AdvDip(CPD) Care of the Person with a Minor Illness (HE7)
Course Overview
This stand-alone advanced professional development course offered by the University of Bolton provides you with the essential theoretical knowledge to safely assess and manage patients presenting with undifferentiated minor illnesses. Our expert team will support you in developing the critical thinking and clinical decision-making skills needed to identify red flags, conduct appropriate investigations, and implement effective patient management.You’ll gain a thorough understanding of the legislation, national and local policies, and guidelines that govern clinical practice, ensuring the provision of ethical, safe, and effective care. We emphasise a patient-centred approach, requiring you to demonstrate strong communication skills and consider potential barriers that may impact your clinical decisions. You’ll be expected to recognise and manage minor illnesses within your scope of practice, identify red flags and collaborate within the multidisciplinary team, including making referrals to other services when necessary.
This short course is designed for health and social care professionals registered with regulatory bodies such as the NMC, HCPC, GPhC or GMC. It will also support the development of key employability attributes, with a particular focus on skills mastery.
Highlights
- Our dedicated academic team have a wealth of experience working in health and social care settings. They are engaged in relevant research, bringing their expertise and passion for service excellence to their teaching.
- This continuing professional development course is flexible and designed 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, problem-solving, initiative and communication skills.
- When you successfully complete this course, the University of Bolton will award you an Advanced Diploma of Continuing Professional Development in Care of the Person with a Minor Illness worth 20 credits at Level HE7.
Key Features
- We've been offering high-quality courses specifically designed to meet the needs of the health and social care sector for over 30 years.
- Regular review of the course curriculum ensures that contemporary theories are adopted.
- Your employer may give you financial support to undertake this course, or you may be self-funded.
- Completing this course will enhance your professional practice proficiency and demonstrate your commitment to lifelong learning.
Entry Requirements
- You must have an appropriate health and social care-related qualification and current professional registration (for example, registered nurse, allied health professional, or pharmacist).
- Ideally, you should hold a level HE6 qualification or be able to demonstrate the ability to study at level HE7.
- 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 6.0 with no less than 5.5 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 for healthcare professionals. It provides a trajectory of learning which enhances your existing knowledge, helping you deliver outstanding care.
As a recognised and approved programme of study, this course offers evidence of your continuing professional development and demonstrates you are an autonomous, confident and highly employable practitioner with expertise in the healthcare field.
Fees & Funding
The Royal College of Nursing may offer educational grants. Please visit https://rcnfoundation.rcn.org.uk/Apply-For-Funding/Educational-grants for information.
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
Course application details are unavailable at present
International Applicants
Course application details are unavailable at present
Partner Organisation Applicants
Course application details are unavailable at present
Teaching & Assessment
We use a blended learning approach, using the principles of problem-based learning to develop your enquiry skills and place this within the context of patient care. We'll introduce topics through keynote lectures that use a mixture of theory and case-based discussions around clinical scenarios. Following the lectures, we'll expect you to undertake self-directed learning to explore each topic in greater depth to increase your knowledge and understanding of the key concepts of minor illness and apply this to your field of practice. This approach will enable you to consider current research evidence and use this to inform your clinical decision-making and communication skills.
The module's assessment strategy is underpinned by a summative assessment, which will occur at the end of the module. You'll be required to produce a case study assignment and pass a history-taking OSCE complete with a management plan. Your work must be underpinned by the latest research evidence and will be submitted in line with the university's assessment guidelines.
You'll have the opportunity to submit a formative piece of work and discuss this with your module tutor during a tutorial before your summative submission.
We use a blended style of learning and teaching, including online delivery and engagement where appropriate.
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.
- APD Care of the Person with a Minor Illness
Assessment methods
| Level | Assessment method |
|---|---|
| Level 1 | Coursework 100% |
Learning Activities
| Level | Activity |
|---|---|
| Level 1 | Guided independent study 76% |
| Level 2 | 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.
