AdvDip(CPD) Acute Medicine (HE7)
Course Overview
The University of Bolton's Acute Medicine stand-alone professional development course is for practitioners who are currently working with vulnerable adult groups, including older people, frail people, teenagers and young adults. Such environments include specialist multidisciplinary hospital teams, admission avoidance, falls prevention, end-of-life care and the specific needs of younger patients.Focusing on the most common acute medical emergencies, including chest pain, breathlessness and sepsis, our experienced and knowledgeable staff will support you in deepening your understanding of the interface between acute medicine and complex care. We'll guide you to explore and evaluate the signs and symptoms of the deteriorating patient to help you identify when to initiate appropriate and timely interventions, and encourage you to consider appropriate theoretical principles as part of your decision-making process.
To support your development as a practitioner in acute medicine, we'll concentrate on the knowledge and clinical skills required to systematically assess patients who present as acute medical emergencies. As these patients are often physiologically unstable, we'll emphasise the importance of your understanding of the pathophysiology of the acutely ill patient.
Highlights
- Our dedicated academic team brings extensive health and social care experience to the course content. Along with their passion for service excellence in health and social care settings, they're also currently engaged in highly relevant research, which means they can add valuable context and insight to your learning.
- The course is designed to provide the flexibility to fit in with busy home and working lives.
- As you study this course, we'll encourage you to develop the skills, values and behaviours popular with employers. These include action planning, personal impact and confidence, self-awareness, social and ethical responsibility, respect, and commitment to quality.
- The course is part of a professional development framework. You can use the credits you'll gain by completing the course successfully towards the University of Bolton's MSc in Health and Social Care.
Key Features
- The University of Bolton has been offering high-quality courses designed to meet the health and social care sector’s needs for over 30 years, so we have the knowledge and experience to anticipate and respond to changes in the health and social care sector.
- Our courses are developed to reflect the requirements of the NHS Knowledge and Skills Framework and are updated regularly in accordance with the changing healthcare landscape.
- We review the course curriculum regularly to ensure we incorporate contemporary theories and advancements.
- Your employer may give you financial support to undertake this course, or you may be self-funded.
- When you successfully complete this course, the University of Bolton will award you an Advanced Diploma of CPD in Acute Medicine worth 20 credits at Level HE7.
Entry Requirements
- You must have an appropriate health and social care related qualification; for example, registered nurse, assistant practitioner, allied health professional, or paramedic.
- Preferably, you should be working in a health and social care setting in a role where you're involved in the care of acutely unwell vulnerable adults.
- You may be required to attend an interview and/or provide a portfolio of work.
- If English isn’t your first language, you’ll also need IELTS 7.0 with normally no less than 6.5 in any band (or equivalent). We also accept a range of other English language qualifications – please visit our English Language Requirements web page for more details.
- Please note that this course is subject to the University of Bolton's Fitness to Practise procedure.
Where changes are made to material information contained in this course description or a decision is taken to suspend a course between the offer of admissions and enrolment, we will inform applicants at the earliest possible opportunity and will outline the various options available to the applicant.
Career Opportunities
This course offers academic progression in the specialist field of acute medicine in vulnerable adult groups.
Fees & Funding
Home/EU Fees
No fee information is currently available, please contact the University of Bolton’s Academic Fees team by emailing AcademicFees@bolton.ac.uk for more information.
International Fees
No fee information is currently available, please contact the University of Bolton’s Academic Fees team by emailing AcademicFees@bolton.ac.uk for more information.
Bursaries
Important note regarding tuition fees for the 2025-26 academic year: EU nationals who meet residency requirements (have settled or pre-settled status) may be eligible for 'Home' fee status. If you do not meet these residency requirements, overseas fees will apply. Irish citizens living in the UK or Ireland will be eligible for 'Home' fee status under the Common Travel Area arrangement. Please read the student finance for EU students web page on www.gov.uk for information.
The fees for a student's course of study will be set for the normal duration of that course subject only to inflationary increases – measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) recorded in March each year to take effect for subsequent start dates.
How to apply
Home Applicants
You may apply directly to the University using the University's online application form. Please select your chosen start date from the list below:
You should have to hand:
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Details of the educational establishments you attended and dates
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Your certificates for the qualifications you are using to gain entry to the course – you will need to enter the completion date and upload copies
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Details of any employment history including name, address, dates and role
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Personal statement – this can be either input into the relevant field or uploaded separately
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Details including e-mail addresses of two referees, at least one of which should be someone who can provide an academic reference
Please make sure any documents you wish to upload in support of your application are in pdf or jpeg format. Personal statements may be word documents.
Please ensure your data is correct at each stage of the application before you proceed to the next page. If you use the back button at any time during the application, you should check the validity of the data you have already input.
If you experience difficulties during the application process, contact the Admissions Team on 01204 903394 or admissions-team@bolton.ac.uk
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Apply online: University of Bolton ADPD Acute Medicine HE7 - 27 January 2025
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Apply online: University of Bolton ADPD Acute Medicine HE7 - 22 September 2025
International Applicants
International applications are not possible for this course
As an international student you are not allowed to study this course because of the restrictions on your visa.
We offer a wide range of full-time courses in lots of different subjects, many of our courses start in September and January. If you would like to see what courses are available please visit our Course Search.
Teaching & Assessment
This professional development course supports you in developing your enquiry skills using the principles of problem-based learning and considering the impact of your decisions on patient care. It focuses on common presentations as well as rarer acute critical presentations.
Keynote lectures introduce each topic, and your class will consider a pertinent case history and set of investigation results to develop your knowledge. Group discussions of a wide range of case histories and abnormal findings provide opportunities for you to enhance your understanding and decision-making, and offer knowledge of what investigations and interventions represent for patients. These activities also aim to develop your ability to make defensible decisions rather than simply arriving at the correct answer without a logical argument to back up the decision.
In terms of assessment, you can expect written exams and observed structured clinical examinations (OSCEs).
Modules
The modules listed below may be a mixture of compulsory and optional. You may not have the opportunity to study all the modules shown as part of the course.
- Acute Medicine
Assessment methods
| Level | Assessment method |
|---|---|
| Level 1 | Practical exams 50% Written exams 50% |
Learning Activities
| Level | Activity |
|---|---|
| Level 1 | Guided independent study 76% Scheduled learning and teaching activities 24% |
The university will use all reasonable endeavours to deliver your course as described in its published material and the programme specification for the academic year in which you begin your course. The university considers changes to courses very carefully and the university will minimise any changes. Please be aware that our courses are subject to review on an ongoing basis and changes may be necessary due to legitimate staffing, financial, regulatory and academic reasons. The content of course modules and mode of associated assessments may be updated on an annual basis. This is to ensure that all modules are up-to-date and responsive to employment and sector needs. The published course material and the programme specification contain indicative ‘optional modules’ that may be subject to change due to circumstances outside of our control. For this reason, we cannot guarantee to run any specific optional module.
