Daniel achieves his career goals thanks to Master’s programme

A healthcare professional has achieved academic success to switch career while juggling working full-time, moving home across the country and the birth of his child.

Daniel Milling, from Alsager in Cheshire, is the first student at the University of Chester to complete a Non-Medical Prescriber (NMP) programme, following a change in legislation to enable paramedics to train as prescribers. Daniel completed his as part of his Master’s in Advanced Practice.

Daniel achieved this success while juggling a busy life, including his wife expecting a baby; relocating from Bristol to Cheshire and working full-time.

Daniel, who is an Advanced Clinical Practitioner (ACP) at Rope Green Medical Centre in Crewe, decided to enrol for the programme as he wanted to move from working in pre-hospital care in his paramedic role to working in a primary care setting. To fulfil this career goal, he recognised that he needed to develop as a clinician and took a role as a trainee advanced clinical practitioner and enrolled on a Master’s in Advanced Practice at the University, which included the Non-Medical Prescriber module.

He said: “Being able to prescribe medication has made a huge difference to my role in primary care. I am now able to independently prescribe medication to my patients without the need to speak a GP. This means I can provide gold standard care for my patients and help them with the management of a wide range of medical conditions including both acute and chronic conditions.

“I really enjoyed the programme and enjoyed being able to interact and work alongside a wide range of healthcare professionals from various clinical backgrounds. The course not only allowed me to learn about non-medical prescribing, but also increased my knowledge of other healthcare environments. The opportunity to network and debate with my peers has been invaluable in my own progression as a clinician.”

He was recognised by academics in the University’s Faculty of Health and Social Care for his willingness to support other students on the programme and has subsequently been appointed as a Senior Lecturer within the Faculty one day a week.

He said: “It felt amazing to achieve my final qualification! I was over the moon. I put in a lot of hard work over and to be able to prescribe medication was a proud moment. At the time of starting the Non-Medical Prescriber module, my wife was seven months pregnant and we were in the process of relocating from Bristol to Cheshire. I was working in Cheshire so was away from home in the week and weekends were spent juggling university work, family life and moving. We relocated in the middle of the module and my daughter was born two months later. By managing my time and meticulous planning of when I could study around our new family, I was able to pass the course and achieve my goals.”

Daniel is currently working three days a week in clinical practice, with plans to develop his community work and increase his home visits as well as encouraging others to achieve their academic role with a day a week working for the University.

He added: “I have really enjoyed being back in an educational environment with likeminded individuals who are enthusiastic about their current role and their eagerness to both learn, and develop their clinical practice. The teaching staff are very knowledgeable on the subject and have also had experience in the role of non-medical prescribing, which shines through. I also found the teaching staff to be friendly, supportive and approachable, which is extremely welcoming.”

Jenny Stewart, Senior Lecturer and NMP Programme Lead in the University’s Faculty of Health and Social Care, said: “Dan was an excellent student throughout his entire MSc Advanced Practice programme and when another student from the same cohort let me know that Dan was interested in education, I realised this was a great opportunity for our NMP and Advanced Practice programmes to recruit a new staff member. Dan's unique clinical background as a paramedic working as an ACP in primary care complements our team well. Both the NMP and Advanced Practice Programmes are multi-professional, so having a registered professional with the Health and Care Professions Council on the team makes us multi-professional as well.”

Pictured - Daniel Milling.