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Apprenticeship training course

Community nurse specialist practitioner (NMC 2022) (level 7)

Caring for patients with a wide range of health conditions.

Qualification level
7
Equivalent to master’s degree.
Typical duration
24 months
Apprenticeship category
Health and science
Maximum funding
£14,000
Maximum amount government will fund
for apprenticeship training.
Also known as
  • Adult social care nurse
  • Community children’s nurse
  • Community learning disabilities nurse
  • Community mental health nurse
  • Community palliative and end of life care nurse
  • District nurse
  • General practice nurse
  • Health and justice nurse
  • Inclusion health nurse
  • Specialist community nurse
Skills
Skills an apprentice will learn
  • Practise autonomously, proactively and innovatively, demonstrating self-awareness, emotional intelligence and openness.
  • Lead and manage a service, with the ability to effectively admit, discharge and refer people to other professionals, services and agencies as appropriate.
  • Deliver specialist person-centred care in complex, challenging and unpredictable circumstances.
  • Account for their decisions, actions and omissions when working with complexity, risk, unpredictability and when all of the information required might not be available.
  • Apply relevant legal, regulatory and governance requirements, policies, and professional and ethical frameworks, differentiating where appropriate between the devolved legislatures of the United Kingdom.
  • Lead and promote care provision that is person-centred, anti-discriminatory, culturally competent and inclusive.
  • Demonstrate critical awareness of stigma and the potential for bias, taking action to resolve any inequity arising from either, and educate others where necessary.
  • Recognise the need for, and lead on action to provide, reasonable adjustments for people, groups and communities, influencing health policy and promoting best practice.
  • Demonstrate the principles of courage, transparency and the professional duty of candour, taking responsibility to address poor practice wherever it is encountered.
  • Critically reflect and recognise when own personal values and beliefs might impact on own behaviour and practice.
  • Assess the opportunities, risk and demands of specialist community nursing practice, and take action to maintain own mental and physical health and wellbeing.
  • Apply the numeracy, literacy, digital and technological skills required to deliver safe and effective specialist practice that meets the needs of people, their families and carers.
  • Be an effective ambassador and role model, and a positive influence on the profession.
  • Apply specialist knowledge of epidemiology, demography and the social determinants of health and illness, taking action to influence policy, service design and delivery.
  • Critically analyse the factors that may lead to inequalities in health outcomes, and their associated ethical dilemmas, to plan care in partnership with people, families and communities to improve them.
  • Recognise health as a fundamental human right and evaluate the effects of social influences, health literacy, individual circumstances, behaviours and choices on people’s current and future mental and physical health.
  • Critically assess health needs in partnership with people, families, communities and populations, to support them to take decisions and actions that improve their own mental, physical, and behavioural health and wellbeing.
  • Maximise opportunities for people, families, communities and populations to use their personal strengths and assets to make informed choices about their own health and wellbeing.
  • Conduct, interpret and evaluate health and social care assessments, screening and profiling activity for people and communities, to take appropriate action to improve health outcomes.
  • Apply specialist knowledge of social prescribing to support individual and community health outcomes.
  • Critically analyse and assess the characteristics of communities, their assets and any areas for development in order to build networks and alliances that can enhance health outcomes for people and families.
  • Promote and support people, communities and populations to connect effectively with local initiatives, support networks, programmes and third sector organisations that support their health and wellbeing.
  • Utilise and evaluate the impact of networks to enhance and support the mental and physical needs of people, families and communities, and identify and address any deficiencies in support.
  • Inform and advise people about the implications of genomics and epigenetics for personalised health care.
  • Apply a range of advanced communication skills to develop public health information that is accessible and enables people to make informed decisions about their health and wellbeing.
  • Share information regarding communicable diseases and approaches necessary for communicable disease surveillance, infection prevention and control, including immunisation and vaccination programmes.
  • Mitigate risks of environmental factors and other pollutants that have the potential to affect the health and wellbeing of people now and in the future.
  • Create and apply a person-centred approach to care, working in partnership to support shared decision making within the assessment and care planning process when working with people, their families or carers, and communities.
  • Use advanced communication strategies and relationship management skills when interacting with people, including families and carers, who may have a range of mental, physical, cognitive, behavioural and social health challenges.
  • Recognise and apply the principle of the presumption of capacity, and the requirement to seek informed consent throughout the assessment and planning process.
  • Make reasonable adjustments to maximise opportunities for people to understand the outcome of their abilities and needs assessment, and the implications for their treatment and care.
  • Make best interests decisions within the required legislative framework if, after seeking informed consent and making reasonable adjustments, their professional judgement is that a person lacks capacity to make a decision or give consent at that time.
  • Assess and plan the care of people when they are vulnerable, agreeing on the required level of support needed to ensure maximum levels of independence throughout the continuum of care.
  • Escalate, report, plan and coordinate immediate and continuing care for people in need of safeguarding.
  • Proactively obtain and distil information from formal and informal sources to inform individual assessments, involving others as required.
  • Critically analyse complex assessment information and data, distinguishing between normal and abnormal findings, recognising when prompt action is required, including requesting additional investigations, and involving others when appropriate.
  • Critically apply clinical reasoning to decision making, taking into account differential diagnosis and the potential for diagnostic overshadowing.
  • Maximise the potential use of technology and informatics to assist with assessment and diagnosis.
  • Apply knowledge and understanding of new and emerging science and technology, including genomics, to inform assessment and treatment options, when agreeing personalised care plans with people and their families, carers or nominated persons.
  • Apply a range of problem solving, influencing and negotiation skills to maximise opportunities for shared decision making when co-producing care plans.
  • Assess individual abilities and needs when co-producing plans of care, agreeing opportunities for supported self-care and treatment interventions.
  • Take into account the impact of people’s preferences, their close relationships and support systems, their home environment, and the influence of social, environmental and spiritual factors when agreeing the plan of care.
  • Create and maximise opportunities for people, and where needed their families, carers or nominated person, to remain independent and to facilitate self-care.
  • Effectively communicate the benefits and risks of different care and treatment options, explaining how the person and their family or carers will be supported in the choices they make.
  • Anticipate and explain the impact that unexpected events and changes may have on the plan of care.
  • Autonomously manage and evaluate complex episodes of care from referral to service and admission, to discharge from caseload, or referral to other appropriate services or agencies.
  • Assess and manage transition of people to other services or agencies, proactively collaborating with colleagues of other disciplines and agencies to find solutions to mitigate any risks.
  • Agree and negotiate with the person and where necessary their family, carer or nominated person, the implications of delegation of any aspect of their care to an alternative person.
  • Recognise reduced concordance, changes in motivation or dissatisfaction with the care and treatment plan, and work in partnership with people to influence and negotiate any revisions to the plan.
  • Proactively engage with, and effectively advocate for, people using services provided by other professionals or agencies to identify and find solutions where there is inconsistency, disagreement or conflict.
  • Initiate a range of evidence-based care and treatment, including care, therapeutic interventions and social prescribing, that may be supportive, curative, symptom relieving or palliative.
  • Safely and effectively manage complex medicines administration, optimisation and medicines reconciliation, and continually evaluate to ensure optimum effectiveness.
  • Evaluate and adjust plans to ensure adequate safeguards for people when they are vulnerable.
  • Maintain therapeutic relationships with people, their families and/or carers throughout the episode of care and treatment, and actively address any differing views.
  • Apply a range of techniques to educate people, their families, carers or nominated persons about their condition, treatment and care, to promote independence and confidence in supported self-care and self-management.
  • Work in partnership with people, their families, carers and other members of the team to continuously monitor and evaluate the care and treatment provided.
  • Include people and their families or carers in making decisions about their care and mitigate any risks as a result of changes in a person’s mental and physical health, their living environment, or social arrangements.
  • Make autonomous decisions in challenging and unpredictable situations, and be able to take appropriate action to assess and manage risk.
  • Work with people and where appropriate their families, carers or nominated person to agree and provide evidence-based person-centred nursing care for those who are dying or near to the end of life.
  • Sensitively accommodate the preferences, beliefs, cultural requirements and wishes of the deceased and people who are bereaved.
  • Clearly explain and accurately record the rationale for decisions, actions taken and resulting outcomes either in writing, or using digital technology, which can be shared with the person, their family, carers, nominated person and interdisciplinary and interagency teams.
  • Demonstrate leadership in applying human rights, equality, diversity and inclusion, to improve the health and wellbeing of people, families and communities.
  • Demonstrate compassionate leadership when managing community nursing, interdisciplinary and interagency teams, to promote equality, diversity and inclusion, support individual professionals’ wellbeing, motivate, and encourage team cohesion and productivity.
  • Lead, promote and influence the nursing profession in wider health and social care contexts.
  • Identify available local community assets and engage with a range of providers, including third sector and faith-based support organisations and networks, to enhance the support and care of people.
  • Evaluate a range of indicators to determine the skill mix and appropriate characteristics of the workforce required to meet the needs of specific caseloads.
  • Review, lead and manage the people, financial and other resources required to safely meet caseload requirements, making professional risk-based decisions when necessary to resolve resource issues.
  • Construct cogent arguments and effectively communicate complex information to justify decisions about resource allocation.
  • Delegate responsibility for the management of budget, people and other resources to team members, while retaining overall accountability.
  • Critically analyse own personal workload requirements and that of the wider team to lead and prioritise activities in order to manage demand and capacity.
  • Safely and effectively delegate responsibilities to team members based on an assessment of their level of knowledge, skill and confidence.
  • Use digital technology to maximise the use of resources across interdisciplinary and interagency teams.
  • Procure equipment and other items in line with relevant procurement policies, value for money considerations and health and safety requirements.
  • Articulate a clear and evidence-based rationale for complex decision making and professional judgement when leading teams in challenging situations.
  • Continually reflect on own leadership approach and take action to adapt own leadership style to different situations, including but not limited to when working with diverse teams who may be geographically dispersed.
  • Effectively use systems to measure the impact, quality, productivity and cost efficacy of interdisciplinary and interagency teams to allow effective leadership and performance management.
  • Conduct conversations with team members to provide opportunities for positive reinforcement and challenge, and agree any development plans or remedial actions in line with appraisal processes.
  • Lead the development of a positive learning culture for interdisciplinary and interagency teams.
  • Use a range of approaches and resources available to educate, support and motivate people, manage talent and succession plan.
  • Apply a range of leadership strategies that are effective in supporting positive team development and cohesion across disciplines and agencies.
  • Select, implement and evaluate strategies which are appropriate to the composition of the team, to enable supervision, reflection and peer review.
  • Recognise individual abilities and learning needs when applying the standards of education and training for pre- and post-registration nursing, midwifery and nursing associate students, in order to educate, supervise and assess effectively.
  • Interpret health and safety legislation and regulations in order to develop local policy and guidance to support staff working across the range of home and community environments.
  • Evaluate the outputs and recommendations of internal and external risk reporting to enable prioritisation, decision making and the development of action plans to mitigate risk.
  • Exercise the knowledge, skills and professional judgement required to balance competing risks and priorities, undertaking quality impact assessments that reflect the balance between safety, quality and least restrictive practices.
  • Co-produce strategies and plans for service design with people, families and communities to improve care outcomes.
  • Use innovative and emerging technology effectively to ensure collection and storage of data to allow analysis and forecasting to inform service improvement and safety plans.
  • Devise methods of systematically and effectively capturing and evaluating people’s lived experiences of care to lead improvements in the quality of service delivery.
  • Evaluate different research designs and methodologies and their application to develop and address research questions and generate evidence for service improvement.
  • Initiate and lead a continuous quality improvement programme, selecting an appropriate improvement methodology, collating and presenting results and proposing improvement actions.
  • Critically appraise published results of service evaluation, research findings, improvement data and audit, and distil relevant learning that can be applied in practice to bring about service improvement.
  • Present relevant research, quality and audit findings and proposals for care improvement to a range of audiences.
  • Critically analyse political and economic policies and drivers that may have an impact on the health, care and wellbeing of local communities.
  • Synthesise epidemiological, demographic, social, political and economic trends to forecast their impact and influence on current and prospective community nursing services.
  • Build relationships between teams within different systems in health and care, appreciating the value of different approaches, skill sets and expertise.
  • Maximise the effectiveness of different services within the system through collaboration and co-design, ensuring that services work seamlessly together to meet the needs of people and communities.
  • Apply a range of methodologies to drive continuous service improvement within the variety of different organisations and agencies that deliver services.
  • Proactively lead on the creation and development of effective system networks that enhance communication and decision making across organisations and agencies.
  • Demonstrate cultural competence and leadership when challenging discriminatory, oppressive cultures and behaviours at a system level.
  • Influence health and social care strategies and policies at a local, regional and national level.
  • Effectively work in partnership with peers at a strategic level to promote and influence change and improve health outcomes for the people and communities served.

Full information on Community nurse specialist practitioner (NMC 2022) (level 7) is available from the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education.

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Regulated occupation

Community nurse specialist practitioner (NMC 2022) (level 7) needs a training provider who is approved by Nursing and Midwifery Council.

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