MSc Specialist Community Public Health Nursing (incorporating PG Dip)
Why choose this course?
- You'll study modules which are linked to clinical practice, such as public health, specialist professional issues, research methods, and leadership and management, so they will really help your career development.
- Half of your time will be spent on a placement, so you'll get hands on experience as well as learning the theory.
- You can study individual modules as stand alone courses as part of your professional development.
- This course meets the Nursing and Midwifery Council standards, so you'll gain a recordable qualification.
Fact file
Start date: September
Course length: Two years of full time study or three years part time
Campus: Kedleston Road site, Derby Campus
Faculty: Education, Health and Science
School: School of Health and Social Care
This course is available to international students
About this course
During this course you'll study for 50% of your time and will be on placement for the rest of the time. When you've completed the course you'll have developed the skills you need to become an effective specialist nurse in your chosen area of expertise.
You'll study clinical practice and development, and will develop your leadership skills throughout the course. You'll gain an in depth knowledge of professional roles and functions and be encouraged to bring about integrated and high quality health and social care.
The knowledge and skills you develop in evaluating current research and evidence based practice will also help you to influence and deliver high quality care.
You'll need to be active on the Nursing and Midwifery Council register and be sponsored by a Primary Care NHS Trust. The NHS Trust will also need to provide you with a specialist practice placement, which counts for 50% of the course.
What you will cover
This course is made up of two stages – Postgraduate Diploma and MSc.
Postgraduate Diploma
You’ll study these modules:
Specialist Professional Issues and Continued Professional Development (Health Visiting and School Nursing) (40 credits)
- Public Health (20 credits)
- Leadership and Management in a Commissioning Based Healthcare Environment (20 credits)
- Research Methodology – Application to Advanced Practice (20 credits)
And you’ll choose one optional module such as:
- Child and Adolescent Mental Health (20 credits)
- Clinical Supervision (20 credits)
- Ethical and Legal Issues (20 credits)
- Mentoring (20 credits)
- Child Development (20 credits)
MSc
You’ll study this module:
- Independent Scholarship (60 credits)
During this triple module you’ll have the opportunity to investigate in detail a chosen area of practice relevant to your profession. This module is delivered by distance learning (paper based).
Entry requirements
You should:
- have an entry on an appropriate part of the NMC Register
- be employed by the Primary Care Trusts providing sponsorship
- have 120 credits at degree level or equivalent academic credits or Accreditation of Prior Learning (APL)
- be working in an area which enables achievement of the individual pathway aims and module learning outcomes.
If you're undertaking a registerable pathway, you must have completed a period of sufficient length to have consolidated pre-registration outcomes and to have gained a deeper understanding in relevant professional practice. This will normally be one year.
It will be the employer's responsibility to ensure that any necessary CRB and health checks are carried out before confirming the offer of a course place.
How to apply
Fees and finance
This is a specialist course.
UK/EU students
- £815 per module (you usually take 9 of these modules in total)
*These fees apply if you're starting this course between September 2013 and August 2014. We recommend you check fee details with us though, as they can change. Costs can increase each year.
How you will learn
How you'll learn
During this course you’ll study in University and independently for 50% of your time and the other 50% of the time will be within a placement setting. We’ll teach you in a variety of ways, through role modelling and exposure to evidence based practice plus group discussions, presentations, lectures and action learning sets. When you’ve completed the course you’ll have developed the skills you’ll need to become an effective specialist nurse in your chosen area of expertise.
To complete the Postgraduate Diploma stage this course will take you one year of full time study or two years of part time study, subject to your Strategic Health Authority contract. The MSc stage takes a further year. Half of your time will be spent on a placement, so you’ll get hands on experience, as well as learning the theory.
You’ll be assessed through exams, observations, assignments, presentation and a practice portfolio. You’ll also be assessed on your placement by your practice teacher.
Careers and employability
You'll gain a registerable qualification which will meet the current public health agenda in the area of specialist community public health nursing, so it'll really boost your career.
When you graduate you'll have be able to:
- have the skills to become an effective specialist nurse in your chosen area of expertise
- be committed to lifelong learning, encourage colleagues to be, and contribute to national debates
- be able to master clinical practice, care and programme management, clinical practice leadership, and clinical practice development
- show leadership and have a critical in depth knowledge of professional roles and functions, so you can bring about integrated and high quality health and social care, through working with other professionals effectively, networking and team working
- have knowledge and skills in evaluating current research and evidence based practice so you can influence and deliver high quality care.
