Master of Science - Sports and Exercise Medicine

The aim of this M.Sc course is to allow participants further their career progression in musculoskeletal and sports and exercise medicine by enhancing basic background knowledge in anatomy, exercise physiology, sports and exercise science; and, in addition develop high quality practical and critical thinking skills in musculoskeletal assessment, rehabilitation, exercise testing and training prescription in health and disease. Students will achieve this through a tiered process starting in Semester 1 with three basic science modules in Anatomy, Exercise Physiology; and Research Methods. In anatomy students will enhance their knowledge of musculoskeletal and neuroanatomy through instructor lead pro-section based practical classes; and in lectures revisit the organisation of the central and peripheral nervous systems. In the exercise physiology module, learning focuses on the key systems for sports and physical activity; energy systems, muscle physiology, cardiovascular and respiratory systems; and whole-body hormonal and homeostatic responses to physical activity, exercise and training. As this course will be evidence-based, students will critically appraise the literature in the area of sports and exercise medicine at all stages of the course. The research methods module in Semester 1 of each academic year will develop a students’ ability to critically evaluate the latest research in order to keep up to date with the latest clinical advances in the discipline, enable the student to formulate a research question and develop skills necessary for high quality research project design, from statistical modelling, ethics application, power analysis, high quality data collection, data handling, statistical analysis; and finally scientific report writing worthy of submission as a journal article or critical review. The research methods module runs in parallel and supports the research dissertation component. In the second semester the focus shifts to clinical aspects of sports and exercise medicine, such as; musculoskeletal assessment skills, rehabilitation protocols; aspects of team and individual athlete care within different sports; and physical activity and population health. Critical thinking skills are developed in instructor lead clinical case scenario-based teaching and student led seminars reviewing the current literature to demonstrate the scope of problems encountered in day to day care of athletes and teams, and the physically active of all ages and gender.