Degree Apprenticeship PgDip

Specialist Practitioner – District Nursing (Apprenticeship)

School of Health and Society

Introduction

In a nutshell

The District Nurse Apprenticeship has been developed to support registered nurses develop high level skills and knowledge in integrated community care.

The District nursing programme supports apprentices to develop advanced skills, knowledge and behaviours that support a whole-person, place-based approach. Graduates will have the specialist skills to support people to live independently and work with family and carers and support people at the end of life.

You will:

Acquire specialist, professional and integrated technical skills and knowledge in care delivery, service improvement, policy, and public health
Develop leadership and influencing skills, with an emphasis on working across integrated systems
Achieve the competency in nonmedical prescribing
Develop competences and knowledge to practise autonomously and support a wide team to deliver person centred care
Learn practice education skills that enable you to appraise, access and develop students and teams members
Find a pathway to gaining a master’s qualification

This is for you if...

You wish to develop a career in community nursing

You enjoy working closely with people, are compassionate and highly organised

You have a passion for supporting adults of all ages to maintain health and wellbeing

Course details

All about the course

The programme runs over three trimesters with each trimester building on the last to ensure that graduates have the knowledge and skills to transition into a district nurse.

Year One

Developing healthy communities and integrated practice

This module explores prevention and management of complex conditions across the life course at an individual, organisational and system level, giving students the opportunity to develop systems improvement using a quality improvement approach.

This module aims to:

Apply theoretical concepts, research and evidence bases to tackle complex problems as they present in health and social care
Identify and apply critical analysis skills to understand the complex factors (including social determinates of health) that impact individuals and communities
Critically appraise and apply clinical reasoning and quality/service improvement methodologies to the promotion of healthy communities including; preventive, self-care and asset-based approaches and place-based approaches

Foundations and principles in Integrated Care

The module acts as an introduction to the principles and foundations in integrated care and concepts of population health.

This module aims to:

Critically evaluate theories and strategies to enable the student to develop knowledge and skills through the utilisation of the evidence base in integrated care and its underlying principles 
Expose the student to opportunities via practical application of activities and mentoring to explore the social, political and historical factors shaping local, national and international health care provision
Demonstrate a critical understanding of external and internal factors influencing integrated care

Non-Medical Prescribing - Independent Prescribing

This course will enable you to evaluate and challenge prescribing practice with reference to evidence based practice, equality and diversity and clinical governance.

This module is accredited by the NMC, HCPC and GPhC and upon successful completion, you will be able to add an annotation to your professional registration as an independent prescriber.

Prepare nurses, midwives, allied health professionals and pharmacists to prescribe safely, appropriately and cost-effectively as either a supplementary and/or an independent prescriber practicing addressing all the areas necessary to meet the requirements of the RPS (2016) competency framework for all prescribers.
To prepare holistically focussed practitioners who are able to critically evaluate and challenge prescribing practice with reference to evidence based practice, equality and diversity and clinical governance.

Specialist practice module – District Nursing

This module will help you to develop the skills and knowledge for contemporary practice in District Nursing. The module is only available to students enrolled in the PG Dip Health Visiting, District Nursing. The module has been developed and mapped against the Nursing and Midwifery Standards for Specialist Education and Practice (2001), the Queen’s Nursing Institute Voluntary Standards for District Nurse Education and Practice (2015) and the IFA (2019) District Nurse standards.

Compassionate digital integrated care (CDIC)

The use of technology is increasing all the time and is now a key tool in the delivery of health and social care. This module explores not only the technology in use but importantly how it can be applied compassionately to enhance delivery of care and support prevention, independent living, and self-care.

This module aims to:

Develop critical skills for analysis the discussion, synthesis, and analysis of research, policy, and evidence base for the use of technology in the delivery of integrated care  
Identify appropriate methods for dealing with complex and ethical issues pertaining to the delivery and management of compassionate person-centred care through digital health solutions 
Develop skills to identify and critically assess how technology can support and enhance the health outcomes of individuals through integrated approaches

Quality in Integrated Care

Demonstrate in depth knowledge and understanding of managing quality across integrated services including – Evaluation, Audit, Research, and developing an evidence base in community, primary and integrated care.

This module aims to:

Critically evaluate theories and strategies to enable the student to develop knowledge and skills of the evidence base in evaluation and research
Expose the student to opportunities via practical application of activities and mentoring to critically evaluate self and others and critically reflect on techniques for evaluation of quality improvement
Enable the student to critically appraise their qualities as a leader and their impact in the development of quality improvement and quality improvement monitoring

Leading, developing and designing integrated systems

This module will enhance the skills and knowledge in the implementation of integrated care at an individual, team and organisational level. There is a focus on development and advancement of co-production and co-design.

The module aims to:

Critically evaluate theories and strategies to enable the student to develop knowledge and skills through the utilisation of the evidence base to plan for real and sustained co-produced/designed change to bring about patient and/or service improvements within their healthcare organisation
Expose the student to opportunities via practical application of activities and mentoring to critically evaluate self and others and critically reflect on techniques required to co-produce and co-design care.
Enable the student to critically appraise their qualities as a leader and their impact in the development of healthy communities including preventive, self-care and asset-based approaches to health and social care
Enable students to explore the use of co-production and co-design in co-morbidity and complex conditions management at a patient, family, and community level

Please note that it may not be possible to deliver the full list of options every year as this will depend on factors such as how many students choose a particular option. Exact modules may also vary in order to keep content current. When accepting your offer of a place to study on this programme, you should be aware that not all optional modules will be running each year. Your tutor will be able to advise you as to the available options on or before the start of the programme. Whilst the University tries to ensure that you are able to undertake your preferred options, it cannot guarantee this.

What will I be doing?

TEACHING

Teaching will foster self-directed learning concentrating on the acquisition of specialist knowledge and the development of creative and critical thinking. A blended learning approach will be adopted, in which key theories, concepts, and information, together with suggested reading, will be delivered by the instructors via classroom sessions and the virtual learning environment.

All sessions will be taught by an expert academic or practitioner and will highlight the interface between theory/concepts and practice and encourage students to apply and evaluate general propositions in the context of specific cases. To support the face to face and online lecturers there will be digitally enabled content To aid the integration of theory into practice learning and will include the following;

Student and teacher-led seminars - will also include presentations by students on topics of interest and relevance to each module.
Enquiry-based learning scenarios and case study presentations
Reflection on practice experience and ongoing personal and professional development will be encouraged
Clinical Scenario based teaching in a simulated learning environment
All materials will be developed in line with the University of Salford inclusive learning guidance.

There will be an opportunity for students to develop and test their own learning through formative assessments at appropriate stages throughout the module. These are important in that they will enable early identification of student support and additional learning opportunities. Feedback on learning in both practice and theory will be essential pre-requisites of the programme as evidence has shown that feedback of any kind, as long as it is constructive, has helped students develop their learning and their confidence in practice.

One to one support is provided throughout the modules by an academic supervisor to whom students are encouraged to submit drafts of written work for feedback. The supervisor also supervises the quality of any required practice experience. Skills relating to critical analysis and interpretation of data are developed through academic writing exercises and students are encouraged to use the University Skills for Learning resource.

ASSESSMENT

An authentic assessment approach has been adopted to enable students to demonstrate their learning in a number of different ways. These assessments will take varied formats, in order to encourage intellectual inquiry, the development of critical and creative skills, and the ability to deliver knowledge, arguments, and ideas in multiple formats (of importance for addressing equality and diversity).

School of Health and Society

The School of Health and Society is a forward-thinking, dynamic school with a commitment to lifelong learning and real-world impact.

Our courses are informed by the latest research and we work closely with organisations from both the public and private sector to ensure our teaching is at the forefront of practice.

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What about after uni?

Graduates will have the specialist skills to support people to live independently and work with family and carers and support people at the end of life.

A taste of what you could become

District Nurse

Neighbourhood Nurse

Community Nurse

Requirements

What you need to know

ESSENTIAL REGISTRATION AND PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Registration of an adult nurse on part one of the Nursing and Midwifery Council register (NMC)
Employment of an appropriate nursing position with an appropriate organisation (who is apprenticeship approved with the University of Salford)
Have at least one years of experience to comply with the Nursing and Midwifery Council requirements for the V300 - Non-medical prescribing qualification (NMC 2018)
Be practising in, and have appropriate experience of, an environment where there is an identified need for the individual to regularly use independent, and/or supplementary prescribing (for example Community Nursing Team)

QUALIFICATION

One of the below:

A minimum of a second-class honour’s degree (2:2) in a related discipline area.
An equivalent academic or professional qualification from the UK or elsewhere i.e. incorporating study at least comparable to 120 credits at Honours level.
Professional qualification of equivalent status and associated work experience or an equivalent qualification deemed suitable by the course team.
An applicant who does not possess one of these qualifications may be admitted for entry through the Accreditation of Prior Learning (APL). Two forms of APL may be used for entry: The Accreditation of Prior.

ESSENTIAL APPRENTICESHIP REQUIREMENTS

Employed for more than 30 hours a week
English and Maths GCSE Grade C or above or equivalent
Employed within an apprenticeship partner organisation
Have the right to work in England and meet the residency eligibility

Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks and health checks will be completed prior to commencement of the programme.

Standard entry requirements

GCSE

Two GCSEs at minimum grade C/ grade 4 in English Language and Mathematics. Level 2 equivalents such as functional or key skills can be accepted.

You must fulfil our GCSE entry requirements as well as one of the requirements listed below.

How much?

The apprenticeship levy was introduced in April 2017 and requires all employers operating in the UK, with a pay bill of over £3 million each year to invest in apprenticeships.

The funding policy supports the changes to the way apprenticeships in England are paid for, underpinned by the apprenticeship levy of 0.5% of the annual pay bill for companies paying over £3 million per year.

There is also a co-investment model for companies who will not be paying into the levy. The government will cover 95% of the cost of the apprenticeship and the employer will only have to contribute the remaining 5%. Once payments have been declared to HMRC, employers will now have access to a digital apprenticeship account from which they will be able to access funding to pay for apprenticeship training.

The maximum amount of money allocated to each standard falls into a specific funding band, ranging from £1,500 to £27,000. The Social Worker standard has been allocated the following funding band:

Funding band maximum: £20,000

Find out more at www.gov.uk/government/collections/apprenticeship-changes

Additional costs

You should also consider further costs which may include books, stationery, printing, binding and general subsistence on trips and visits.

Apply now

All set? Let's apply

Not in Employment

To apply for an apprenticeship, you must first be employed with a company willing to enrol you on the apprenticeship programme.

The government national apprenticeship website has further information on this. The website also advertises vacancies for apprentices.

Unfortunately, the University does not hold details of employer vacancies.

In Employment

Speak with the apprentice lead in your organisation in the first instance as they will provide the funding and will make initial contact with the Apprenticeship Services Unit. Your employer will need to confirm that they'll fund and support your enrolment with the University.

If you are currently in employment with a company that is willing to support you through an apprenticeship, then they will need to contact us in the first instance to express their interest in the apprenticeship programme and this will trigger the application process.

For general apprenticeship enquiries email apprenticeships@salford.ac.uk phone: +44 (0)161 295 3063 or complete the contact us form

Enrolment dates

September 2024

September 2025

More information

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