The Community Specialist Practice Qualification (SPQ) programme is designed to equip postgraduates with the skills required for community specialist practice and there are four pathways to choose from: District Nursing, General Practice Nursing, Adult Social Care Nursing and Community Childrens Nursing.

As a Childrens Community Nurse (CCN) your role is pivotal in supporting babies, children, young people, and their families through their early years, very often with life limiting, life threatening, complex, and acute health needs. We know there has been a steep rise in the complexity of the care needed in recent years and with this comes complex ethical decision making, enhanced technology and working across multiple agencies including health, education, social care, private and voluntary agencies. This programme will enhance your current skills and knowledge, developing your autonomy, decision making and leadership skills and critical approach in further developing services to meet the growing needs of babies, children, young people, and their families. We hope that you will enjoy learning in a stimulating environment with other passionate practitioners where you can learn from others experience as well as through activity and work-based learning. This is an exciting opportunity to develop yourself into a community specialist practitioner to further develop and improve services for babies, children, young people, and their families.

Each pathway has a distinct approach to its delivery however, all share a more practice focused delivery, with a 60/40 split between clinical practice and protected learning time at Northumbria University respectively. This ensures that the specialist field of practice focuses on the specialist skills required for the pathway and is evident in the optional modules and as pathway-focused learning and teaching across all modules.

Students also benefit from integrated learning with fellow community specialist practitioner students. This programme has been innovatively designed and coproduced with a vast range of stakeholders from all pathway routes in both health and social care, to truly reflect contemporary specialist practice, need and service provision requirements.

What can I expect from this Specialist Nursing Masters?

Registered nurses already hold recognised knowledge and skills of the profession from the Standards Framework for Nursing and Midwifery Education. This ensures that across all fields, registrants can deliver holistic care needs to people they encounter with a range of mental, physical, cognitive, behavioural, social, or spiritual needs. The Standards of Proficiency for Community Nursing Specialist Practice are designed to recognise new models to meet the diverse needs of people of all ages, in their home, in settings close to home and in the community.

These Standards of Proficiency for Community Nursing Specialist Practice will provide additional knowledge and skills for postgraduate community nurses to record Specialist Practice Qualifications on the NMC register. Equipped with the SPQ qualification, these community nurses will build on these proficiencies as they gain cultural competence, experience, and fulfil their professional responsibility. They will demonstrate their commitment to develop as a specialist community practitioner, building a career pathway, and engaging in ongoing education and professional development opportunities necessary for revalidation.

Experiential learning is consistently integrated throughout your programme of study during practice learning, allowing real-world application of your skills and knowledge, developing cultural competence, promoting lifelong learning and will prepare you for your role as a specialist practitioner.

The programme is funded through your employer via sponsorship or can be self-funded by the student.