School of Nursing

MSc Advanced Clinical Practice (Specialist Negotiated Practice)

MSc Part-time 3 years

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MSc
Start date(s)
5 March 2025, 2 September 2025, 4 March 2026
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Course specifications
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Course length
Part-time (3 years)
Campus location
University: Telford Campus,University: Walsall Campus,University of Wolverhampton Campus
School
School of Nursing
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Why choose this course?

The MSc Advanced Clinical Practice (Specialist Negotiated Practice) provides access to structured and supported educational development to enable you to progress through your Masters Level study to meet the requirements set by Health Education England (2017) in their Multi-professional Framework for Advanced Clinical Practice in England.   

The MSc Advanced Clinical Practice has been designed to meet the needs of the health professional whose desire is to develop their clinical career to a higher level as an advanced practitioner. The course philosophy is to acknowledge your prior experience and knowledge as a health professional and subsequently enable you to fulfil your potential as a postgraduate through the development of new understanding, critical insight and advanced level academic and clinical skills. This course is open to practitioners registered with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC), and General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC).   

All applicants will be shortlisted and must attend an interview. Those wishing to join a September cohort must have had their interview prior to August, and those wishing to join a March cohort must have had their interview prior to February.

Accreditation and Professional Regulation 
 Accreditation image
The Centre for Advancing Practice

This programme is accredited by the Centre of Advancing Practice.


Health Education England's Centre for Advancing Practice has been established to standardise post-registration education by accrediting advanced practice courses that achieve the standards outlined in the multi-professional Advanced Practice Framework. 


Practitioners who have completed accredited education programmes will be eligible to be listed on the Centre's Advanced Practice Directory. Programme accreditation from the Centre for Advancing Practice will bring a new level of consistency to the workforce and help showcase advanced practice within health and social care. 


Programme accreditation from the Centre for Advancing Practice will bring a new level of consistency to the workforce and help showcase advanced practice within health and social care.

All applicants will be shortlisted and must attend an interview. Those wishing to join a September cohort must have had their interview prior to August, and those wishing to join a March cohort must have had their interview prior to February.

What happens on the course?

The programme will develop your knowledge and skills to work at an advanced level of clinical practice and has been designed around the Health Education England (HEE) Multi-professional framework for advanced clinical practice in England. 

Year 1 will allow you to develop key aspects of the ACP role, including advanced health assessment and clinical reasoning to provide an evidence-base to your patient consultations.  You will review current practice and develop a service improvement initiative, demonstrating leadership and governance skills in line with the four pillars of advanced practice. You will study a total of 60 credits in year 1. 

Year 2 will enable you to build on studies in advanced clinical practice and further develop your role in relation to research and prescribing practice. You will study a total of 60 credits, the Specialist Negotiated Practice modules 7HW068 and 7HW069. These modules provide the flexibility for you to explore and critically analyse the evidence underpinning specialist aspects of your role or areas of professional interest. 

Year 3 Dissertation will enable you to evaluate critically, current research and evidence for advanced healthcare practice and to develop academic skills at a higher level. 

For students joining this course in 2025, the first year of study will take place at Telford Campus. The remaining years of the course will be completed at our Walsall campus.

Course Modules

Module: 7NH016
Credits: 20
Period: 1
Type: Core

This module provides students with the opportunity to develop their clinical and diagnostic reasoning skills as well as their clinical problem-solving skills to formulate accurate and coherent differential diagnoses in relation to a variety of common presenting medical problems. Students will be able to develop and enhance their knowledge and clinical acumen in relation to holistic patient assessments and related diagnostic decision-making in their role as advanced clinical practitioners.

Module: 7HW108
Credits: 20
Period: 1
Type: Core

This module will support you in developing a broad and systematic appreciation of the role of the advanced clinical practitioner. It will enable you to critically explore leadership and management, clinical practice, education, and research; evidencing your development as you transition into the role of an Advanced Clinical Practitioner in relation to these four pillars of advanced practice. The approach will provide a structure within which you will demonstrate your skills, understanding and knowledge base of the significance of advanced clinical practice on your individual professional role and that of the wider context of healthcare provision and policy in the wider multi-professional community.

Module: 7NH015
Credits: 20
Period: 1
Type: Core

The advanced health assessment module is designed for practising healthcare professionals who are preparing for advanced clinical practice. As a cornerstone of advanced clinical practice and as an autonomous practitioner the module will equip you with the advanced knowledge base, expertise, skills and behaviours to undertake both comprehensive clinical history taking and skilled physical assessments covering the major systems such as cardiovascular, respiratory, abdominal, neurological, and muscular-skeletal to enable the demonstration of competent, effective and evidence-based patient care decisions.

Module: 7HW126
Credits: 20
Period: 2
Type: Core

Module 7HW126 is the preparatory (pre-requisite) module for 7NH095 Health Research and Evidence-Based Practice: Dissertation. The module is delivered through blended module of interactive led lectures, workshops, flipped learning, cafe tutorial groups and directed activities. The delivery will be through face to face, online (synchronous and asynchronous) lectures and workshops. The online learning management system- CANVAS will be used. The module will introduce students to the research process, including philosophical fundamentals, epistemological and ideological foundations of qualitative and quantitative traditions and a range of research methodologies. The module will guide students through the steps of developing a research proposal to enable a rigorous plan of enquiry that will be followed through and executed as a small-scale research dissertation on the dissertation module 7NH095.

Module: 7HW068
Credits: 20
Period: 2
Type: Core

This module is a flexible, practice focused entity that is suitable for any health and care professional who wishes to gain accreditation for academic study and enhanced practice within their specialist field. The module structure is blended, with personal tutor support for what is essentially an individualised programme of experiential and work place learning. You will work with a personal tutor to apply new knowledge and insight to your practice through the production of original and academic evidence of your personal learning.

Module: 7HW069
Credits: 20
Period: 2
Type: Core

This module is a flexible, practice focused entity that is suitable for any healthcare professional who wishes to gain accreditation for academic study and advanced practice within their specialist field. The module structure is blended, with personal tutor support and facilitation for what is essentially an individualised programme of experiential and work place learning. You will work with a personal tutor to negotiate and agree a formal learning plan designed to advance your knowledge and apply new knowledge to your existing skillsets within your current sphere of practice. In addition, you will provide original and academic evidence of your experiential learning and present this for assessment by means of an electronic portfolio. If you are in an employed situation, your employer may be involved in the agreement of the negotiated learning plan; for those in private practice, assurance will be needed that the advanced skillsets are within your range and ability and in accordance with your governing body guidelines and code of practice.  

Module: 7NH095
Credits: 60
Period: 3
Type: Core

This is the final module for the MSc Advanced Clinical Practice and MSc Professional Practice in Healthcare pathways. It is an independent study module, delivered through blended learning, where you will attend face-to-face and on-line sessions to develop your knowledge of research methods, methodology and the different epistemological and ideological foundations of contrasting research designs and dissertation writing, working with your research supervisor to complete your dissertation. It is designed to build upon your knowledge that reflects sequential learning and development of your research proposal on the preparatory module: 7HW126. Therefore the design of your research project, the collection and analysis of data, and the reporting of your research findings will be either an integrative review, evidence-based practice project, or primary research. You will demonstrate the research skills necessary at a taught master’s level, with a view to enhancing competence for research development, the ability to evaluate the research activities of others and engagement with evidence-based practice in a rapidly changing health and healthcare system. It is expected that the written research dissertation demonstrates understanding of the philosophy and principles of research (empirical or non- empirical) and shows competence in the design, execution, and reporting of the research project.

Additional Information

Everything you need to know about this course!

  • Building strong connections with our clinical partners.
  • Esteemed and established course.
  • A choice of two pathways to meet your development needs: one includes non-medical prescribing, the other includes specialist negotiated practice. Note: specialist negotiated practice allows you to develop your own module to reflect your personal and professional development needs in your specific area of advanced practice.
  • Teaching from experienced academics, practitioners and researchers.
  • A multi-professional learner environment with experienced practitioners from a range of clinical specialities and practice area.

To access the Master of Science (MSc) Advanced Clinical Practice (Specialist Negotiated Practice) you must be a practitioners registered with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) or General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) who are working in a clinical area with identified support from an appropriate clinical supervisor.

To become an Advanced Clinical Practitioner, the following points should normally be met and the applicant must be in a role that has employer support for clinical placement and time to attend the course with a clinical supervisor/mentor in practice:

  • Hold current first level Professional Registration with a relevant regulatory body.
  • Entry requirement includes first degree and minimum of 3 years’ relevant experience in clinical practice.
  • Recognised post within a healthcare organisation and the post listed within workforce plan and business need.
  • Confirmed defined / protected Advanced Clinical Practice role for the trainee to be moved into on successful completion of the programme.
  • Appropriately named clinical supervisor to support the trainee during the programme of training. The supervisor will not necessarily hold the same professional registration as the developing advanced clinical practitioner/trainee but will be experienced in supervision and in the relevant field of advanced clinical practice.
  • Commitment to providing protected learning time for the trainee Advanced Clinical Practitioner during the MSc and this is equivalent to: One day a week in university (or equivalent) reading, writing and other academic activities.
  • One day a week protected time for supported clinical practice (or equivalent).

    • Applicants without a first degree

    We have a separate policy for applicants who do not hold a first degree at 2:2 but have substantial and relevant clinical or prior study experience. Please discuss with the course leader in the first instance. Applicants may be offered a place to study a single module of the programme as a stand-alone module student and, if successful, upgrade your university registration to a Postgraduate Certificate, Diploma or M.Sc. and use your stand-alone module towards the course to which you have upgraded.

    Existing Practitioners

    Existing practitioners who are currently working in an Advanced Clinical Practice role and do not have a M.Sc. level of education have options to either complete the Masters or continue in the role and update in-line with their CPD requirements.

    There are ‘Top Up’ arrangements or Recognition of Prior learning (RPL) for existing practitioners who do not have a full Master’s degree. They have the option to complete the degree and to do this they would need to be in a relevant Advanced Clinical Practice post and supported by their organisation.

    For students who do not currently hold a V300 Non-medical Prescribing qualification, your year two pathway must include the completion of 7NH094 Non-medical Prescribing for Nurse, Midwives and Allied health Professionals (40 credits) and 7HW126 Advanced Inquiry (20 credits) as core modules. Any student who does hold a V300 Non-medical Prescribing qualification you will undertake an RPL process to include your V300 for a total of 40 credits and then complete 7HW126 Advanced Inquiry as your core module for year two of the MSC Advanced Clinical Practice.

    This includes Pharmacists who have completed a level 7 Post Graduate Certificate in Independent prescribing will be profiled and will be advised on the appropriate entry level to the course, and practitioners have successfully completed the V300 Non-Medical Prescribing at level 6 or 7, they would be eligible to claim RPL towards the MSc Advanced Clinical Practice.

    Those applicants who meet all of the requirements of the Post Graduate Diploma will be required to complete a research module and dissertation along with evidence of achievement of the advanced clinical capabilities.

    Postgraduate Loyalty Discount:

    You can get 20% discount on a taught postgraduate course if you’re a University of Wolverhampton Graduate.

    The University offers a generous 20% Loyalty Discount to students progressing from an undergraduate programme to a taught postgraduate on-site programme, where both courses are University of Wolverhampton Awards.

    There is no time limit on how long ago you completed your degree as long as this is your first Masters level qualification.

    The discount applies to the first year of enrolment only. Students who receive a loyalty discount are not entitled to any further tuition discount or bursary. For full terms and conditions click here.


    Self-funded:

    If you are paying for the fees yourself then the fees can be paid in 3 instalments: November, January and April. More information can be found by clicking here.


    Sponsored - Your employer, embassy or organisation can pay for your Tuition fees:

    Your employer, embassy or organisation agrees to pay all or part of your tuition fees; the University will refer to them as your sponsor and will invoice them for the appropriate amount.

    We must receive notification of sponsorship in writing as soon as possible, and before enrolment, confirming that the sponsor will pay your tuition fees.


    Financial Hardship:

    Students can apply to the Dennis Turner Opportunity Fund for help with course related costs however this cannot be used for fees or to cover general living costs.


    Charitable Funding:

    You might also want to explore the possibility of funding from charitable trusts. Please contact Association of Charitable Foundations, Directory of Social Change or Family Aid. Most charities and trust funds offer limited bursaries targeted to specific groups of students so you will need to research whether any of them are relevant to your situation.

    You can find more information on the University’s Funding, cost, fee and support pages.

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    Email

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