Welcome to the University of Derby. In this short presentation I will give you a brief outline of what to expect when you start your studies with us here at the University of Derby. My name is Neil Loach and I am the pathway lead for Occupational Health on the specialist community public health Nursing course. I will be with you throughout your journey whilst you are on the course.
I've worked in occupational health for almost 30 years in a variety of settings most of my time in OH has been spent in the NHS but also in industrial settings such as lead acid battery manufacture, food factories, waterways, coal mining and also for a major OH service provider. The programme lead is Navjot Kaur Virk and Navjot is a very experienced senior academic and is a health visitor by background.
The occupational health course has been included in the SCPHN and pathway courses for the last three years the university has fully embraced occupational health when many other universities are discontinuing occupational health courses. The occupational health pathway brings a whole new dimension to the course cohort and many of our other students benefit from their OH colleague’s interaction within the lectures. The course is the equivalent of the final year of an undergraduate degree if you already hold a diploma, if you have a degree already and studying at master's level will lead to the award of postgraduate diploma on successful completion many of our postgraduate diploma students go on to get the full masters after doing a six-month 60 credit independent study. You will attend university on a Wednesday in year one and you will also need one day in supervised suitable learning environment in the workplace or placement. Your day-to-day practice learning will need to be supported by a part 3 SCPHN OH registrant.
This year the course commences on the 7th of September 2020 and this date is now confirmed you will receive a full week of induction and this will prepare you for study at your chosen level. It will give you ample opportunity to gather the required information for successful study. The second week will be five days in practice week three is then again at the university for the full week and is also the start of our teaching weeks for semester one.
Blocks of self-directed study are interspersed throughout the programme and you will need this time to do your study in your chosen location. Holidays are built into the programme and it's essential that you attend all lectures to enable you to successfully complete each module. In semester one you'll start your modules on a Wednesday morning with an option module for most of our occupational health students this will be principles of long-term conditions management the module is intended to provide the student with an insight into clinical intervention for patients with a variety of long-term conditions, self-management stages of disease progression and multidisciplinary working will all be discussed in order to identify the most appropriate outcome for the individual patient with a long-term condition.
On Wednesday afternoon you will study your first core module of public health and health improvement you'll produce a community profile and analyse one health determinant impacting on your population. Alternatively, you could produce a health improvement resource suitable for your population with supporting data from key demographic and epidemiological data. In semester two you will study leading for quality where you will look at leadership theories along with change and quality management and this will be applied in the context of professional accountability and effective multi-agency multi-professional working it embeds leadership within the context of regulatory professional legal and policy frameworks. In year two of the course which moves to a Thursday you will start the year by studying principles of practice assessment with this you will prepare a case study in which you will critique an in-depth assessment of a chosen individual pertinent to the OH specialist practice you will apply and critique differing holistic methods of assessment, diagnosis, planning, intervention and evaluation. There is also an oral examination where you'll be required to evaluate safe and effective care delivery in practice and recommend approaches to the provision of oh practice ensuring the required professional standards are met.
In the afternoon of semester one and the morning of semester two you'll produce an evidence-based project of studying at level six as it runs over two semesters, we call this a long and thin module. In this you will work independently to critically appraise and apply different sources of evidence and apply it to a work-based project whilst critically considering and applying the knowledge and skills needed to successfully plan implement and evaluate a work-based project.
If you're studying at level seven in the afternoon of semester one, you'll be doing research methodologies module. The final option module for most of our occupational health students is ergonomics in practice. This is where you'll visit major industrial facilities to look at the ergonomics and human factors related to work the module is designed to explore the theoretical principles of ergonomics in practice there's a mix of shared talk sessions facilitated group work and stakeholder practical visit sessions this encourages students to identify and meet their individual learning needs you'll produce an ergonomics assessment in a work area and critically appraise the assessment tool used and any viable alternatives.
Our assessment methods cover a whole host of platforms and are not just about academic essays there is no final dissertation for either level of study the assessment methods will enhance skills that you can apply to your work going forward and will prepare you for an enhanced practice in this varied and rewarding discipline. You are required to have a supervisor who will re-coordinate your day-to-day learning in practice they will need to be a part three occupational health registrant you will also need another part three SCPHN and registrant to continuously assess your progress. Both your supervisor and assessor will be required to undertake a short preparatory course of two hours to enable them to fulfil this role. Four critical reflections will also be written for use within the course.
During the two years with us you'll be required to undertake 15 days in an alternative practice settings these will not necessarily be directly linked to your area of practice but will enhance your level of understanding in a different setting to enable you to have a more balanced and rounded viewpoint on which to base your specialist practice these should follow themes that you'll discuss with your practice assessor. Insight visits may be undertaken and are encouraged to widen your experience further these are not as in-depth as your alternative practice days but give an overview of relevant areas to the field of occupational health such as other departments and areas and other workplaces.
Your final part of the course is to complete 375 hours in a supported learning environment to enhance the skills you have learnt over the two Years you will manage a full caseload as a specialist practitioner before finally graduating with your part 3 OH SCPHN qualification. Displayed here is an example of posters that a previous oh student has completed for their evidence-based project this poster is a service improvement project to introduce a sleep assessment into driver medical screening in an OH setting. This was successfully implemented by the student to enhance and improve the oh service provided the employer while securing driver and public safety. The second example here is a health promotion project to tackle obesity in a heavy industrialised setting the project allowed the student to use a previously identified health determinant from the public health module to bring about changes and health improvements for the workforce.
We continue to grow our course portfolio here at the University of Derby and this allows our team to grow to facilitate this. We are leading and innovating many local and national arenas to enhance the occupational health discipline we hope to welcome you in September on a very exciting journey. The formal graduation ceremony is an immensely exciting experience that we'd love to share with you thank you for listening and we look forward to receiving your application for September.