Anaesthetic Practice Certificate of Continuing Professional Development

Program Overview

This part-time, online program is tailored for UK perioperative Anaesthetic Practitioners. It enhances their knowledge and skills in providing high-quality anaesthesia care across various specialties, with a focus on resilience and safety amid the increasing complexity of cases. The program includes practical work-based learning, covering advanced resuscitation, risk management, service user monitoring, and various specific needs.

Program Outline

Degree Overview:

This is a 20-week, part-time online course designed for Anaesthetic Practitioners working in the UK perioperative environment. The course aims to help practitioners build and reflect on their knowledge and experience in relation to anaesthetic practice, enabling them to deliver high-quality care across a variety of specialities. The course focuses on resilience and safety, addressing the increasing complexity of cases and the need for advanced planning and safety measures in the perioperative environment.

Outline:

The course is delivered over two 10-week trimesters, combining online academic study (theory/knowledge) and work-based learning. The course content includes:

• Advanced Resuscitation: Advanced airway management, anaesthetic complications and emergencies, rapid sequence induction, failed intubation procedure, and advanced Life Support in the Perioperative environment.
• Risk Management: Principles of risk management, hazards in the clinical area, human factors, and environmental emergencies.
• Service User Monitoring: Invasive/haemodynamic monitoring, interpretation of ECGs and doppler.
• Health and Social Policy: Implications of national and local health policy initiatives on the perioperative environment.
• Anaesthetic Equipment: Ventilators and modes of ventilation, care of ventilated service users, and managing a service user with a tracheostomy.
• Care of Service Users with Specific Needs: Paediatric anaesthesia, anaesthesia in obstetrics, elderly, anaesthesia for service users with mental health problems or learning disabilities, and anaesthetic management of the obese service user.
• Regional Anaesthesia: Regional blocks, epidural and spinal anaesthesia.
• Pain Management: Routes of pain relief, pharmacological, adjuncts to pain relief, and alternative pain management strategies.
• Complications Associated with Anaesthesia: Common and not-so-common complications associated with general, local, and regional anaesthesia.
• Venepuncture and Intravenous Cannulation: Relevant legislation, site and equipment selection, anatomy & physiology, potential complications and errors, infection control, the venepuncture procedure, the cannulation procedure, vascular and arterial access.
• Responding to Emergencies: Assisting the anaesthetist, scope of practice, situational awareness, managing the environment, and managing specific emergencies such as anaphylaxis, major haemorrhage, suxamethonium apnoea, and malignant hyperpyrexia.

Core Module:

• Anaesthetic Practice (6OD511): This module focuses on the professional responsibilities of an anaesthetic practitioner in providing care to a service user undergoing anaesthesia.
It covers topics such as anatomy and physiology relevant for anaesthetic practice, introduction to anaesthesia, equipment used in anaesthesia, preparation of the service user for anaesthesia delivery, anaesthetic drugs and fluid management, role of the anaesthetic practitioner in caring for service users undergoing anaesthesia, non-invasive monitoring, types of anaesthesia, induction of anaesthesia, airway management, maintenance of anaesthesia, reversal of anaesthesia, analgesia and pain management, invasive patient monitoring, advanced airway management, management and recognition of complications and emergencies in anaesthesia, anaesthesia for service users with specific and complex care needs, venepuncture, intravenous cannulation, blood sampling, risk management, and non-technical skills in the anaesthetic environment.

Assessment:

• Submission of a 3000-word written piece of work.

• Submission of a clinical portfolio demonstrating practical competence at performing anaesthetic skills required for the role of Anaesthetic Practitioner, in line with current professional guidance.

Teaching:

• The course is delivered through online learning alongside supervised clinical practice undertaken within the workplace.
• There will be 1/2 virtual classrooms over the 10-week trimester.

Other:

• The course has a 100% student satisfaction rate (NSS, 2022).
• The course is unique in that the academic study takes place online.
• The course will equip you with the skills to become a dynamic, confident, and competent anaesthetic practitioner.
• The course is designed for post-registration healthcare practitioners or nurses working in the perioperative environment who wish to enhance their current practice and develop competence in providing skilled anaesthetic assistance and management of a service user undergoing anaesthesia.
• The course requires managers' approval and confirmation of a named supervisor and additional assigned assessors.
• The course requires a current DBS check.
• The course requires evidence of recent study (within the last three years) or ability to study at a degree level.
• The course requires a degree or Diploma in Higher Education (or equivalent) relevant to your professional qualification.
• The course requires you to be a registered practitioner with current and unrestricted registration with a relevant professional regulatory body (e.g.
HCPC or NMC).
• The course requires you to be employed in a UK-based perioperative environment for the duration of the course.
• The course requires you to have at least six months experience as a registered nurse working within the perioperative environment.
• The course requires an IELTS of 7.0 (or equivalent) in all areas if English is not your first language.
• The course offers flexible payment plans.
• The course requires you to submit official photo identification, professional body registration number, copies of certificates and transcripts or a letter of testimony for previous qualifications, current CV/employment history, evidence of your current DBS, and a completed Managers Approval Form.
• The course is offered for September and May start dates.
• The course is located online.
• The course is part-time and runs over two 10-week trimesters.
• The course costs £1,750 (2023/24).
• The course is an undergraduate course.
• The course is a Certificate of Continuing Professional Development.
• The course is available for online learning.
• The course is a Certificate of Credit.
• The course is an Operating Department Practitioner Apprenticeship.
• The course is a Perioperative Practice (Top-Up) BSc (Hons).
• The course is a Nursing Studies (Top-Up) BSc (Hons).

• UK fee: £1,750 (2023/24)