Community Health Nursing Specialist Practitioner - District Nursing - PgDip

Birmingham City University

District Nurses work autonomously, giving often complex care in non-clinical settings, and take a leading role in promoting the health of the community they serve. What's covered in this course? This course balances expanding your theoretical knowledge with hands-on experience of the range of practical skills you need for the challenging but rewarding role of District Nurse. We will also encourage you to develop a critical approach to care delivery so that you are able to adapt to rapidly changing situations, prevent hospital admissions, support self-care and independence using a holistic, patient-centred approach, manage complex caseloads, and provide education to patients, their families/carers and other healthcare staff effectively. As a District Nurse, you will become an effective leader of teams, managing staff with a varied mix of skills to drive quality improvement, ensuring that the care delivered is high-quality, evidence-based, safe and effective. We will help develop your ability to assess risk, work within multidisciplinary teams to coordinate care and service delivery and expand your understanding of the political landscape which drives change within the NHS. We will work in partnership with you, your practice assessor and supervisor to develop your knowledge, skills and behaviours in preparation to practise as a District Nurse in this crucial area that requires highly-skilled practitioners. One of the team will be allocated as your academic assessor to support and supervise your assessment in practice. This course is designed in line with the NMC standards of proficiency for specialist community practice nursing qualifications (2022) so that you’re prepared for the role of District Nurse and can register with the NMC with this title. The programme also prepares you to practise as a V300 Independent and Supplementary Prescriber, ensuring you can safely prescribe for patients within the scope of your practice in line with the Royal Pharmaceutical Society Competency framework for all prescribers (RPS, 2021).

School of Nursing and Midwifery