Postgraduate Taught

The Keele postgraduate award is a Masters level course at Keele University, within the Postgraduate Medicine Taught Courses programme.

The emphasis of this course is to stretch participants – to develop further, scholarly knowledge and competence over and above important clinical and professional teaching.

Participants will be in a training programme such as the Consultants with a Special Interest (CwaSI) programme run by the West Midlands Deanery. The teaching and clinical practice that is accredited through this award will be provided within the Deanery Programme, not by Keele.

The academic programme will allow participants to:

1. Demonstrate how they have reflected on their clinical experiences and teaching opportunities to extend the breadth and depth of learning
2. Demonstrate a proactive approach to planning and consolidating learning activities
3. Show how they have synthesised all sources of learning and transferred this into their professional practice to impact on patient care

This programme is only intended for healthcare professionals in active clinical practice who are involved in supervising or delivering end of life care.

The Keele Postgraduate Award in End of Life Care in Non-Specialist Settings is a 30 credit programme based on our Independent Studies module that can also be used to build towards a full masters award. In common with other postgraduate courses at Keele, this offers flexibility and the ability to transfer M-level credits between courses, subject to individual course regulations. For example these 30 credits can be directly transferred into the Masters of Medical Science (MMedSci) award.

The taught component is delivered by both clinicians and academic teaching staff in the workplace. The added element for students enrolling on this award will be a private study, reflective learning component to the existing teaching and learning activities without requiring any more time out of practice.

Additional study skills support and some teaching will be given in small groups, with one or two facilitators. Most teaching is based on interactive small group methods, interspersed with practical tasks. Students are asked to contribute their own views and experiences, either informally during group discussions or by giving short presentations to the group.

Assessment of this module is by portfolio. This will be a personal document, exhibiting variation in form and content. It will include as a minimum: a report reflecting on the teaching programme as a reflective journal including evidence of reading; significant events and critical incidents in practice; evidence of peer discussions and involvement in teamwork which may be based around case reviews.

This may be organised under the headings of good medical practice to assist in preparation for appraisal and revalidation. Participants are free to submit elements from all aspects of their role in end of life care.