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Specialise in community district nursing practice. Learn how to use evidence-based physical and clinical assessments to formulate accurate diagnosis and make safe and informed prescribing decisions. Gain the skills required to respond to complex health needs in district nursing practice.
This postgraduate apprenticeship is delivered in partnership with local employers and has been designed to develop registered nurses (adult nursing) who wish to specialise in community district nursing practice. The course equips you with the knowledge, skills and behaviours required to meet the occupational District Nurse standards (Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education 2023) and the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) professional standards for Community Specialist Practitioner in District Nursing (2023).
The course prepares you to work collaboratively with individuals, family, carers, groups and communities within a multi-professional and multiagency care environment to support co-constructed health and care outcomes. Leadership and change management skills prepare you to lead a team and ensure quality evidence-based approaches in the delivery of district nursing services. This programme promotes consideration of the multiple perspectives and influences which shape healthcare. Each of the modules has a specialist focus and you are supported to utilise the evidence and information available to make informed sound judgements involved in planning, improving and advancing district nursing services.
You'll undertake this apprenticeship with your employer, a local provider of community health services (NHS Trust). It involves an 18-month (78-week) programme which includes a minimum of 20% off-the-job, university-based learning.
Successful completion of this apprenticeship will allow you to record the qualifications of:
A variety of approaches to teaching and learning will be used to enable you to achieve the learning outcomes. These include on-campus teaching, online e-learning, seminars, and group work, as well as learning within your workplace.
The assessments are designed to allow for transferability to practice and applicability to the role of District Nurse. Studying at Level 7 allows you to take ownership of your learning, with modules based on evolving content, and you're able to further investigate the topics pertinent to your patient demographic and the communities in which you work.
Your learning within the workplace will be supported by using the Practice Assessment Document. This will act as a guide to ensure your development is following the standards that represent the skills, knowledge, and attributes that all community nurses with specialist community qualifications must demonstrate. This form of assessment will not only support you as you work through the key milestones in practice, but also act as a sustainable method of learning that's relevant and authentic to your practice.
You'll also receive assessments such as OSCE, business case projects, viva, service improvement plans, and assessment in practice. These come with regular ongoing feedback from your tutors and supervisors.
Patient and carer participation is an important part of the course, with service user feedback a requirement of learning and progression in practice. Patient, Carer and Public Involvement (PCPI) participants are an essential part of the education delivery to ensure that service user perspectives are integrated into theory and practice.
We don’t currently display entry requirements for United States. Please contact the Student Admin team on studentadmin@sunderland.ac.uk or 0191 515 3154.
As an apprentice, you must hold current NMC registration as a Registered Nurse (Adult) with post-registration experience of at least six months and be employed by a local provider of community health services (NHS Trust) with the contractual support of their employer to undertake the 18-month (78-week) apprenticeship programme followed by an End Point Assessment period of three months. The apprenticeship requires 590 hours of learning in practice. During ‘off-the-job’ learning in the workplace, you must have access to the support and oversight of a Practice Supervisor, a Practice Assessor, and an assigned Academic Assessor who have appropriate experience in district nursing.
Applicants must hold maths and English GCSE at a minimum of Grade C or numerical grade 4 to 9 (or equivalent). The academic team will be able to offer advice and support with this. As this apprenticeship is level 7, apprentices must be ready to study at level 7 and hold an honours degree of 2:2 or above in a first degree or have significant, relevant, and recent level 6 study.
The funding band is £14,000. The fee for this apprenticeship will be covered by an apprenticeship levy through your employer.
For a discussion around your specific requirements, please call us on 0191 515 3361 or email apprenticeships@sunderland.ac.uk.
This information was correct at the time of publication.
This course will equip you with the required skills and knowledge to address the complex health needs of patients you'll care for as a district nurse.
The staff are incredibly supportive and go the extra mile to ensure you have the best experience.
