This unit will equip you with the knowledge and skills to recognise, assess and manage clients with a range of long term conditions. It will enable you to evaluate the evidence base for practice and critically reflect on their encounters with clients.

The unit will comprise a combination of teaching and learning methods including key lectures, case studies and patient reviews from practice, group seminars, videos and structured reflection. On completion of the unit you should be able to;

• Articulate your role in relation to the needs of clients presenting with long term conditions.
• Develop a knowledge and understanding of the pathophysiology of a range of long term conditions.
• Recognise and respond to a range of long term of conditions including those affecting systems such as the cardiovascular, respiratory and musculo-skeletal systems and endocrine.
• Critically appraise the evidence base and tools available to implement care for those with long term conditions.
• Evaluate the current care provided and use the information to undertake a quality improvement initiative to develop and enhance the service provided by Practice Nurses.
• Advance your practice through critical reflection of their personal encounters with clients.

This course requires 100% attendance.

This course can be used towards the PG Cert Primary Care

You must be a registered Healthcare professional.

Normally students may enter Level 7 (Master's level) study if they have been awarded:

• Undergraduate degree (honours or non-honours)
• An equivalent qualification (the learning outcome of which are demonstrably appropriate in terms of knowledge, understanding and skills) equivalent to 120 credits at Level 7.

If you do not meet this criteria you are still able to apply for this unit but we may ask you to complete a study skills handbook to familiarise yourself with academic writing at masters level or pre-admission work. This will be sent to you when we have received your application form.

This unit is also available at Level 6 (degree level).

Fees and funding:

You will need to pay or indicate employer support of payment for unit or course fees to the university.

Applicants working within the NHS or other healthcare providers may be eligible for support with funding from their employer through the Learning Beyond Registration contract with the NHS South of England.

Applicants should contact their employing organisation for further details.

Pre-purchased places
The Faculty of Health & Social Sciences has contractual arrangements with NHS organisations for pre-paid places on specified modules including NHS South of England. If you work within Dorset & Somerset or Hampshire & Isle of Wight you may be able to access the pre-paid places. These arrangements allow NHS Trusts to nominate the staff they wish to send on each unit or course.

The pre-arranged agreements allow individuals, such as yourself, a route to access appropriate professional development opportunities that are seen as strategically important to your organisation (in consultation with your Line Manager/Education Co-ordinator). All requests for pre-paid places must first be agreed by your organisation’s Education Lead prior to completing an application.

Students will critically reflect on and analyse the care that they gave to one patient with a long term condition in their clinical practice. The reflective essay will be 3,000 words in total and include the stages of assessment, investigation, diagnosis, treatment and evaluation 

Having completed this unit the student is expected to: 

1. Articulate their own role in relation to the needs of clients presenting with long term conditions
2. Develop a knowledge and understanding of the pathophysiology of a range of long term conditions  
3. Recognise and respond to a range of long term of conditions including those affecting systems such as the cardiovascular, respiratory and musculo-skeletal systems and endocrine. 
4. Critically appraise the evidence base and tools available to implement care for those with long term conditions
5. Evaluate the current care provided and use the information to undertake a quality improvement initiative to develop and enhance the service provided by Practice Nurses, thereby advancing their practice through critical reflection of their personal encounters with clients.

Course review:

In order to take advantage of new approaches to learning and teaching, as well as developments in practice to benefit our students we regularly review all of our courses. This course is currently going through this process and we will update this page to give you full information about what we will be offering once the review process has concluded.  These changes will come into effect for all new students from September 2025. Applicants will be notified by our admissions team of any changes.