Education & Events

Welcome to Heart Failure Hub Scotland

Welcome to our education and competency frameworks page. This resource is designed to support healthcare professionals in developing the skills and knowledge necessary for excellence in heart failure care.

Find upcoming events with a focus on the management of heart failure and explore frameworks and educational materials that offer structured learning paths, ensuring consistent, high-quality patient outcomes. Stay up-to-date with the latest standards and enhance your clinical practice through targeted training and professional development opportunities.

Heart failure fundamentals

The HFA Fundamentals+ project is an on‑demand educational video series designed by the HFA Young Committee to bridge the gap between basic heart failure training and advanced courses, offering short, accessible content based on the HFA core curricula. It aims to harmonise learning across countries by providing essential, practical, and widely accessible training for young cardiologists, nurses, and allied professionals involved in heart failure care.

Access is available to all ESC members, with membership offered free of charge.

Competency Frameworks & Courses

Frameworks for healthcare professionals who manage people with heart failure

The ESC Core Curriculum for the Cardiologist

The ESC Core Curriculum for the Cardiologist is a comprehensive framework created by the European Society of Cardiology to guide the training and education of cardiologists across Europe. It outlines the essential knowledge, skills, and competencies required for cardiologists to deliver high-quality patient care. The heart failure sections provide a foundation for clinicians involved in the care of people with HF.

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ESC Core Curriculum for Cardiovascular Nurses and Allied Professionals

The ESC Core Curriculum for Cardiovascular Nurses and Allied Professionals provides a structured framework for education and development in cardiovascular care. It outlines essential competencies, including clinical skills, patient management, and interdisciplinary collaboration. The curriculum aims to enhance knowledge in areas like acute cardiac care, heart failure, and preventive cardiology, promoting high standards and consistent patient care across Europe. The sections specific to heart failure provide the foundational knowledge, skills, knowledge and attitudes required for nurses and allied professionals working cardiology.

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Heart Failure Competency Framework for Healthcare Professionals

The British Society for Heart Failure have developed a competency framework for healthcare professionals recognising the vital impact of wider multidisciplinary groups The aim of the framework is to define the generic core heart failure specific competencies needed to support future pipelines of professionals, who regularly interact with and deliver care for patients with heart failure.

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Specialist Nursing in Cardiology Framework

The framework for CNSs in cardiology is designed to outline the knowledge and skills essential for delivering high-quality cardiology nursing service.

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Frameworks for healthcare professionals who are specialists in the management of heart failure

British Society for Heart Failure specialist nurse competency framework

The British Society for Heart Failure Specialist Nurse Competency Framework outlines the essential skills and knowledge required for specialist nurses managing heart failure. It includes competencies in clinical assessment, patient education, multidisciplinary collaboration, and advanced care planning. The framework ensures nurses can provide high-quality, evidence-based care, improving patient outcomes and supporting disease management.

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Competency framework for clinical pharmacists and heart failure

The competency framework for clinical pharmacists in heart failure outlines essential skills and knowledge needed to manage heart failure effectively. The framework defines minimum competencies relevant to heart failure for four different potential levels of specialism:
Stage 1: all pharmacists regardless of role
Stage 2: all patient-facing clinical pharmacists
Stage 3: clinical pharmacists with specific planned roles in the care of heart failure patients
Stage 4: regionally/nationally/internationally recognised expert pharmacists with a direct specialism in heart failure (Stage 4).
It includes:
• Knowledge and skills
• MDT working
• Teaching and education
• Research and development
This framework aims to ensure pharmacists deliver high-quality, evidence-based care to improve patient outcomes.

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Heart Failure Competency Framework for Healthcare Professionals

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Academic courses

Glasgow Caledonian University

Chronic heart failure: optimising health & wellbeing
SCQF credits: 30
The focus of this module is the promotion of heart failure care management that is proactive and organised around the concepts of needs assessment, planning and prevention. Practitioners, with clients and their significant others, will be seen as genuine partners seeking together the best outcome for each individual's care needs through active self-management.

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Cardiac palliative and end-of-life care: supporting people to live and die well with advancing cardiac disease

SCQF credits: 15
This module enables participants to blend key heart failure and palliative care concepts through analysis, synthesis and critical appraisal. It considers the wider organisational drivers as well as the challenges presented to professionals working with diversity.

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Keele University

Heart failure management in clinical practice
Credits: 30
The module is designed to augment, enhance and focus the practitioner's skills on the holistic care of the complexity of a heart failure diagnosis. Linking the practitioner with an appropriate clinical mentor will assist in the acquisition of skills pertinent to the individual needs of the student.

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St Georges University

Heart Failure MSc
The MSc consists of ten compulsory modules (12 credits each) and a research project with a thesis (60 credits). The course is designed to offer flexibility to accommodate the needs of professionals who have a requirement to complete their studies around their existing work commitments on a part-time basis. To allow greater flexibility a technology-rich model is used to deliver a significant proportion of learning materials online and provide resources to facilitate self-directed learning and reflective practice.

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Post-graduate course on heart failure London

The London Postgraduate Course in Heart Failure Management (PCHF) is a two-year programme consisting of 6 modules, each module with a 3.5-day duration. The course includes a total of 160 hours of classroom time and 140 hours of self-study, and its successful completion leads to a Certificate in Heart Failure Management. Unlike at congresses, the PCHF modules offer interactive sessions between speakers and participants, workshops, rapid fire sessions, live case seminars and ward visits. The course covers all relevant aspects of heart failure such as diagnostic procedures, imaging, pharmacotherapy, devices and mechanical circulatory support systems. The course structure with its hands-on approach enables participants both to improve their clinical skills in diagnostic procedures and increase their therapeutic knowledge.

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Upcoming heart failure & heart failure related events

Upcoming

Scottish Cardiac Society

When: 27 May 2026

Where: Surgeons Quarter, Edinburgh

For more information & registration, follow the link below

Upcoming

ACNAP 2026

When: 12th - 13th June 2026

Where: Sophia Antipolis, France

For more information & registration, follow the link below

Upcoming

Heart Failure 2026

When: 9th - 12th May 2026

Where: Barcelona, Spain

For more information & registration, follow the link below

Upcoming

European Society of Cardiology Congress

When: 28th - 31st August 2026

Where: Munich, Germany

For more information & registration, follow the link below

Through collaboration and exchange of ideas, the Hub aims to equip NHS Boards to strengthen the delivery of consistent excellence in the field of Heart Failure management

Hub Lead

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