Keele University Prospectus Postgraduate | 2017 | Page 106

Postgraduate Prospectus 2017

Specialist Community Nursing:
District Nursing
Overview

Keele University School of Nursing and Midwifery offer this pathway
as a Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) approved, full-time one year
Specialist Community Nursing programme: District Nursing. Specialist
Community Nurses (District Nursing) provide up to date, specialist and
highly technical care to patients in their own environments as well as
supporting families and carers. As a District Nurse today you need to
be highly skilled and educated to manage the changing demographics
of communities and populations you will work within. Furthermore,
you will be expected to lead teams of both qualified and support staff
in a community setting. Recent government policy outlines a call to
action and model for district nursing services and this award, providing
a qualification in Specialist Community Nursing (District Nursing
Pathway), is timely to support this, leading to a recordable specialist
qualification with the NMC.
The course has been designed to produce specialist community nursing
practitioners who are safe, competent, and professional, to lead district
nursing in a community nursing setting. This includes meeting Nursing
and Midwifery Council (NMC) standards for Specialist Community
Nursing, Education and Practice. You will develop your leadership skills
whilst on the programme, so that you are able to plan and lead services
and initiatives which promote health, support long-term conditions
and provide specialist nursing care, including community practitioner
prescribing as applicable to your role. You will achieve the recordable
qualification through the postgraduate diploma; however, there is the
opportunity to undertake a dissertation through a part-time route
to convert this postgraduate diploma to a master’s degree.

Key Information
Course type

Postgraduate diploma

Mode of study

Full-time (or part-time
by arrangement)

Indicative entry
requirements

Applicants are required to be
experienced qualified adult
nurses. For a list of full entry
requirements please visit
www.keele.ac.uk/pgtcourses

Contact email

[e-mail]

Indicative modules

• Evidence Based Practice Module
• Leadership Module
• Specialist Community Practice Module
The following is a list of indicative elective modules
• Strategic Management of Long-term Conditions
• Community Practitioner Nurse Prescribing
• Health Assessment in Clinical Practice

Did you
know?

Applicants need to be funded to undertake a district
nurse specialist practitioner programme via their
employing organisation www.nhscareers.nhs.uk

Joanne Paterson

Specialist practitioner programmes comprise 50% theory
and 50% practice and concentrate on four areas:
• Clinical nursing practice
• Care and programme management
• Clinical practice development
• Clinical practice leadership

This is best course I have taken
throughout my career – I learned so
much. There was a clear focus on how
we can manage patients with chronic
and often multi-morbidities within
their own environment. I felt the course
equipped me with the knowledge
and skills to lead a team to continue
to deliver care and treatments to
individual patients. The course also
challenged me to look at our current
practice and think about how we can
make the service sustainable without
comprising patient care.

For more information please visit

keele.ac.uk/pg/scnursing-dnp
106

Nursing Sister