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Professional Advocate

This course is a Master's level (Level 7) program. It trains you to support your colleagues' wellbeing and lead quality improvements in healthcare. This 10 week course is taught online to include Allied Health Care Professionals, Nurses and Midwives.

A professional reading a book at a table while drinking a coffee
LevelShort courses and CPD
Duration10 weeks
Start dates22 September 2026, 2 March 2027
Fee£1,000
Course codeCID1580

Course summary

Are you a registered allied health professional? Do you want to support others through change and leadership? This Professional Advocate (PA) course could be for you.

The course will help you build your clinical supervision skills so you can better support and retain the midwifery workforce. You’ll explore the role of the PA and how it fits within today’s healthcare system. You’ll also reflect on your own skills and experience. This will enable you to grow and develop in your role.

The course is based on the A-EQUIP model. This focuses on leadership and restorative clinical supervision. By the end of the course, you’ll be ready to apply what you’ve learned in practice as a PA.

This is a blended multidisciplinary course designed for registered healthcare professionals. It's taught collectively to include allied health care professionals, nurses and midwives.

Why Sunderland for Short courses and CPD

What you'll study

Topics covered on this course include:

  • The A-EQUIP model and how it works
  • Making decisions in complex situations
  • Different models of clinical supervision
  • Restorative clinical supervision
  • Clinical governance and the PA role
  • Quality improvement and how to measure it
  • Finding, reviewing, and using nursing research
  • Evidence-based practice
  • Patient care and safety
  • Leadership and workplace culture
  • Legal and professional issues in the PA role
  • Lifelong learning and ongoing development
  • Support strategies
  • Coaching, mentoring, and supervision
  • Presentation skills.

We'll support you to meet the standards for clinical supervision using a restorative approach. This will help you improve the quality of care in your work. You’ll also learn how to check and maintain standards, and support the development of others. You’ll use a mix of restorative, normative, and formative approaches to do this.

How you'll learn

We deliver the module online, one day a week for 10 weeks. Teaching is via lectures which run for approximately 2-2.5 hours. Five hours of supporting directed and self-directed study follows this.

Assessment methods include:

  • A portfolio
  • A presentation and discussion on a quality improvement initiative of your choice.

You'll complete your assessment four weeks after the module ends.

Entry requirements

Fees and finance support

Employers usually meets course costs. We advise that you speak to your workforce development lead before applying.

We also accept self-funded applicants. If you'd like to explore your options, contact us at cpd@sunderland.ac.uk(opens in new tab).

Apply now

Contact our team for further information about applying for this course. Call 0191 515 3361(opens in new tab) or email cpd@sunderland.ac.uk(opens in new tab).