Specialist Community Practitioner MSc PGDip

How to apply

This course starts in September. Applications are accepted from February each year, which is when the relevant application form is made available by the school.

Applicants who are self-employed, self-funded or working in non-NHS organisations should apply to the Practice Learning Partner (PLP) through the appropriate annual NHS Jobs advert to assure PLP sponsorship on this programme.

The PLP will shortlist the applications and, if successfully shortlisted, your details will be forwarded to the university where you will be asked to complete an online application form and invited to interview.

Please note that it will not be possible to make an application to the university unless you have applied and been shortlisted. Any applications that do not meet this criteria cannot be considered.

In addition, references to support good health and character are required at admission stage, along with a satisfactory DBS check which is undertaken by your current employer. You are required to make an annual declaration regarding health and good character, and this would also be required before application to the Register.

For more information, contact the programme administrator on: ProfessionalCourseAdmissions@brighton.ac.uk.

Interview procedures
Normally interviews are carried out with a representative from the University of Brighton and representatives from the PLP (including a practice supervisor and practice assessor representative). At interview consideration will be given to the following:

• knowledge of the role
• communication skills
• appropriate attitude
• potential for development as a specialist community practitioner.

Course structure

The programme fully embraces ‘practical wisdom’ with an enquiry- and research-led approach to learning.

Practice-based learning is embedded throughout the programme and accounts for approximately 50% of the course. The focus of practice-based learning is on competence to a specialist level of proficiency. The number of practice days required per week will be detailed on the course calendar. 

Our aim is to embed student-centred learning and teaching approaches that develop sustainability and encourage reflection and critical thinking across the whole programme, promoting life-long learning.

The course is delivered in a variety of ways and is flexible enough to meet the needs of part-time students. Delivery is typically via e-learning, lectures, seminars, work-based practice learning, facilitated workshops and simulation in our Clinical Skills and Simulation Suite and Flexible Learning Environment.

You will be allocated practice placements by your employing trust, and assigned a practice supervisor and practice assessor to support your learning in practice. You may also undertake a period of alternative practice during which you can spend a week in another practice environment to diversify your skills and experience base.

To prioritise your learning needs and protect your student status you will only undertake patient care in relation to the specialist community practitioner role under the supervision of the qualified practice supervisor or practice assessor.

A variety of learning and teaching strategies are used, including problem-based and work-based learning. You need to be highly motivated and prepared to actively engage with all aspects of your learning.

Public health roles are diverse, and flexibility in the course gives you the opportunity to gain the knowledge and skills to suit your personal and professional ambitions.

With the guidance of an academic tutor, you will set out a professional development plan (PDP) which will be captured in the three Practice Assessment Documents (PADs) and will be reviewed throughout the course. 

The PADs help to integrate your personal areas of advancement with the existing requirements of the knowledge and skills framework and are designed to ensure that upon completion you have had the relevant experience of all aspects of specialist community practice necessary to fulfil the required learning outcomes. They also serve as evidence of your expanded skill set in order to boost your future employability.

You’ll be partly co-taught with students studying on the Specialist Community Public Health Nursing MSc/PGDip, Advanced Clinical Practice MSc, Health MSc and standalone continuing professional education modules. This will diversify your knowledge through the sharing of experiences and enable you to understand a range of different ways to practice within a given framework.

The PADs also ensure that your needs are assessed on an ongoing basis and adjustments made accordingly, particularly useful if an extended part-time route is taken.

Health sciences postgraduate education
This course is part of our postgraduate education programme. The programme allows you to sign up for one module at a time and build your qualification as you go. It also gives you access to interdisciplinary modules across a broad selection of health and social science subjects.

Making sure that what you learn with us is relevant, up to date and what employers are looking for is our priority, so courses are reviewed and enhanced on an ongoing basis. When you have applied to us, you’ll be told about any new developments through Student View.

Areas of study

The course consists of a range of mandatory core modules that have been arranged to allow you to develop and build on your knowledge, skills and professionalism as you progress through the course.  

If you have previous academic credits which can be considered in line with the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) policy then an option module that maps to the NMC Standards of Proficiency for Community Nursing Specialist Practice Qualifications (2022) from the continuing professional development portfolio of modules can be taken. You and the sponsoring NHS organisation will need to request this. 

You will benefit from sharing skills and knowledge with a range of speciality nurses and be able to nurture an intraprofessional collaboration. Programmes have been designed to include modules in which learning is shared with students from other disciplines and, where possible, other professions.

On completion of the course, you will have studied and practised:

• assessing risk in complex situations
• developing effective relationships based on trust and openness
• working flexibly with other services in a range of settings
• dealing with conflicting priorities and ambiguous situations
• knowing when to use different, and sometimes contradictory, theories and perspectives.

Syllabus

Modules

Core modules

• Independent Prescribing

  This module will teach you to prescribe safely, appropriately and cost-effectively as an independent prescriber within your own scope of practice, using a patient-centred approach. The module content includes consultation, decision-making and therapy, including referral; the influences on, and psychology of, prescribing; prescribing in a team context; clinical pharmacology; evidence-based practice and clinical governance in relation to nurse prescribing; legal, policy and ethical aspects; and professional accountability and responsibility.

• Integrated Care

  This module provides a contextual foundation to integrated person-centred care in complex health and social care systems for specialist community practitioners. Topics covered include evaluating evidence to inform specialist practice; contemporary and critical understandings of care and care ethics; participatory and partnership models of health and social care; shared decision-making, collaboration, coordination and co-production; and case management in health and social care.

• Leading Service Improvement

  This module will enable you to critically examine an aspect of contemporary practice in your specialist field. You will provide an evidence-based rationale for the development, design, implementation and evaluation of a service improvement that will explore these issues in depth and be able to critically demonstrate and reflect on the challenges.

• Advanced Health Assessment (Adult)

  This module is designed for health professionals (HPs) who practice at an advanced or specialist level (band 6+). The module allows HPs to carry out and interpret structured history taking and physical assessment, and to use data and clinical decision-making within the defined context of their professional practice to develop differential diagnoses.

• Leading Specialist Practice

  This module provides you with the knowledge and skills to effectively lead and manage teams in contemporary community healthcare settings. Areas examined include key strategies for contemporary leadership of diverse teams in community settings; role development, personal efficacy and leadership in health and social care; development of specialist practice; and inclusion and diversity in leadership, non-racist approaches destabilising cultural norms and Western and Eurocentric approaches.

• Dissertation

  This final dissertation is a major piece of work and an opportunity for you to fully investigate a subject you are interested in. The dissertation can be via literature-based research, small-scale empirical research or analysis of existing data. You will be supported by your tutors to develop a dissertation proposal and then allocated a dissertation supervisor to guide you through your research work. You will be encouraged to write up your dissertation research as draft publication-ready papers, so that you can more readily publish high-quality work after completion of your MSc.

Options*

• Health Professional as an Educator

  Practitioners in health, social care and diverse practice settings have an increasingly educational role so this module is designed to enhance the skills necessary for you to develop your role as an educator in a work-based higher education setting. It will focus on your educational role with learners, including students, colleagues, service users, families/carers, interprofessional teams and the public.

• Respiratory Care (Level 7)

  In this module you will advance your knowledge and understanding of the assessment, pathophysiology, investigations and treatment of respiratory conditions. The psychosocial and ethical implications of chronic respiratory conditions and the role of self-management will be explored alongside issues relating to delivering sustainable healthcare to patients with respiratory disease.

• A Critical Approach to Community Public Health

  Public health is everyone’s business, and local authorities, the NHS and the voluntary sector in collaboration with communities all have a role in preventing disease, promoting health and reducing inequalities in health. In this module you will explore the concepts of contemporary public health and develop the skills required to interpret, analyse and synthesise data to evaluate the effectiveness of health promotion provision for a population.

• Child Advanced Physical Assessment, Pathophysiology and Clinical Decision-Making (Level 7)

  This module enables you to develop and demonstrate the critical knowledge, clinical and interpersonal skills in undertaking a holistic, advanced physical health assessment of infants, children and young people. This includes history-taking, child development, clinical examination, interpreting assessment findings to formulate diagnoses and complex clinical decision-making.

*Option modules are indicative and may change, depending on timetabling and staff availability.

Option modules are only available for students with Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) – see the Areas of study tab for full information.

NMC Standards and final award

The statutory regulator is the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) which approves the course and registers nurses and midwives to practice.

The course meets the NMC Standards Framework for Nursing and Midwifery Education (NMC 2018) and is mapped to the NMC Standards for Student Supervision and Assessment (NMC 2018), the NMC Standards of Proficiency for Community Nursing Specialist Practice Qualifications (NMC 2022) and the NMC Standards for Post Registration Programmes (NMC 2022).

The independent prescribing programme which is integral to the PGDip/MSc award further meets, and is mapped to, the NMC Standards for Prescribing Programmes (NMC 2018) and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society Competency Framework for all Prescribers (RPS 2021). 

To gain the professional and recordable Postgraduate Diploma (PGDip) qualification with the NMC, you must achieve 120 level 7 credits in the required modules to ensure proficiency in specialist community nursing (NMC 2022). One of the following will then be awarded: 

• Specialist Practitioner: District Nursing with integrated Independent and Supplementary Prescribing (V300) PGDip

• Specialist Practitioner: General Practice Nursing with integrated Independent and Supplementary Prescribing (V300) PGDip

Students can then go on to complete the Specialist Community Practitioner MSc by successfully completing the 60-credit dissertation within the maximum period of registration which is six years. One of the following will then be awarded:  

• Specialist Community Practitioner (District Nursing) MSc
• Specialist Community Practitioner (General Practice Nursing) MSc

On successful completion of an MSc, the PGDip will be rescinded, however the professional recordable NMC qualification remains.

Facilities 

Course fees

Contact us for tuition fees and information on the funding available for this course.

NHS funding is available and may vary depending on individual circumstances.  

How to apply

Applications are accepted in February of each year, which is when the relevant application form is made available by the School of Education, Sport and Health Sciences.

Scholarships, bursaries and loans

We offer a range of scholarships for postgraduate students. Bursaries and loans may also be available to you.

Find out more about postgraduate fees and funding.

The fees listed here are for the first year of full-time study if you start your course in the academic year 2025–26.

You will pay fees for each year of your course. Some fees may increase each year.

UK undergraduate and some postgraduate fees are regulated by the UK government and increases will not be more than the maximum amount allowed. Course fees that are not regulated may increase each year by up to 5% or RPI (whichever is higher).

If you are studying part-time your fee will usually be calculated based on the number of modules that you take.

Find out more

• Fees, bursaries, scholarships and government funding info for UK and international postgraduate students
• Student finance and budgeting while studying
• About the university’s fees by checking our student contract and tuition fee policy (pdf).

Campus where this course is taught

Accommodation

Local area

Maps

Support and wellbeing

Sport at Brighton