AC6782 - Advanced Clinical Assessment Skills when working with babies, children, and young people

What will I learn on this module?

This module focuses on clinical skills assessment when working with babies, children, and young people. You will be supported to strengthen and develop your knowledge base in relation to conducting, interpreting, and evaluating complex health and social care needs for babies, children, and young people, working in partnership with their families, drawing upon principles of person and family centred care.
You will develop your practice in addressing the physical and psychosocial dimensions within clinical assessment, taking into consideration social determinants of health and illness. Enhanced communication skills will be developed, and you will be supported to apply strategies with developmental consideration of babies, children, and young people, enabling them and their families to make informed choices about their care.
The module will be focused on conditions encountered when caring for babies, children, and young people. Teaching will adopt a body systems approach with a range of seminars, practical workshops, tutorials, lectures (Online Supported Learning OSL packages), and tutor guided learning, with sessions focusing specifically on conditions, examining the physiology, pathophysiology, and relevant pharmacology, as identified in the co-production of this module with our stakeholders and employing partners.
You will develop your practice and ability to lead episodes of care for babies, children, young people, and their families, understanding when to admit, discharge or refer as appropriate. You will have the opportunity to enhance your specialist knowledge, critical thinking, and decision-making skills, undertaking comprehensive clinical assessments, focusing on practice-based scenarios. Similarly, you will be supported to understand a range of informatics, including clinical investigations, to assist your assessment and diagnosis, distinguishing between normal and abnormal findings across the differing needs and age ranges of babies, children, and young people. You will also demonstrate your ability to accurately document your findings, identifying pertinent clinical and care solutions and effectively communicate these appropriately within the inter-professional team as well as to babies, children, young people, and families.

How will I learn on this module?

This module applies Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles to remove barriers to learning and create an inclusive, flexible experience that accommodates diverse learning styles. By offering multiple ways to engage with content, varied formats for accessing and understanding material, and ample opportunities for diverse action and expression, you can develop and showcase key employability skills. Through a blend of online resources, and face-to-face seminars, the module ensures an active, authentic learning journey that supports your success in real-world contexts (La, Dyjur, & Bair, 2018). This means learning will be via a blended delivery using a combination asynchronous (30 hours of web-based resources),synchronous (16 hours of face-to-face online seminars) learning followed by 12 hours of in-class activity to consolidate your learning. A ‘flipped classroom’ approach (Bergman & Sams, 2012), promotes the front loading of theoretical content as preparatory independent study provided via online supported learning (OSL) and reading, prior to the face-to-face online seminars and on-campus practical sessions where your understanding of concepts and application of theory will be explored. This approach to module delivery promotes active learning as it works to accommodate your learning needs and abilities by offering flexibility and direction gained from the preparatory web-based materials which are then explored and applied during the live online seminars creating new knowledge. Offering multiple ways of learning helps you to engage along with giving you the opportunity to express your learning through action and/or expression. This encourages a positive learning environment where you are likely to feel more engaged and motivated in your learning. Authentic assessment means that any assessments throughout the module will mirror real life activities that you will be faced with in your professional practice. Authentic assessment will be an on-going key feature of the module, via tasks within the web-based materials and online simulated practice learning. These will not only support your learning of the theory related to professional practice but will also support assessment literacy through developing your skills and knowledge of the assessment process. All assessments within the programme will be operated in accordance with standard operating procedures and marked and moderated in accordance with the Assessment Regulations for Taught Awards (ARTA) ensuring the academic standards required for student awards are met.

Bergman, J., & Sams, A. (2012) Flip your classroom. Reach every student in every class every day. Washington D.C., International Science of Technology in Education.
La, H., Dyjur, P., & Bair, H. (2018). Universal design for learning in higher education. Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning. Calgary University of Calgary

How will I be supported academically on this module?

You will be supported by the module lead who will guide your academic learning and assessment throughout the module. The module lead was involved in developing the e-learning materials, assessment exercises, and will provide some of your live online seminars, and feedback, supported by other staff. This module is supported by Blackboard Ultra and adheres to the university’s minimum standards. The site includes module information, assessment information, power-point presentations and e-learning packages, reading lists and relevant web links. Blackboard Collaborate will be used for the delivery of the live online seminars.

A discussion board is available to the cohort, through which students can post comments and ask questions of their peers throughout the duration of the module. You will have a live online group tutorial will help you prepare for the summative assessment. Your Programme Lead and Personal Tutor are also available to offer guidance on academic support throughout the programme.

The University Libraries offer an extensive collection of material, both hard copy and electronic, access to international databases and training in information retrieval. A variety of study-skills-related help sheets, and online videos can be found on the library Skills Plus site. You can also access a range of student support and wellbeing services via Student Central or by accessing the student support and wellbeing pages and Ask4Help via your electronic student portal.

You will also have an allocated personal/guidance teacher who will provide advice and support in relation to academic, procedural, and (where desired and appropriate) personal matters during the programme of study you have enrolled on. You will have access to 24/7 generic IT support and specific support from the programme team with any specific IT issues related to the e-learning package.

What will I be expected to read on this module?

All modules at Northumbria include a range of reading materials that students are expected to engage with. The reading list for this module can be found at: http://readinglists.northumbria.ac.uk
(Reading List service online guide for academic staff this containing contact details for the Reading List team – http://library.northumbria.ac.uk/readinglists)

What will I be expected to achieve?

On completion of this module:
Knowledge & Understanding:
1. You will have demonstrated the ability to conduct a comprehensive history taking and assessment, focusing on practice-based patient scenarios relevant to babies, children, and young people.
2. You will have demonstrated the ability to rationalise clinical decisions in recognition and assessment of the unwell baby, child, and young person within the clinical setting.
3. You will have recognised abnormal physical features and pathophysiology in association with diagnostic test results, assess clinical and psychosocial data and recognise the ill and/or deteriorating baby, child and/or young person.

Intellectual / Professional Skills & Abilities:
4. You will have demonstrated the application of clinical skills to assess the needs of the unwell baby, child and young person, document these and escalate where appropriate.

Personal Values Attributes (Global / Cultural awareness, Ethics, Curiosity) (PVA):
5. You will have demonstrated the ability to work independently and collaboratively with peers, colleagues, and public and people who access health and care services, to assess, plan and deliver high quality care in accordance with legal, professional, and ethical principles.

How will I be assessed?

Formative assessments
This will be ongoing throughout the module; you will engage in interactive self-assessment via the ELP; simulations and taught sessions.
Formative tests and quizzes will also be embedded within e-learning materials.
You will have the opportunity to engage in an interactive tutorial to prepare you for your summative assessment. In addition, group work within class will provide the opportunity for informal peer assessment.
(MLO’s 1-5)

Summative assessment
Summative assessment will be in the form of a two station Observed Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) (30 minutes duration). (MLO’s 1-5)

Station 1. You will be assessed on your history taking, problem-solving and assessment skills based on an authentic case scenario involving babies, children, or young people. (15 minutes).

Station 2. You will construct a treatment plan identifying ongoing investigations and interventions to deliver high quality care. (15 minutes).

You must achieve a pass in both stations to pass the summative assessment.

Station 1 – 30% weighting
Station 2 – 70% weighting

If you refer on one or more station(s), you will be reassessed on these referred stations only. Your marks and feedback will be provided electronically via Blackboard Ultra.

Pre-requisite(s)

To undertake this module, you must hold a valid current professional registration” (i.e.: NMC / GMC / HCPC).

Co-requisite(s)

N/A

Module abstract

This module relates to clinical skills assessment of babies, children, and young people. This is a practice focused module where you will have the opportunity to develop your critical thinking and decision making through developing knowledge and skills in relation to comprehensive clinical assessment based within the clinical setting. During this module you will be able to assess routine clinical investigations, identify the presenting symptoms and aspects of care that need to be addressed, explore both physical and psychosocial dimensions of assessment pertaining to babies, children, and young people. A range of communication skills will be developed including effectively communicating findings to other members of the inter-professional team and public and people who access health and care services. A systems-based approach is used during the module to provide you with the clinical skills and underpinning theoretical evidence to undertake clinical consultation and assessment.

This module will enable you to be able to recognise normal and abnormal clinical findings, including the onset of acute and/or exacerbations of chronic illness, provide objective clinical data to inter-disciplinary colleagues, enhancing patient safety and the effectiveness of patient care. You will apply your assessment skills to a range of scenarios and, from the interpretation of your findings, formulate a plan of care, which is in partnership with babies, children, young people, families, and the practice context. Learning will be supported through a combination of seminars, tutorials, lectures (Online Supported Learning OSL) packages as well as practice-based scenarios facilitated in the simulation suite. The assessment strategy addresses both the theoretical and practical elements of the module, adopting a real-world environment task and your summative assessment will be an Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE). This module will prepare you for your role in clinical assessment, with learning outcomes benefitting all aspects of your practice, helping to provide you and your peers with contemporary knowledge, skills and values desired in the workplace.