MSc, Postgraduate Diploma and Postgraduate Certificate in Palliative Care

Highly praised by the United Kingdom Quality Assurance Agency

Overview

The MSc in Palliative Care course is intended for the future leaders of palliative and end of life care from multi-professional backgrounds (clinical care, teaching and/or research). The course will give you the skills necessary to critically appraise research and evidence on issues of child and adult palliative care to inform clinical practice and service development. This course draws on the research, expertise and international reputations of teaching staff at King’s College London and St Christopher’s Hospice. Other high-profile experts in palliative care and other relevant disciplines and organisations also contribute to teaching.

This course is multi-disciplinary and multi- professional. You will learn alongside palliative care professionals from across the world and from all disciplines at the Cicely Saunders Institute. We have students from a wide range of disciplines and professions including doctors, chaplains, nurses, social workers and physiotherapists.

Course aims

• Our Palliative Care programme aims to improve competence and confidence to care for adults and children with advanced disease, and for their families.
• The programme enables participants to develop the skills to critically evaluate evidence of the effectiveness, appropriateness and acceptability of existing interventions and services, both medical and psychosocial.
• You will develop a deeper knowledge and understanding of the many clinical, social, psychosocial, and ethical issues which surround palliative care, and how to assess and deal with them.

Programme content

Core module

• Research methods and statistics in palliative care

Optional modules

• Assessment and management of symptoms in advanced diseases
• Applying psychosocial, culture, spiritual and ethical issues to palliative and end of life care
• Service development and policy in palliative care
• Applying epidemiology in palliative care

MSc research project

As an MSc student, you will complete a research project based on your area of interest. This can include collecting new data in your place of work, analysing data collected by researchers at the Cicely Saunders Institute, or systematically reviewing existing evidence.

Flexible learning options

The MSc qualification requires completion of the Research Methods module, plus 3 Optional Modules, and the Research Project.

In addition to the MSc qualification, we also offer a Postgraduate Diploma (Research Methods module + 3 optional modules) and a Postgraduate Certificate (Research Methods Module + 1 optional module).

You can also complete individual Standalone Modules. This enables you to access the programme at a point that is relevant to your circumstances, achieve credits and leave at a point that specifically meets your needs.

Teaching methods – what to expect

The MSc, Diploma and Certificate programme in Palliative Care will be delivered via Hyflex. This means the course will be delivered both in person and online at the same time. As an in-person student, you will taught in the classroom on campus. You will also be joined by other students remotely wherever they are in the world.

The taught components of our modules are delivered in two-week blocks, throughout the year, with time for self-directed learning in between. This is deliberately designed to fit around your commitments at home and at work. 

Formal entry requirements

You should normally have a degree in medicine or nursing, or an upper second class honours degree in life sciences, social sciences, or other approved subject awarded by a United Kingdom university or a recognised overseas university. You should also be able to demonstrate experience of working in palliative care, from a practice or research point of view.

Further information

Full details about the programme are available on the Cicely Saunders Institute MSc webpage.

If you would like to request a programme booklet or have any further queries, please contact us at mscpallcare@kcl.ac.uk.