PGDip Sleep Medicine

Event Notes:

As a student on the PGDip Sleep Medicine at the University of Oxford, you will spend two years engaging in a comprehensive taught programme covering all aspects of Sleep Medicine, from the physiology of sleep, through diagnosis and management of sleep disorders, to clinical practice and societal implications. Delivery is predominantly online, with a one-week residential component. You will engage regularly in real-time with classmates and teaching faculty through weekly online discussion groups.

The PGDip is a part-time course, spread over two years. During that time you will complete eight core modules, providing a comprehensive overview of Sleep Medicine that is in line with the European Sleep Research Society’s training and practice guidelines:

• The Physiological Basis of Sleep
• Introduction to Sleep Medicine and Methodological Approaches
• Circadian Rhythm Disruption and Sleep
• Insomnias
• Sleep Disordered Breathing and Sleep-related Movement Disorders
• Hypersomnias and Parasomnias
• Sleep in Specialist Populations
• Sleep and Society

The course is designed to give as much flexibility as possible for busy professionals, whilst still providing the necessary support and community. Lectures are pre-recorded and provided via a virtual learning environment for you to review in your own time alongside relevant reading, case studies and activities.

You will join regular live online interactive discussion groups; these are run using videoconferencing software, allowing you to interact in real-time with classmates and teaching faculty and will typically last 90 minutes. For these sessions, you will be expected to participate in group activities and prepare presentations or other work for discussion.

You are expected to attend a week-long residential school in person at Oxford between Year 1 and Year 2 of the course.

A summative assessment is submitted for each module. These include written essays, oral presentations, poster presentations, oral case studies, multiple choice questions and short answer questions.

The main purpose of this course is to provide working health care professionals with the knowledge to implement sleep medicine practice into their own professional undertakings. This course will also prepare students to take the European Sleep Research Society (ESRS) Expert Somnologist examination. Students may also decide at the end of the PGDip to complete a third part-time year in order to convert their qualification to an MSc, which will be particularly useful for students who decide they wish to pursue a research track.