Programme summary
This postgraduate diploma programme will be delivered over two years. Students will undertake timetabled, blended learning equivalent to approximately one day a week and the remaining time will be undertaken in the work-based learning setting. Working in partnership with its stakeholders, the University will support the student to meet the apprenticeship learning outcomes, enabling increasing independence and autonomy as a Community Nurse Specialist Practitioner. The apprenticeship is clinically focused and developed to prepare and support adult trained nurses to work in community nursing roles in the field of General Practice Nursing and District Nursing.
The apprenticeship aligns with the Nursing and Midwifery Council Standard for Community Nursing Specialist Practice (NMC, 2022) and the NMC Standards for Prescribing (NMC, 2024) and the
Community Nurse Specialist Apprenticeship Standard. All apprentices will undertake an apprenticeship assessment to achieve the Apprenticeship Standard.
On successful completion, apprentices will be eligible to apply to the NMC to annotate the community nursing specialist practitioner qualification (field specific) with V300 Non-Medical Prescribing qualification. This must be done within five years of completion of the programme.
More than ever, it is evident that the specialist expertise of the General Practice Nursing and District Nursing workforce are central to the provision of health care in the UK (NHS UK, 2019, QNI/QNIS, 2015). The need for an advanced-level workforce in the community and primary care setting has been identified (NHS UK, 2019).
