Paediatrics and Child Healthcare Practice MSc

Overview

Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) Learning Academy provides outstanding paediatric healthcare, education, training, and development that drives improvements in paediatric care across the world.

GOSH is an acute specialist paediatric hospital with a mission to provide world-class care to children and young people with rare, complex, and difficult-to-treat conditions, giving our learners exposure to specialist cases that are hard to find anywhere else in the world. Children deserve the best. Which is why education has always underpinned everything we do.

The aim of the GOSH Learning Academy (GLA) is to ensure all healthcare professionals, receive continual support, education, and specialist training to enhance their skills at every stage of their career in the field of paediatric healthcare.

You can choose to study a standalone module that will increase your knowledge and competence in your specialist area, or to build a selection of modules into a recognised programme such as a Graduate Certificate (GradCert), Postgraduate Certificate (PGCert), Postgraduate Diploma (PGDip) or Master’s (MSc), including awards in specialist areas.

Learn more about our programmes below, as well as our modules which can also be taken as standalone CPD modules. You can also learn more about the work of the Great Ormond Street Learning Academy (GLA) on our website.

Why study MSc Paediatrics & Child Healthcare Practice at Great Ormond Street Hospital Learning Academy?

As an international centre of excellence in paediatric care, this programme utilises the specialist educational expertise of our multidisciplinary team to support you in identifying areas for professional and personal development and for the enhancement of paediatric healthcare practice in your organisation. The options within this MSc award will give you an individualised, flexible modular pathway of postgraduate study, through reflection of your level of practice, knowledge, and clinical experience. This programme will enhance your professional and career development, promoting an informed, critical, and ethical attitude towards postgraduate study and professional practice. The clinical specialisms within the programme will develop your mastery, knowledge and competence supporting your ability to influence and lead on service development and improvement. You will develop strategic thinking, in response to an unpredictable, complex, and dynamic practice environment, when practising as both an autonomous practitioner and when working interprofessionally through your everyday practice.

Course highlights

• Teaching is delivered by expert staff at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, an international centre of excellence in paediatric care. The Great Ormond Street Hospital Learning aims to provide world-class, multi-professional paediatric healthcare, education, training and development
• Individualised study pathway tailored to your current and future needs, supported by a programme discussion meeting with GOSH Learning Academy expert staff. It is possible to accredit or recognise prior learning (RPL)
• Clinically specialised modules ensuring the MSc award is highly applicable to the organisation you work in
• Enables you to demonstrate mastery in healthcare-related competence and knowledge to contribute to improving professional practice and service development
• Facilitates your acquisition of critical understanding and use of advanced research skills.

About your course

You can take any of the optional modules listed below as a standalone module at either level 6 or level 7 (for 15 or 30 credits – see module pages for details) or work towards a 180 UK credit MSc programme in Paediatrics & Child Healthcare Practice.

Target Award: MSc Paediatrics & Child Healthcare Practice

• Optional modules totalling 120 credits (minimum 90 credits at level 7)
• One compulsory project at level 7 (60 credits)

Learners also have the option to ‘step off’ the programme and gain one of the following.

Exit Awards:

• PGDip Paediatrics & Child Healthcare Practice - 120 UK credit, MSc level programme consisting of optional modules (minimum 90 credits at level 7)
• PGCert Paediatrics & Child Healthcare Practice - 60 UK credit, MSc level programme consisting of consisting of optional modules at level 7
• GradCert Paediatrics & Child Healthcare Practice - 60 UK credit, graduate programme consisting of optional modules at level 6

All awards allow the option to specialise in either Oncology or Critical Care.

A programme planning meeting will take place to help you determine the modules to be undertaken, any accredited learning and the options for recognition of prior learning. The choice of pathway for the modules will be determined by your preferred clinical specialism and your reflection on which pathway will support your role and career progression.

What will you study on MSc Paediatrics and Child Healthcare Practice?

This is a part-time programme. It consists of 180 credits including one core module (60 credits) and 120 credits of optional modules to complete the programme.

A list of core and optional modules available to you is provided below. Please follow the links provided for full details on each of the modules.

The core module of the MSc Paediatrics & Child Healthcare Practice is:

• Developing Research Capabilities, NSA4050 (60 credits)

Optional modules to be completed prior to the core module may include:

• Caring for Children and Young People with Cancer, PCH3807 / PCH4807 (15 credits)
• Caring for Children and Young People in Critical Care level 1 and 2 (High Dependency), PCH3806 / PCH4806 (15 credits)
• Infection Prevention and Control for Children and Young People, PCH3810 / PCH4810 (15 credits)
• Systemic Anti-Cancer Therapy in Children and Young People (SACT), PCH3801 / PCH4801 (15 credits)
• Clinical Skills in Paediatric Ventilator Management, PCH3800 / PCH4800 (15 credits)
• Foundations of Paediatric Intensive Care Nursing (PICU 1), PCH3804 / PCH4804 (15 credits)
• Care of the Child with Cardiac and Respiratory Compromise (PICU 2), PCH3802 / PCH4802 (15 credits)
• Nursing Interventions for the Child in Paediatric Intensive Care (PICU 3), PCH3805 / PCH4805 (30 credits)
• Caring for Children and Young People Undergoing Haematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant (HSCT), PCH3816 / PCH4816 (15 credits)
• Fundamental Care of Children and Young People. PCH3834 / PCH4834 (15 credits)
• Preceptorship in Practice, PCH3836 / PCH4836 (15 credits)
• Caring for Children and Young People with Orthopaedic or Spinal Conditions, PCH3832 / PCH4832 (15 credits)
• Essential Care of the Neonate (Qualification in Specialty 1), PCH3808 / PCH4808 (15 credits)
• Principles of Neonatal Critical Care (Qualification in Specialty 2), PCH3812 / PCH4812 (15 credits)
• Caring for Children and Young People with a Cardiac Condition, PCH3818 / PCH4818 (15 credits)
• Caring for Children and Young People with a Renal Condition, PCH3820 / PCH4820 (15 credits)
• Caring for Children and Young People with Acute Neuroscience and Craniofacial Conditions, PCH3830 / PCH4830 (15 credits)
• Mental Health and Psychological Development of Children and Young People, PCH3809 / PCH4809 (15 credits)
• Caring for Children and Young People in the Recovery Room, PCH3803 / PCH4803 (15 credits)
• Advanced Practitioner Inquiry, WBH 4630 (15 credits)
• Service Development and Quality Improvement, NSA 4200 (15 credits)
• Paediatric Palliative Care, PCH3110 / PCH4110 (15 credits)
• Caring for Children and Young People with Metabolic and Endocrine Conditions (15 credits)
• Care of Children and Young People Undergoing Extra Corporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO)

More information about this course

To find out more about this course, please download the Paediatrics and Child Healthcare Practice MSc specification (PDF).

All optional modules are available at levels 6 and 7, although optional modules are not offered on every course. Where optional modules are available, you will be asked to make your choice during the previous academic year. If we have insufficient numbers of students interested in an optional module, or there are staffing changes which affect the teaching, it may not be offered. If an optional module does not run, we will advise you after the module selection period when numbers are confirmed, or at the earliest time that the programme team make the decision not to run the module, and help you choose an alternative module.

Student support

We offer lots of support to help you while you're studying including financial advice, wellbeing, mental health, and disability support.

Additional needs

We'll support you if you have additional needs such as sensory impairment or dyslexia. And if you want to find out whether Middlesex is the right place for you before you apply, get in touch with our Disability and Dyslexia team.

Wellness

Our specialist teams will support your mental health. We have free individual counselling sessions, workshops, support groups and useful guides.

Careers

How can the MSc Paediatrics & Child Healthcare Practice support your career?

The programme will be an asset in developing and furthering a career in your chosen area of specialism within the UK or abroad. Your enhanced knowledge and expertise will provide employment opportunities and progression across the local, national, and international area of specialism.

Engagement with the programme and the modules within, will provide evidence of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for professional re-validation with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) or other regulatory body.

Successful completion of the programme will indicate to employers that you have the abilities and characteristics required of practitioners working in more senior positions. As such, some learners move on to more advanced roles, while others pursue a clinical-academic career.

If you successfully complete the MSc Paediatrics & Child Healthcare Practice or other associated awards above, you will be able to demonstrate commitment to CPD, lifelong learning, practice research and development. You might also wish to explore your options in research or academia, or even complete further study at doctoral level.

Fees and funding

The fees below refer to the 2024/25 academic year unless otherwise stated.

UK Students¹

Part-time students: £64 per credit*

Course costs

The following course-related costs are included in the fees:

• A free electronic textbook for every module
• All printing and copying required for your study
• Self-service laptops available for loan for a maximum of 24 hours
• Audio-visual equipment available for loan, including digital stills cameras, digital video recorders, digital audio recorders

Course fees are subject to annual inflation so the total costs for part time study are shown here as a guide.

For more information and to answer your frequently asked questions, please visit our postgraduate funding page.

Fees disclaimers

1. UK fees: The university reserves the right to increase postgraduate tuition fees in line with changes to legislation, regulation and any government guidance or decisions. The tuition fees for part-time UK study are subject to annual review and we reserve the right to increase the fees each academic year by no more than the level of inflation.

Any annual increase in tuition fees as provided for above will be notified to students at the earliest opportunity in advance of the academic year to which any applicable inflationary rise may apply.

We’ll carefully manage any future changes to courses, or the support and other services available to you, if these are necessary because of things like changes to government health and safety advice, or any changes to the law.

Any decisions will be taken in line with both external advice and the University’s Regulations which include information on this.

Our priority will always be to maintain academic standards and quality so that your learning outcomes are not affected by any adjustments that we may have to make.

At all times we’ll aim to keep you well informed of how we may need to respond to changing circumstances, and about support that we’ll provide to you.