This course is open for applications
This course is offered every two years. The next intakes are September 2025 and September 2027
Page last updated 2 September 2024
Introduction
Nuclear Medicine is growing and evolving quickly, providing great career opportunities at the forefront of cutting edge medical technology. This Society and College of Radiographers accredited course focuses on developing your existing knowledge and skills, and their real-world application.
Accreditations and partnerships:
This flexible and student-centred choice of routes gives healthcare professionals currently involved in Nuclear Medicine practice the opportunity to develop and enhance their skills and understanding of this rapidly evolving subject and its application.
Develop clinical expertise through practice and research
This course provides the educational and research foundations required to evaluate current working practice and understand the opportunities currently available in nuclear medicine and molecular imaging environments. As a result, peer learning is a big part of this course's value to individuals and employers. In addition to developing skills directly linked to clinical practice, you will also have the opportunity to contribute to the nuclear medicine knowledge base through research and publication.
This course is designed in conjunction with a number of clinical experts, and our partnership with clinical software provider Hermes Medical Solutions. This means it produces competent and professional practitioners with the skills needed to optimise and promote this imaging modality in current models of patient care.
Watch: The learning and teaching experience
Structure
Content
The optional modules listed are those that are most likely to be available, but they may be subject to change.
The full Master's course comprises 180 credits divided into three 60 credits stages: Postgraduate Certificate, Postgraduate Diploma, and Masters. Students work incrementally through the three stages and must pass all modules at each stage in order to progress to the next.
Year one - Postgraduate Certificate
Study a range of topics that consolidate and develop your understanding of routine practice in nuclear medicine.
These modules, which include theoretical and clinical components, give you the opportunity to discuss your current practice or departmental procedures with a range of peers, clinical experts and academic tutors.
You will study:
- Fundamental Clinical Skills in Nuclear Medicine - A professional practice introduction to the fundamentals of routine practices in nuclear medicine, including imaging protocols and procedures, imaging agents, and being able to distinguish between normal and abnormal image appearances.
- Science and Instrumentation in Current Nuclear Medicine Practice - An introduction to basic concepts in nuclear medicine physics, and the interaction between radioactive substances and matter. We also look at current designs for cameras used in nuclear medicine.
- Cross-sectional Anatomy for the Nuclear Medicine Practitioner - An overview of the regional anatomy associated with the head, neck and trunk and its relation to nuclear medicine practice. This module also encourages you to investigate disease processes common in the nuclear medicine environment, using cross-sectional data.
Year two - Postgraduate Diploma
Enhance your understanding of nuclear medicine's development, and consider its current and future role in patient treatment.
You also study a small-scale research-type module to highlight the importance of work-based learning.
You will study:
- Enhancing Nuclear Medicine Practice - Here we discuss emerging topics in nuclear medicine, in relation to clinical technique, professional practice, and overall impact on patient management.
- Evidencing Work Based Learning - Your chance to show the importance of work-based learning, by working alongside your manager or workplace mentor to find the best solutions to specific situational challenges.
Plus one optional module from:
- Current Applications of Hybrid Imaging Practice
- Reporting Skills in Nuclear Medicine.
Year three - Masters
Choose an area of Nuclear Medicine Practice to research. Comprised of two linked modules; an introduction to research methodology that informs your proposal for your Master's research dissertation.
- Health and Social Care Research: Methods and Methodologies - An introduction to current research processes and methodology, highlighting the importance of evidence-based practice in modern healthcare.
- Research Dissertation - You will undertake your own piece of contemporary research, which should add to the current nuclear medicine knowledge base.
The University continually enhances our offer by responding to feedback from our students and other stakeholders, ensuring the curriculum is kept up to date and our graduates are equipped with the knowledge and skills they need for the real world. This may result in changes to the course. If changes to your course are approved we will inform you.
Learning and Teaching
The course is mostly distance-based, with only three contact days per year. This approach is highly popular for employers and employees in nuclear medicine, and is supported by a range of clinical experts alongside our academic team.
It's designed to give you the knowledge and skills needed to practice in a safe and competent manner, and a comprehensive education and research base to evaluate and inform current and future practice.
There are many opportunities for inter-professional collaboration and shared learning, and you'll learn in practical settings how nuclear medicine contributes to patient management.
See our full glossary of learning and teaching terms.
Assessment
Assessment methods include written assignments, case studies, online interactions and clinical portfolios.
See our full glossary of assessment terms.