Specialist Community Public Health Nursing (School Nursing) MSc

Teesside University

This programme is for registered nurses or midwives who wish to gain registration on Part 3 of the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) register as a specialist community public health nurse (school nurse) and be recorded as a community prescriber. It offers you the opportunity to gain registration as a school nurse, community prescriber, and for academic development at master’s level. You develop public health practice knowledge and skills in addressing health inequalities with individuals and communities along with public health leadership skills, to enable you to contribute to the new school nursing agenda, and an understanding of the evidence which underpins and supports practice. Leadership is a key element, and you focus on quality improvement and how leadership skills and qualities can influence achievement of sustained change within SCPHN practice, and develop as a responsive, resilient and flexible practitioner who can respond to the changing health and social care environment. You investigate the health needs, protection and surveillance of the child and family in a health visiting context – and community practitioner prescribing. This is a practice-centred course with 50% taught theory and 50% practice. You require a contract and agreement with a health trust, local authority or employer to provide a clinical placement. You are allocated a practice assessor by your sponsoring organisation – they facilitate your learning in practice and are responsible for assessing your competence in practice. You explore evidence appraisal, to understand the evidence which underpins and supports practice. Your practice experience enables you to link your theoretical knowledge base to practice. You learn alongside students from a range of local partners, as well as students on postgraduate courses which encourages different perspectives and ideas.