Community Specialist Practice: District Nursing (MSc)

If you are an NMC Registered Nurse, this will enable you to:

• Expand your knowledge, skills and proficiency in the role of the Community Specialist Practitioner
• Work within a community/ primary care placement supported by a qualified mentor/ Practice Teacher
• Study modules that directly enhance your clinical practice, management abilities and patient outcomes.
• Graduate with a greater understanding of a professional role so you can bring about integrated and high quality health and social care
• Develop specialist assessment, leadership and management skills.

This course will enable you, as an experienced NMC Registered Nurse, to expand your knowledge, skills and proficiency in your role as a Community Specialist Practitioner, and to progress to independent scholarship.

You will study modules that are linked to clinical practice, such as public health and health promotion, research methodologies, principles of practice assessment and leading for quality to help your professional development. You will focus on the importance of leadership and develop an in-depth knowledge of professional roles, so you can bring about integrated and high quality health and social care.

Half of your time will be spent on placement, giving you hands-on experience that will support the theoretical aspects you have studied. You will study the Postgraduate Diploma full-time for one year or part-time for two years in order to gain the specialist recordable qualification. The optional MSc stage will take a further year. You will be taught using a range of methods including lectures, workshops, seminars and problem solving. Assessment is through assignments, exams and presentations.

During the MSc stage you will carry out an extended, innovative and critical research study, systematic literature review or practice-based project which analyses and evaluates an aspect of your specialist nursing area.

This course meets Nursing and Midwifery Council standards, so you will gain a recordable qualification in District Nursing or General Practice Nursing.nu

We are proud to say that our courses are closely mapped against the health and social care sector. This ensures that our curriculum is up-to-date, providing you with the assurance that you’re learning is current and relevant. This does mean that we do have to respond to national changes such as government policy. As a result, some of the information about our courses may change. Please check the website for the latest information.

What you will study

By completing this Programme you will be able to demonstrate a critical understanding of clinical practice, care and caseload management, clinical practice leadership and clinical practice development, to enable you to become and independent prescriber. Whilst studying on this programme you will spend equal amounts of time in clinical practice and the learning environment. This means you will gain a mixture of theory and practical experience supporting you to provide effective, high quality patients care that is person centred and in the patients’ best interests.

You will study module such as:

• Principles of Practice Assessment
• Public Health and Health Promotion
• Research Methodologies
• Leading for Quality

Applied V100 prescribing/V300 Non-medical prescribing.

How you will learn

This course involves a range of delivery, including lectures, workshops, seminars, group discussions, action learning sets and problem based learning.

How you're assessed

You will be assessed through assignments, exams, presentations, and the production of a practice portfolio. You will also be assessed on your placement by your practice teacher.

Careers

You will gain a qualification which meets the standards of proficiency, and fits with the current health agenda in the area of community specialist practice, so it will really boost your career.

Visit the Community Specialist Practice: District Nursing (MSc) page on the University of Derby website for more details!