

Read details for how to apply to study.

Financial information

Costs

Potential sources of funding

Deadlines

Contact

Admissions Officer: Isla Johnston
Email: health-pgt-admissions@bath.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0)1225 38 5233

Related links

Our Research

Main areas of research

The Department carries out research and teaching in health, medicine, exercise and sport, making significant contributions to national and international health agendas.

The Department aims to produce high-quality research with a strongly applied focus. We aim to contribute to promoting the health of the population and to improving the quality and efficiency of the health services that people rely on and pursue this agenda with a variety of partners at local, regional, national and international levels. Our work is organised around the two main themes of population health and healthcare. We are also pleased to offer a range of Research degrees.

Population health

Historically, health policy has focused almost exclusively on sickness services provided by agencies such as the National Health Service. Although this focus on healthcare remains hugely important, it is increasingly complemented by aspirations to improve the health of the population by tackling the social determinants of health such as poverty and pollution and by encouraging people to adopt health promoting behaviours such as healthy diets and increased physical activity and to stop health damaging ones such as smoking. There is also growing national and international concern that improvements in health should be fairly distributed by reducing health inequalities. The Department for Health organises its work related to population health improvement in three main ways. Much the largest element in the population health portfolio is related to sport, health and exercise science, but the School attaches growing importance to tobacco control and health inequalities.

Healthcare

The Department’s expertise in Healthcare focuses on innovation in the design, delivery, organization, and evaluation of healthcare interventions. We have a particular emphasis on disabling and distressing, long term or life-limiting conditions, such as chronic pain, stroke, dementia, rheumatic disease, and severe mental health problems. Current research activity involves collaborations with NHS colleagues in Bath at the Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases – RNHRD, the Royal United Hospital, the Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Care Trust, the Pan Bath & Swindon Primary Care Research Consortium and RehabNET.

Faculties in the Department have significant research expertise and experience in a range of topics including:

  • Addictions and addictive behaviour
  • Alcohol, drugs and the family
  • Assistive technology and rehabilitation
  • Child and adolescent cognitive behavioural therapy
  • Complex Regional Pain Syndromes
  • Dementia care
  • Evidence based pain management
  • Leadership and change
  • Mental health service development and evaluation
  • Spondolarthropathy disease and related disability
  • Stroke rehabilitation
  • Work, health and wellbeing.
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About the Department

Introduction

The School for Health was established within the University of Bath in 2003, to centralise the high profile research and teaching in the health-related disciplines already taking place throughout the university, so creating a single entity through which links with the health sector at national and international level can be channelled, co-ordinated and developed.

In 2010 the School joined the Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences and became the Department for Health, providing excellent opportunities for academic teaching and research collaborations with other departments, such as Psychology and Social & Policy Sciences. The Department's postgraduate teaching and research programmes now form part of the Faculty's new Graduate School, also launched in 2010, providing postgraduate students with dedicated support and a strong community in which to base their studies - whether on campus or by distance learning.

In keeping with government initiatives surrounding population health and more general public concerns, the Department divides its activities between two main pillars: Healthcare and Population Health – one focuses on the NHS, healthcare and health services research and the other focuses on population health, healthy living, sport & physical activity and tobacco control; each of these groups, in turn, contain both teaching programmes and research activities. Furthermore, there is a bridging spine between both pillars and which houses the Professional Doctorate in Health, Research in Health Practice and the administrative, finance, learning & teaching development, marketing and support activities of the Department.

The Department’s aims are:

  • To develop a research portfolio that is both of the highest academic standard and has applications in the real world
  • To build on external links with the public services and other bodies concerned with health and society
  • To innovate design and delivery of healthcare services
  • To change corporate approaches to healthy organisations
  • To support government reform of health and social care provision
  • To identify and facilitate opportunities for academic collaboration and new developments.

The Department's postgraduate taught programmes combine academic excellence with flexible and innovative design and delivery; our postgraduate portfolio is distinguished by the provision of a number of Professional Masters and a Professional Doctorate programme designed to be studied part-time by learners working in a wide range of healthcare roles from all around the world. All our postgraduate courses are taught online and this has proved to be one of our unique selling points, with students able to continue within their practice area or working environment whilst gaining a further qualification.

The Department is renowned for its exemplary attention to educational design, integrating knowledge with research evidence and resulting in programmes which are highly relevant to contemporary practice; in addition, the Department boasts some of the most innovative and successful approaches to online and part-time education, recognised through a number of awards.

At all levels, learning and teaching in the Department provides a strong focus on high quality education for real world situations and produces graduates with skills and knowledge relevant to professional roles and in high demand from employers.

Teaching programmes on offer within the Department include:

  • Sport & Exercise Medicine, the world renowned flexible masters programme exclusively for doctors
  • Sports Physiotherapy, a specialist programme designed by physiotherapists for physiotherapists
  • Research in Health Practice, a programme launched in 2008 aimed at health and social care professionals interested in conducting their own research
  • The innovative Professional Doctorate in Health which focuses on both Population Health and Healthcare within the Department, providing a doctoral level programme to develop expert practitioners and researchers in practice.
Facilities, equipment, other resources

Sport and exercise science and medical science laboratories. Close links with the English Institute of Sport and the Department of Sports Development and Recreation.

International and industrial links

There are current links with primary care trusts, strategic health authorities, the two hospitals in Bath and colleagues in industry. The Department works closely with esteemed international academic institutions, and individual health practitioners, in order to meet the regional, national and global challenges facing health and social care.

Careers information

Postgraduate research students gain a wealth of experience to assist them with their next step and are offered personal career advice at the University. The Department has an established research training skills programme for all research students. The taught programmes enable students to extend their health and social care career pathways and to build important networks for further professional opportunities.

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