This part-time blended online course will take up to a year to complete and is structured to support the student through their journey. You’ll learn by a variety of teaching methods including lectures, guest lectures, tutorials and independent study. Your knowledge and understanding will be developed using a variety of online teaching, learning and assessment methods, utilising both asynchronous and synchronous learning opportunities.
Live lectures will be delivered using Microsoft Teams, allowing for live discussion with peers. These synchronous activities will not only help you to develop specific discussion skills, but they will also help you to develop relationships with your fellow students. Asynchronous activities will be set within each module site of the university’s virtual learning environment in the form of workbooks (learning materials and activities to engage the learner online), academic activities (such as reviewing literature; accessing, reviewing case studies and other learning resources, viewing podcasts and recorded sessions), peer and tutor led discussion boards, action learning sets and other forums for presenting/engaging in further discussion/review and application of learning. These activities will be mounted within each module site within the university’s virtual learning environment. The nature of these asynchronous learning activities means that you can complete these activities within a time rather than at a set time.
The programme is constructed using two distinct modules. Knowledge gained in the first module, Special and Transitional Care of the Neonate is the foundation module and an underpinning component of the second module, High Dependency and Intensive Care of the Neonate.
The first 20 credit module Special and Transitional Care of the Neonate will focus on the newborn baby who requires care in a special or transitional neonatal care setting. This module will support you in developing your knowledge and understanding of neonates as they transition to extra uterine life, together with the needs of their parents and families. The content will be based on relevant, embryology and fetal development. It will include exploration of maternal and perinatal factors that impact on the outcome of newborns as they adapt to extrauterine life. There will be dedicated time spent revising normal physiology, then learning the altered physiology and the pathophysiology relevant to the newborn baby. Alongside this, you will critically engage with the global evidence base which guides how we provide care and treatment options for these babies.
In the second 40-credit module High Dependency and Intensive Care of the Neonate your learning will be centered around complex physiology and pathological process related to the respiratory, cardiovascular, central nervous, endocrine, renal, gastrointestinal and immunological systems of the premature and ill neonate as they transition to extra uterine life. This will enable you to recognise developing illness and initiate plans of care. Alongside this, you will critically engage with the global evidence base which guides how you provide care and treatment options for these babies. The principles of family integrated care will be critically appraised throughout, as will the concepts and practice of neonatal neuro developmental supportive care.
Lead academic
Anne Moylan is programme and module leader. She has extensive experience in neonatal care both nationally and internationally and a clinical career in neonatology spanning 35 years including many years as an advanced neonatal nurse practitioner. As an educator she has taught within several universities in both Scotland and abroad, and is committed to developing and delivering neonatal education programmes that are committed to evidence based holistic care of the neonate and their families.