Graduate Certificate in Sports Medicine (GC-SPMED)

The Graduate Certificate in Sports Medicine is online and interdisciplinary, designed to extend knowledge and skills for professional practice in the area of sports medicine and exercise prescription. The curriculum is internationally relevant, fosters interdisciplinary communication and embraces the specialised requirements of different health professionals. It is designed for practicing clinicians as it can be studied part time or full time and has a Specialist Certificate exit point within its nested structure. Graduate attributes are aligned with those of The Melbourne Graduate.

This interdisciplinary, wholly online Graduate Certificate in Sports Medicine includes subjects which:

1. Map to accredited professional pathways
2. Optimise student-centred flexibility within and between subjects, where students have choice within a structured framework to personalise and build their learning experience to best match their practice context and meet career goals.
3. Include a portfolio of learning and assessment activities envisaged to present tangible evidence of practice competency; learning and evidence applied to practice
4. Are characterised by online Master classes, synchronous tutorials, collaborative and independent activities, interactive videos and opportunity for direct interaction with experts in sports medicine and exercise prescription.

This approach is pedagogically robust and embraces the progressing international climate of flexible, sustainable, distance learning models. Assessment tasks can be completed at a distance and submitted electronically, encompassing a variety of written and presentation formats relevant to clinicians in demonstrating knowledge, clinical reasoning, communication and reflective skills in academic and practice contexts.

The Graduate Certificate in Sports Medicine pitches to professionals across degree-qualified clinical health and exercise disciplines, throughout career stages and internationally. In doing so, it meets the needs of post-graduates striving to achieve best practice professionally in Sports Medicine; embracing community health through working with the recreational athletes to the elite athlete. The program challenges and extends practitioners to anticipate, enhance and advance best practice internationally.

The curriculum is designed around three elements which will be covered explicitly within learning outcomes in each subject: 1) Theory and Practice, 2) Evidence and Innovation and 3) Clinical practice in Context. Linking theory, research and practice is emphasised, utilising scientific evidence to underpin clinical practice and decisions. The 2 core subjects explore professional and clinical practice relating to sport, exercise and injury. The 2 elective subjects enable students to scaffold their learning according to their interest areas and practice context. These subjects all require analysis, synthesis and creative problem solving within a range of practice contexts; extended knowledge and understanding, research principles and new innovations that are necessary to working in different sporting environments.