This module is suitable for registered experienced nurses who wish to advance their professional practice in their chosen career pathway. This module will assist students to enhance their personal effectiveness, leadership and clinical decision making capacity in the context of current structural and professional change in the Irish Health Services. Using a blended learning approach the module will promote critical reflection on leadership and change as well as the application of knowledge, skills and experience for safe, effective and competent decision making. Blended learning offers working practitioner•s easy and accessible opportunities to engage in further education. The module will help students gain personal insight into their own leadership style and to consider factors that influence their decisions such as person-centred care, ethical leadership and empowerment of service users. It will provide students with the required knowledge and skills in leadership and decision-making to enable them to practice at an advanced and strategic level so that they are safe and effective in their designated role.

1.
Evaluate and apply complex theories and concepts of leadership in leading and managing change and policy making in practice.

2. Develop a critical understanding of team leadership and inter-professional communication that values diversity and difference and appraises initiatives to promote service quality and safety.
3. Critically appraise methods and models of clinical decision-making in health and social care settings to meet the needs of a dynamic and changing health environment.
4. Evaluate the role of experienced nurses in providing leadership and clinical decision-making in the design, plan and implementation of services.
5.

Evaluate the relationship between leadership and organisational culture in promoting person-centred care.

6. Demonstrate a knowledge base that exercises higher levels of judgement, discretion and decision making within nursing practice in the context of service user and practitioner safety and well-being

This module provides the professional nurse practitioners with the knowledge and understanding of their role in the context of the discipline of nursing. Professional nursing practice is grounded in the theory and practice of nursing and incorporates nursing and other related research, management and leadership theories and skills in order to encourage a collegiate, multidisciplinary approach to quality patient/client care. The module prepares the students to integrate theories and concepts in order to gain scientific and conceptual clarity to guide advanced nursing practice and research.

1. Critically discuss the role of knowledge development in the evolution of the discipline of nursing, nursing science and professional nursing practice.
2. Evaluate the challenges that determine direction of the professional nurse practitioner role in the delivery of quality patient care.
3. Appraise the profession and discipline of the professional nurse practitioner combining a nursing framework with standards of practice.
4. Critically examine the relationship between evidence, theory and nursing care.
5. Analyze the concepts and theories of nursing for applicability and usefulness to professional nursing care in multicultural environments.
6. Critically evaluate and apply a middle range theory of nursing for applicability to professional nursing practice.

This module will situate advanced practice in an integrated care context reflecting contemporary national (HSE 2015; DoH 2016, 2017; Government of Ireland 2019) and international (WHO 2005; 2007; 2010; 2017) health and social care policy. An integrated care approach is recognised by the WHO as fundamental to addressing Goal 3 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN 2015). Advanced practice with integrated care recognises the changing nature of population needs. This seeks to move away from managing acute, episodic care to a more holistic, person-centred, longitudinal approach to care and case management. This in turn requires advanced practitioners to re-examine their philosophy and practice. In doing so practitioners will reconsider the nature and focus of their work within and outside traditional institutional relationships. Consequently, this module will prepare advanced practitioners to understand the shift in service models and associated implications for advanced practice. In doing so, the module will draw on national and international policy on integrated care, explore the fundamentals of integrated care (philosophy, values) and enable practitioners to embrace and implement the critical enablers of integrated care (care process/service redesign). Students will be supported to develop e-learning skills and use of technology though extensive online resources via the IFIC website.

The aim of the module will be to empower practitioners work at advanced level in leading and developing integrated person-centred care in order to deliver better outcomes for people, professionals and organisations.

1. Promote the values of integrated care through professional conduct underpinned by strategic leadership and excellence in communication skills
2. Utilise advanced competencies (professional scholarship, skills and abilities) to develop person-centered, evidence-based, integrated care processes.
3. Work as an empowered key strategic leadership resource within immediate team and the local health economy to improve discrete population outcomes.
4. Promote an innovative environment to support person-centred, integrated care that harnesses technology
5. Apply competencies in planning, designing, implementing and evaluating person-centred integrated care
6. Critically examine the core tenets of integrated care to ensure ethically responsive practice in dynamic environments

This module will enable learners to enhance their critical appraisal skills and to develop an in-depth knowledge of research methodologies. This will further develop their competencies in relation to the enactment of evidence based nursing practice and its critical application to advanced practice in healthcare.

The aim of this module is to enhance critical appraisal skills and further develop competencies in relation to implementing evidence based advanced nursing practice in promoting clinical effectiveness in healthcare.

1. Critically analyse the philosophical and theoretical underpinnings of methodological approaches; qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods.
2. Demonstrate a comprehensive and critical understanding of the philosophy, principles and practice underpinning evidence based practice.
3. Critically understand research ethics within vulnerable populations and discern the ethical issues which pervade methodology.
4. Critically apply a deep understanding of contemporary debates surrounding the research literature and evidenced based practices and their application to advanced practice.
5. Critically appraise an area of practice and provide a balanced, logical and coherent conclusion in relation to the findings.
6. Demonstrate a critical understanding of the appropriate quality improvement processes to promote leadership in clinical effectiveness in healthcare.