AC6750 - Improving Outcomes in Health & Social Care Practice

What will I learn on this module?

You will learn and develop your extended project skills, identifying and evaluating practice on an organisational, social, and political level. You will examine the impact of your health and social practice interventions on outcomes for your patients, clients, or service users. You will demonstrate your ability to evaluate, critically analyse and apply knowledge in a health and social practice context. The value of this analysis and knowledge application will be specifically linked to the impact it has on the outcomes of your client group. You will learn how to relate policy and legislative drivers to health and social practice delivery ensuring that evidence-based practice is applied across a range of client groups and contexts. The module will encourage you to consolidate the knowledge, skills and abilities developed throughout the programme in a final project, displaying your development in health and social practice, contextualised to your area of practice.

How will I learn on this module?

You will experience a variety of teaching and learning methods on this module which you can use to link theory to your practice. Your learning will occur through lectures, seminars, and independent study. However, the module learning will be predominantly directed by your selected project direction and focussed through tutorials with your project supervisor as you engage in student independent learning. Formative assessment will play a significant role in the development of your learning in this module, engaging with this process will be key. The subject matter lends itself to practice driven evidence-based enquiry and debate, and your tutor will guide and encourage you in this learning method.

How will I be supported academically on this module?

You will be supported through regular feedback from your tutor, within the workshop and discussion format of specific teaching sessions and in tutorials. In addition, a discussion board for your module will be established on Northumbria University’s eLearning portal ‘Blackboard Ultra’ (BBU), BBU also allows remote access to materials and aids for module students to access (populated by your module tutor). You will be supported throughout the module by your personal tutor and supervisor.

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. Online reading lists (provided after enrolment) give you access to your reading material for your modules. The Library works in partnership with your module tutors to ensure you have access to the material that you need.

What will I be expected to achieve?

Knowledge & Understanding:
1. Conceptualise a final project topic and establish its relevance to current health and social practice.
2. Critically examine contemporary policy within the context of organisational, social, and political culture, and analyse the impact on practice.
3. Critically reflect on the uncertainty, ambiguity and limits of knowledge as applied to practice.

Intellectual / Professional skills & abilities:
4. Articulate and share an analysis of the interaction between evidence and its impact on outcomes in health and social practice.
5. Critically evaluate the concepts of governance and quality assurance in relation to their contribution to your practice context.

Personal Values Attributes (Global / Cultural awareness, Ethics, Curiosity) (PVA):
6. Critically analyse the effectiveness of interventions in health and social care, with recommendations for improvement

How will I be assessed?

Formative assessment will take place in a student led and tutor supervised project proposal panel in a similar format to the BBC series ‘Dragons Den’. The panel will consist of members drawn from the student and academic body, including practice stakeholders where possible. This will inform and shape the student’s summative submission offering feedback through reflection and constructive feedback.
Summative assessment will consist of a practice evaluation project that examines an area of health and social practice, situated within your own practice, relating and comparing it to the available contemporary literature, to determine its contribution to improving outcomes for health and social practice. This will be a digital submission of a 10000-word project via Turnitin.
Feedback will be provided electronically via Turnitin and will include development advice for future academic work (MLO 1-6)

Pre-requisite(s)

Understanding and developing evidence for practice

Co-requisite(s)

N/A

Module abstract

The module ‘Improving outcomes in health & social care practice’ is designed to facilitate the student’s exploration of the relationship between the contemporary evidence base and its impact on outcomes in health and social practice. An examination, analysis and evaluation of this relationship culminates in the production of a capstone project, rooted in the context and area of practice of the student’s choosing, designed as a mechanism to display the academic achievements of the students as they have progressed through their programme. Formative assessment offers the student the opportunity to present their project to a panel of academic staff, peers and stakeholders informing the summative written assessment demonstrating the complexities of the acquisition of knowledge, skills and abilities gained throughout their academic journey.

Course info

Credits 40

Level of Study Undergraduate

Mode of Study 2 years Part Time

Department Nursing, Midwifery & Health

Location Coach Lane Campus, Northumbria University

City Newcastle

Start September 2025

Fee Information

Module Information

All information is accurate at the time of sharing. 

Full time Courses are primarily delivered via on-campus face to face learning but could include elements of online learning. Most courses run as planned and as promoted on our website and via our marketing materials, but if there are any substantial changes (as determined by the Competition and Markets Authority) to a course or there is the potential that course may be withdrawn, we will notify all affected applicants as soon as possible with advice and guidance regarding their options. It is also important to be aware that optional modules listed on course pages may be subject to change depending on uptake numbers each year.  

Contact time is subject to increase or decrease in line with possible restrictions imposed by the government or the University in the interest of maintaining the health and safety and wellbeing of students, staff, and visitors if this is deemed necessary in future.

 

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