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Palliative and End-of-Life Care PgCert

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Start Dates

20 September 2027

Duration

1 year part-time

Application deadlines

  • September Entry - Application Deadline: 31 July

Recent Awards For Excellence

Nursing - QS 2025
Find out more about these awards
About this course

Overview

Why choose Huddersfield for this course?

  • Develop advanced skills to deliver compassionate, evidence-based palliative and end of life care.
  • Explore person-centred, holistic assessment techniques and multi-agency planning that is aligned with NHS England.
  • Explore legal, ethical and professional issues that shape safe, high-quality palliative care practice.

This short course is designed for nurses and allied health professionals providing palliative care in primary, community or secondary care services, as well as those caring for people of all ages with life limiting illnesses. Whether you provide universal, targeted or specialist palliative services, our course helps you strengthen your understanding of the core philosophy, principles and practices of palliative and end of life care.

Aligned with NHS England’s Career Pathway, Core Capabilities and Education Framework for Palliative and End of Life Care, our course has been developed in partnership with specialist palliative care services across Calderdale and Kirklees.

Your learning will focus on the knowledge, behaviours and capabilities needed to deliver compassionate, safe and effective palliative and end of life care. You’ll explore how to support families, carers and communities in a variety of health and social care settings.

A strong emphasis is placed on person-centred, holistic assessment and developing multi-professional, multi-agency care and management plans that enable evidence-based, tailored support. You’ll also examine the legal and ethical considerations that shape practice, preparing you to make confident, well-informed decisions in complex palliative care situations.

Who can apply?

Entry Requirements

Entry requirements for this course are normally:

  • to be a Health or Social Care Practitioner, registered with a professional body such as the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) with at least 12 months post-registration employment.
  • to have an honours degree at 2:2 or above, have studied at honours level or can demonstrate appropriate knowledge and skills at honours degree standard. We will consider other qualifications and experience on an individual case basis.
  • to be able to identify a work-based learning supervisor in clinical practice who will support you throughout the duration of the course and verify achievement of the palliative and end of life care capabilities in practice.

If your first language is not English, you will need to meet the minimum requirements of an English Language qualification. The minimum for IELTS is 6.5 overall with no element lower than 6.0, or equivalent. Read more about the University’s entry requirements for students outside of the UK on our International Entry Requirements page.

What will you learn?

Course Details

This module will provide you with the opportunity to enhance your understanding of contemporary palliative and end-of-life care. You will develop your knowledge, skills and capabilities required to drive high-quality care for people with palliative care needs, along with families/carers and communities across health and social care settings and services. Emphasis will be placed on person-centred, holistic assessment and evidence based multi-professional and multi-agency care for people with complex chronic or acute life-threatening or life-limiting conditions, their carers, families and wider social networks to optimise palliative and end-of-life care and bereavement support.

This module will provide you with the opportunity to enhance your knowledge and understanding of an area of interest to support your continuing professional development needs. Informed by robust evidence based practice, you will have the flexibility to apply and reflect your individual personal and/or practice development learning needs expanding your knowledge and abilities within your practice.

Teaching and Assessment

Discover what to expect from your tutor contact time, assessment methods, and feedback process.

Interested in a placement?

Placements

For module HMN4326 - Palliative and End of Life Care, you will be expected to undertake workplace based learning and evidence achievement of palliative and end of life care capabilities in your practice setting. A work-based learning supervisor is needed to verify achievement of these capabilities.

Where could this lead you?

Your Career

Previous graduates from courses in this subject area have gone on to work in a variety of roles such as Adult nurse, Children's nurse, Health play specialist, Health visitor, High intensity therapist, Learning disability nurse, Mental health nurse, Midwife, Paramedic, Physician associate.*
*Source: Prospects

98% Percentage of the University's postgraduate students go on to work and/or further study within fifteen months of graduating.

* HESA Graduate Outcomes 2022/23, UK domiciled.

How much will it cost?

Fees and Finance

£1,544 per 30 credit module

This is the tuition fee for 2026/27 entry. Tuition fees for 2027/28 will be published once the information becomes available.

This information is for Home students applying to study at the University of Huddersfield in the academic year 2026/27.

Modules credits can range from 15 to 60, dependent on the content of the module. Read more about total credits required for a range of degrees, to allow you to calculate the potential total cost.

Please note that tuition fees for subsequent years may rise in line with inflation (RPI-X) and/or Government policy. 

For detailed information please visit our fees page.

This course may be eligible for CPD funding via your employer. You must have your employer’s support in order to access to a funded place.

Scholarships and Bursaries

Discover what additional help you may be eligible for to support your University studies.

Tuition Fee Loans

Find out more about tuition fee loans available to eligible postgraduate students.

What’s included in your fee?

We want you to understand exactly what your fees will cover and what additional costs you may need to budget for when you decide to become a student with us.

If you have any questions about Fees and Finance, please email the Student Finance Team.

Explore More

Why Hud

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Careers support

We know you’re coming to university to study on your chosen subject, meet new people and broaden your horizons. However, we also help you to focus on life after you have graduated to ensure that your hard work pays off and you achieve your ambition.

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Student support

At the University of Huddersfield, you’ll find support networks and services to help you get ahead in your studies and social life. Whether you study at undergraduate or postgraduate level, you’ll soon discover that you’re never far away from our dedicated staff and resources to help you to navigate through your personal student journey.

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Teaching Excellence

Great teaching is engaging and inspiring — it helps you reach your full potential and prepares you for the future. We don’t just teach well — we excel — and we have the awards and recognition to prove it.

Inspiring Academics

Our researchers carry out world-leading work that makes a real difference to people’s lives. Staff within the Department of Nursing may teach you on this course.

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Research Excellence

You’ll be taught by staff who want to support your learning and share the latest knowledge and research.

Accommodation

Looking for student accommodation? Huddersfield has you covered. HudLets has a variety of accommodation types to choose from, no matter what your preference. HudLets is the University’s approved accommodation service, run by Huddersfield Students’ Union.

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Further Study

Many of our graduates stay at Huddersfield to complete postgraduate research degrees at Masters or PhD level.

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