Melissa Symonds
Senior Lecturer - Oncology
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Exploring Professional Responses to Public Media
Key Facts
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Module Code
NUR2048
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Duration
1 semester, part time
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Part Time: £,1934 (40 credit module)
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Distance Learning
Updated 10/09/2026
Overview
This module equips learners with the reflective skills needed to navigate complex professional landscapes with confidence and integrity. Students will explore professionalism in UK healthcare through the lens of current media, policy debates, and public discourse, examining how professionalism is portrayed, challenged, and redefined in real-time.
Highlights
- Module is delivered via convenient weekly online, real-time sessions, providing an accessible and flexible learning approach
- Sessions provide a structured opportunity for critical reflection on personal practice alongside engagement in continuing professional development (CPD) to support ongoing professional growth.
- Guided development of transferable digital media production skills, enabling students to effectively communicate evidence, influence public perception and disseminate information about healthcare in a professional manner.
- The module adopts an active, reflective, and practice oriented approach, enabling students to learn through engagement with real-world perspectives and to apply this learning in professional communication and care.
- Sessions typically incorporate interactive lectures and guided evidence-based discussions, in both large and smaller breakout groups along with independent reflective activities supported by guided self-study between sessions.
Entry Requirements
- Applicants must provide a copy of their Level 4 Nursing Diploma
- IELTS 6.0 overall, with a minimum of 5.5 in each band (or equivalent – (see our IELTS page)
- Be a UK Registered Healthcare professional
- Provide evidence of NMC registration (must have been registered for 12 months).
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What You'll Learn
This module provides an opportunity to analyse how media portrayals and coverage shape public perceptions of nursing professionalism, trust, accountability and the application of the NMC Code, through consideration of ethical dilemmas, whistleblowing, safeguarding failures and moral distress.
Sessions will critically explore professional identity, resilience, leadership, collaboration, and the influence of policy developments on professional behaviour and standards and how these are portrayed within a range of media .
Students will be enabled to develop academic and transferable skills to critically engage with media sources and produce their own media output to communicate evidence, influence public perception and disseminate information about healthcare in a professional manner.
- Analysis of how media portrayals shape perceptions of nursing professionalism and the gap between perception and reality.
- Examination of the role of public trust and accountability through media-reported case studies.
- Evaluation of media coverage in relation to understanding and application of the NMC Code of practice.
- Exploration of ethical dilemmas highlighted in the news, including whistleblowing, safeguarding failures, and experiences of moral distress.
- Exploration of the development of professional identity and resilience.
- Introduction to reflective practice as a tool for professional learning and assessment.
- Assessment of the impact of media narratives on leadership, teamwork, and interprofessional collaboration.
- Consideration of how policy developments, including NHS England reforms and funding debates, influence professional behaviour and standards.
- Development of transferable digital media production skills, enabling students to effectively communicate evidence, influence public perception and disseminate information about healthcare in a professional manner.
- 16 February 2027 from 09:30am – 4:30pm
- 23 February 2027 from 09:30am – 4:30pm
- 02 March 2027 from 1:00pm – 3:00pm
- 09 March 2027 from 1:00pm – 3:00pm
- 16 March 2027 from 09:30am – 4:30pm
- 23 March 2027 from 09:30am – 4:30pm
- 06 April 2027 from 1:00pm – 3:00pm
- 13 April 2027 from 1:00pm – 3:00pm
- 20 April 2027 from 1:00pm – 3:00pm
- 27 April 2027 from 1:00pm – 3:00pm
It is suggested students be afforded the full day for study on each date.
Fees and Funding
2026/27 Tuition Fees
- Part-time: £1934 (per 40 credit module)
Fees quoted relate to study in the Academic Year 2026/27 only and may be subject to inflationary increases in future years.
When assessing an applicant’s eligibility to pay home fees, we use the guidance provided by the UK Council for International Student Affairs (UKCISA) which sets out the regulations that have been decided by the UK Government Department of Education.
Staff
