STUDY

The landscape of health and social care is constantly changing and evolving, in response to different political, economic and social pressures within society. Within this module, you will be introduced to the role of the nurse within contemporary healthcare, to develop knowledge and understanding of concepts such as evidence-based practice and person-centred care and the core values expected of the nurse. During the module, you will be encouraged to engage in personal and professional development activities, to consider aspects such as self-awareness, resilience, communication skills and team-working.

The nature of contemporary nursing practice requires strong foundations in the applied biological sciences. In this module, health and human development is explored in terms of physiological processes, to consider health, illness and disease from a cellular level to a whole systems approach, to enable you to recognise physiological deviations, which can be seen in disease and illness. These disciplines are fundamental to your ability to make informed, reasoned assessments of an individual's needs in health and illness.

This module builds on the knowledge and learning from the earlier Health and Human Development 1 module, to consider major pathological and physiological changes which may occur as a result of common diseases and disease processes. You will explore the determinants of health, their impact on health at a physiological level and the potential impacts and interventions required to support the adult experiencing ill-health. You will be introduced to the principles of pharmacology and consider current pharmacological approaches to the management of disease and ill-health, alongside other elements such as co-morbidity and the role of the multi-professional team in the management and treatment of disease/ill-health.

Early recognition of the deteriorating patient is a key element in managing, stabilising, and treating such patients, to prevent further deterioration and harm. In contemporary healthcare, nurses must be able to recognise the critically ill or deteriorating patient, make a rapid evidence-based assessment, initiate supportive management and/or seek support from the multi-professional healthcare team. Applying a ‘whole systems approach’ means that adult nurses must be able to consider the mental health well-being of their patients as well as their physical well-being.

Health and social care services are facing unprecedented demands from an ageing population who are living longer with significant long-term, and complex healthcare needs, often complicated by co-morbidities. All health and social care providers must have greater understanding of methods to meet the holistic needs of service users who are living with complex, long term health conditions, in a resource-limited health landscape. Medicines optimisation is also considered within this module, as service users living with complex conditions often experience medication-related issues such as polypharmacy, multi-morbidity and complex drug regimes, which can all contribute to patient safety concerns or lack of concordance.

Adult Nurses are increasingly expected to lead and manage care and take on autonomous and advanced practice roles in a range of settings. This module will consolidate and build upon previous learning and will introduce you to new concepts, to strengthen your ability to lead and support a team, to build your resilience and give you the skills to drive service innovation. This module will provide the opportunity to develop knowledge and to demonstrate sophisticated application of an appropriate evidence base.

This module will build on your prior undergraduate knowledge of research methods and methodology, to undertake an evidence-based literature review, or service enquiry, to understand the role of current research and its application to contemporary nursing practice.

The NMC (2018) Standards for pre-registration nursing requires that students learn and are assessed in practice environments. This module focuses on developing competence in the areas of practice covered in the practice assessment document. Professional values are viewed as an important aspect of working in practice environments and are therefore, assessed through this module.