Undergraduate Diploma in Elderly Care

Course Description

The Undergraduate Diploma in Elderly Care aims to equip you with the skills and competences to handle elderly people with health issues, as well as challenges presented in working with multidisciplinary teams within an elderly care setting. The course covers the physical, psychological, nutritional and mental aspects of human health, as well as the tools you will need to deal with illnesses and challenging behaviour.

Additionally, you will be introduced to quality management, leadership, and public policy and legal basis for elderly care.

The overall course objectives are:

Knowledge:

• Gain in depth knowledge and understanding of ethical issues and set of rights and responsibilities related to elderly care including understanding of relevant legal regulations, policies and procedures.
• Develop an in-depth knowledge and understanding of leadership and quality management issues and methodologies used in elderly care context.
• Understand comprehensively the factors and challenges of working in multidisciplinary team.
• Acquire comprehensive understanding of human health related problems linked to aging, nutrition, infection issues and mental health disorders and the type of care administered in these areas;.
• Develop in-depth awareness and appreciation of multifaceted aspects of delivering personal care for elderly including elderly with special needs.

Skills:

• Examine and apply theories and methodologies related to leadership and quality management in elderly care context.
• Demonstrate transfer of theoretical and practical knowledge, in delivering personal care for elderly.
• Assess the needs of elderly with health issues and apply steps and strategies to deal with those issues.
• Demonstrate transfer of theoretical and practical knowledge in using different techniques relevant to management of nutritional, physical, psychological and mental aspects of human health.
• Identify criteria to perform and act as a team taking professional responsibilities and accountability in consideration.
• Identify and use health and safety policies and procedures in accordance to elderly care settings.

Competences:

• Show creativity related to working with multidisciplinary teams in providing a holistic approach to elderly care.
• Develop an understanding of researched based literature on the subject of elderly care, including leadership and quality management aspects of it.
• Assess the importance of public policy and legal basis for elderly care.
• Manage elderly independently applying technical and problem- solving techniques where there are many factors, some of which interact and lead to unpredictable outcomes.
• Develop a capacity for independent thought and be reflectively self-critical.

Work Placement Objectives:

• The main goal of the Work Placement is to provide students with an opportunity to practice and apply what they have learned during the programme.
• Work Placement of 150 hours is carried out in Elderly Care settings and done at the end of the programme to help students consolidate knowledge and skills and apply them to practice.
• The Student works with qualified staff on a daily basis for the duration of the whole Work Placement period.
• This enables the candidate to apply knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviours necessary to demonstrate the achievement of competence. Work Placement setting provides a learning opportunity to further develop their skills and competences to achieve six (6) learning outcomes addressing five domains of competences.

Entry Requirements

Candidates who apply for this course must possess the following:

• a qualification at MQF Level 4 (one ‘A’ Level or equivalent in any subject);

AND

• a pass in English Language* and Mathematics at MQF Level 3 (‘O’ Level or equivalent).

Preference will be given to prospective applicants having a year of work experience related to the study programme.

* Students whose first language is not English will be required to either present formal English language qualifications at IELTS 6.0 or equivalent or demonstrate proficiency through written and oral communication.

Target Audience

This course is targeted at:

• Candidates seeking a career and a formal qualification in elderly care;
• Candidates from healthcare settings seeking to upgrade their academic pathway with a focus on providing elderly care;
• Candidates who wish to progress in their studies along the further and higher education route, whilst broadening their chances of advancing in their own career path.

Career Paths

This programme aims to prepare you for caregiver/caregiver supervisory roles, in line with the National Occupational Standards for Elderly Care.

Modules

You are required to complete all 9 study modules and the work placement (60 ECTS) to obtain the Undergraduate Diploma in Elderly Care.

How you’ll be assessed

This is a full-time programme and will typically take 8 months to complete. The programme comprises a total of 9 study modules and a work placement. The method of assessment is assignment-based.

The course comprises:

• 6 lectures per module;
• 3-hour lectures;
• 12 hours of guided learning, presentations, comprising synchronous online discussions, tutorials and/or videos;
• Self-study hours comprising research, reading and assignment work;
• 150-hour work placement.

Assessment

Overall assessment weighting for each theory-based module consists of: Assessment of each module consists of two assignments, each carrying a weighting as below:

a) One Formative assignment carries 20% of total module mark achieved. b) One Summative assignment carries 80% of total module mark achieved.

For successful completion of a study module the student is required to achieve a minimum of 41% pass mark in both the formative and the summative assignment. The overall grade achieved for each module is calculated as the sum of:

• 20% of the mark achieved for formative assignment; and
• 80% of the mark achieved for the summative assignment.

The Student is assessed on his/her competences aligned to the work placement learning outcomes addressing the domains of competences in Elderly Care setting of the work placement.