Palliative Care PgDip

Our part time, online course covers all aspects of delivering care to patients, including treatment modalities, biological, psychosocial and ethical perspectives. Developed and delivered with well-established cancer institutes and oncological and palliative care expertise, you will experience a comprehensive and intellectually stimulating experience wherever you are in the world.<br/><br/>Palliative Care is an important part of health care for those suffering from life-limiting illnesses and their families. In May 2012 the World Health Organisation (WHO) passed a resolution to incorporate palliative care into regular health care. This course has been designed to cover all aspects of palliative care, including:<br/>pain<br/>emotional and psychological care<br/>medical, spiritual, social, and economic care<br/><br/>You can also take optional modules such as health economics, health technologies and medical ethics.<br/><br/>These courses are designed to provide those working in palliative care and related professional roles with detailed knowledge about the interrelationship between oncology and clinical cancer service provision.<br/><br/>Throughout the course you will develop clinical leadership, clinical excellence and the ability to cultivate interdisciplinary collaboration in the delivery of evidence based oncology/palliative care. This includes sharing mutually valuable information to help develop clinical practice. You will be introduced to the basis of research in palliative care, preparing you for further research within the field.<br/><br/>We have designed these courses in collaboration with the Northern Institute for Cancer Research (NICR) and it is delivered in association with the Northern Centre for Cancer Care (NCCC).<br/><br/>Our students include those:<br/>training in nursing, medical or scientific specialties and dealing with cancer, clinical or medical oncology, or palliative care<br/>working in the pharmacology industry or in cancer research<br/><br/><strong>Staff</strong><br/><br/>Newcastle and the North East of England have a tremendous amount of palliative care expertise and all our teaching staff are healthcare professionals actively involved in research. This knowledge base provides a comprehensive, intellectually stimulating, and extremely useful educational experience to all students involved in it.<br/><br/>The course is led by:<br/>Dr Charles Kelly, Degree Programme Director and Consultant Clinical Oncologist<br/>Dr Victoria Hewitt, Deputy Degree Programme Director and Palliative Care Specialist<br/><br/><strong>Delivery</strong><br/><br/>Modules are taught online, so you can choose to study anytime and anywhere. This flexibility means that you can fit your studies around your other commitments, plus learning online will develop your online digital literacy skills.<br/><br/>You will be given an account on Blackboard, our managed virtual learning environment, and an email address. Blackboard is accessible across a variety of operating systems and browsers, check that your equipment is compatible. Our materials and supporting reading are accessible across a variety of devices including desktop computers, tablets and mobile phones.<br/><br/><strong>IT support</strong><br/><br/>As this programme is online, you should feel comfortable using the internet and networking online. You dont have to be a technical expert to study online. Well give you an online induction before you start. This will show you the different interactive tools you will use during your studies. These include:<br/>discussion boards<br/>reflective journals<br/>blogs<br/>collaborative learning spaces, e.g. wikis<br/><br/><strong>IT requirements</strong><br/><br/>No campus attendance is needed, but you must have reliable access to the following:<br/>computer<br/>the Internet<br/>webcam<br/>headset<br/>printer.<br/><br/>Recommended specifications:<br/>operating system: Windows 7 and above (32 and 64 bit) or Mac OSX 10.6 and above<br/>processor: Intel Pentium, Intel Celeron, Intel i3, Intel i5, Intel i7, or recent AMD processor<br/>RAM: At least 2GB<br/>connectivity: broadband or mobile broadband<br/>screen resolution: at least 1024 x 768 px.