Cancer Care  Cancer Care Oxford Brookes University ../webroot/files/Institutions/cover_photo/1567401667Oxford-Brookes-University-1.jpg

Health and Life Sciences Department of Clinical Health Care The MSc in Cancer Care offered by Oxford Brookes is a multiprofessional and practice-focused course that welcomes UK, EU and international applicants who want to study cancer care at an advanced level. The course is open to a wide range of practitioners and will be of interest to nurses, therapists and others working with people who have cancer. The course aims to enhance both the quality of care you provide to patients and their families as an expert practitioner and your skills as a manager andor leader in your chosen area of care. The patient diagnosed with cancer needs to be supported through all phases of the disease from diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation to recovery or to the transition to palliative care. This course is specifically designed to enable any health and social care professional who works with patients with cancer to develop the specialist knowledge and skills required to practise effectively. It achieves this by: * developing evidence-based expertise and exemplary practice * promoting collaboration and leadership within the interprofessional team * promoting leadership in cancer care research and practice development * promoting care that is responsive to the social, cultural and political context of care, and which promotes social inclusion * encouraging the development of self-awareness, reflective skills and a commitment to continued learning. The course is founded on the belief that the experience of cancer is a unique personal journey, and that health care should focus on each individual s changing needs, experiences and personal priorities. This framework enables you to develop a critical understanding of cancer care within your practice area. The PGCert in Cancer Care comprises three modules and the PGDip comprises six modules. The MSc course follows the same pattern as the PGDip, plus a triple module dissertation of 20,000 words. There is one compulsory module: * Advancing Professional Practice enables you to develop your practice of cancer care towards an advanced level. This is achieved through peer-supported reflection and enquiry within the framework of current research, practice and policy, illustrating this process through the development of a portfolio of work. You must also choose two of the following three modules (regardless of which award exit point you have chosen): 1. The Experience of Life Threatening Illness focuses on the experience of people with life-threatening illness, with a primary focus on cancer. It explores ways of understanding the experience of another person, drawing on research methods, personal accounts and the arts, and incorporating social attitudes. 2. Advanced Communication and Supportive Relationships explores verbal and non-verbal communication and the development of supportive relationships within the context of life-threatening illness. It builds on existing skills and develops them within your own area of practice. 3. Advanced Symptom Management analyses the development of assessment skills and the management of distressing symptoms in the context of life-threatening illness. This is explored within the context of your own practice and with an awareness of the interprofessional context of health care. For the PGDip, you must also study Advanced Research Design, plus two additional elective modules. This module prepares you to design and conduct research. It focuses on helping you to understand the relationship between methodology and method, and the philosophical and theoretical underpinnings of research. To gain the MSc, you must also pass the Dissertation (in Cancer Care). This allows you to research an aspect of cancer care in depth, and to study a particular research design. An important aspect of writing the dissertation is the investigation of focused research questions in a systematic and rigorous way. The elective modules you choose may be taken from a wide range within the postgraduat