PgDip Community Nursing Specialist (District Nursing)

University of Plymouth

This programme has been designed with close collaboration between key stakeholders including students, clinical representatives, academics and service users, families and carers. You will develop a critical understanding of the specialist role of the district nurse, by incorporating enhanced levels of professional autonomous practice, and awareness of social, political, and economic restraints in providing research based person-centred care. Key features: • Gain a deeper understanding of the role of the community nursing specialist nurse and critically examine the theory, practice and principles of community nursing specialist practice using an evidence-based approach to enable them to adapt and provide a wide range of nursing care in home and community-based settings. • Further expand professional autonomy continuing to work within legal, and ethical and professional accountability. • Develop enhanced critical thinking, critical reflection skills, and attain the authority to make clinical decisions and prescribe within the NMC (2022) (Nursing and Midwifery Council) standards of the community nursing (Specialist Practitioner Qualification (SPQ)) role. • Develop a critical understanding of the current issues that impact on health delivery in the community setting. • Utilising a person-centred approach, assess people’s abilities and needs and plan and co-produce a plan to manage care, developing specialised advanced skills and case-management of people with undifferentiated and complex conditions. • Demonstrate leadership in supporting and managing community nursing teams, coordinating care, and managing complex and dynamic community and/or practice caseloads. • Lead improvements in safety and quality of care by implementing quality processes, service evaluation and improvement methodology as well as working collaboratively as part of a wider heath care team. • Develop expertise in evaluating research theory and methodology, to enable the application of research to improve care and services for people and communities.

School of Nursing and Midwifery