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.

The GPN role is constantly developing and currently as more care management is delivered from a primary care perspective, this will continue. As practitioners in general practice deliver care across the age spectrum, this role offers an opportunity to deliver specialist and high-quality care across a wide spectrum of presentations and stages of health, wellbeing, and illness. The role provides continuity of care, often negating the requirements to seek medical appointments, and delivers care in a collaborative approach with patients and their carers and/or families as appropriate. The course will offer you the opportunity to develop within a stimulating and multi-disciplinary learning environment, on a personal and professional level, resulting in high quality, evidenced based care provision for your patients. It will offer you the opportunity to expand your leadership skills and be confident in-service improvement developments.

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.

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. Your employer will provide specific guidance around your contract of employment and your future role within their organisation.

The programme has been developed through collaboration with our coproducers, including employing partners, practice colleagues and current and previous students. As such, the content of the programme is designed to ensure that on completion, you are employable and meet the required NMC (2022) Standards for Specialist Practice.

The programme is designed to encourage you to take responsibility for your development and to proactively seek opportunities to advance your employability by building on transferable skills such as communication, leadership, time management, as well as showing creativity and enterprise through the completion of project work. Career development opportunities will be available and will include career guidance and continuing educational opportunities.