Advanced Practice (District Nursing)

Course detail Description

We designed the course around three important benefits: advancing your clinical skills, developing your career, and improving your knowledge of research- and evidence-based care. All three of these elements are essential for clinical leadership.

The practice side of your work gives you the chance to face challenging situations with the safety and support of skilled district nurses behind you. When you’re in teaching sessions, you’ll learn everything from evaluation methodologies to management skills to help you progress in the field.

The latest research at King’s will feed into your course. For example, we’re home to the Older Persons Fellowship (sponsored by Health Education England) which works towards innovation in older people’s care. Through these kinds of initiatives, we’re helping to transform healthcare, and you’ll be right in the heart of our pioneering academic community.

We cover each of the four areas of the QNI/QNIS (2015) Voluntary Standards: clinical care, leadership and management, facilitation of learning, and research and development. Our goal is to make sure you can deliver safe, effective, person-centred care.

The course fits the Royal College of Nursing competences for advanced nursing practice. It’s also mapped to the Queen’s Nursing Institute’s The Value of the District Nurse Specialist Practitioner qualification.

Depending on your experience, there are two routes on the course. If you’ve been qualified for three years, and your secondment organisation agrees, you can take the Independent Prescribing path. If not, you’ll need to join Prescribing from the Community Formulary.

The District Nursing Specialist Practitioner Qualification is linked to the course. You also have the option to progress on to a Masters. Many students choose to join us for the Diploma then come back later to complete the dissertation for the MSc.

Teaching happens at our London campuses, including:

• Guy's
• St Thomas’
• Waterloo

Your placement locations will vary depending on the trust you’re working with, and the areas they cover

For experienced practitioners who wish to advance their clinical practice, develop their professional career and enhance their knowledge of research and evidence-based healthcare in community nursing.

The programme is 50% theoretical and 50% practical. The theoretical and practical components will be split as follows:

Lectures, seminars and feedback: Approximately 150 hours (12.5% of total hours) in a combination of lectures, seminars, tutorials, project supervision and workshops.

Self-study: Approximately 450 hours (37.5% of total hours) of independent study such as preparing for scheduled sessions, follow-up work, wider reading and completion of assessment task or revision. This will vary according to the optional modules chosen. Students are expected to undertake on average 14.5 hours of self-study a week.

Practical Learning: Approximately 600 hours (50% of total hours) of practical work. The entire practical component will be spent in clinical practice with support from a practice teacher.

Contact time is based on 49 academic week course.

Typically, 1 credit equates to 10 hours of work.

Because of the varied nature of your work, we’ll assess you in a number of different ways. There could be coursework, exams, and other methods like presentations. Assessments are matched to the module content, so they may vary.

The clinical side of the course will involve a competency assessment.

The study time and assessment methods detailed above are typical and give you a good indication of what to expect. However, they may change if the course modules change.

King’s College London is regulated by the Higher Education Funding Council for England.

Read more

Structure

Year 1 Half of your time will be spent learning at King’s and the other half in practice. For most of the year, this means roughly two days on the job and two days in teaching sessions. Towards the end of the course, this will shift. The final term involves more practice to prepare you for life after King’s.

On your placement, you’ll develop a thorough understanding of your role, and experience situations first hand. You’ll be supported by a qualified district nurse who will act as your mentor or practice teacher throughout the course. And your assigned tutor from King’s will visit to make sure everything’s going smoothly.

While at King’s you’ll have access to expert teachers. They’ll provide the cutting-edge knowledge and research to support your practical experience. They’re all leaders in their fields, helping to shape policy and the profession through committees, steering groups, and editorial boards.

• Prescribing from the Community Formulary OR Independent Prescribing
• District Nursing Skills Compendium

• Advanced Assessment Skills For Non Medical Practitioners

• Leadership in Health and Social Care

• Mentorship