Program Overview

Are you interested in supporting patient care and working alongside doctors and the wider healthcare team? Want to help with the diagnosis and management of patients? Our MSc Physician Associate Practice course opens the door to a rewarding career.

On this course you’ll train to become a physician associate. This is a role within the NHS with an attractive starting salary. A physician associate is a medical associate professional. They provide patient care under the supervision of a consultant or general practitioner. As a physician associate you'll focus on analysing results, diagnosis and management. Your daily activities would include:

• Interviewing and examining patients
• Ordering and interpreting tests
• Making decisions about patient management
• Developing treatment and management plans

You'll need to travel to clinical placement sites (allocated by the university) throughout Lancashire and Cumbria. We aim to make this within 90 minutes from campus. Approximately 50% of the programme is on clinical placement. This may be across urban and rural settings and will include hospital and general practice. The remainder of your time on the course will be academic time, predominantly on campus. You'll learn from staff who are highly experienced in academia and/or the clinical environment, including several physician associates. You will also study your programme alongside students on Years 3 and 4 of our four-year undergraduate-entry physician associate course (MPAS).

Our physician associate (PA) programmes have been mapped to the appropriate external curricula. Changes may be made as part of our routine quality checks or in response to regulation set by the General Medical Council.

Why study with us

• You’ll learn in state-of-the-art facilities. Our clinical skills laboratories have a vast range of equipment. This will help you develop clinical skills in hospital and GP surgery environments.
• Develop a comprehensive understanding of the human body in our Human Anatomy Resource and Learning Centres. You'll also use great resources such as our Anatomage table and diagnostic imaging equipment.
• You'll spend over 50% of the course on clinical placements with our NHS clinical education partners. This will be across Lancashire and/or Cumbria. You will receive a Student Support Grant to be used for your travel to placement/placement accommodation, valued at approximately £2,600 per year.