Course Catalogue

The overall educational aim of the Specialist Community Public Health Nurse (SCPHN) programme is to ensure all students are “culturally competent, autonomous practitioners who are committed to improving people’s health and wellbeing” (NMC 2022). They advocate for social justice, understanding the wider determinants of health and seek to address health inequalities across the diverse communities and populations they serve. 

SCPHN professionals are in the forefront of public health. SCPHNs are committed to deliver individualised care which promotes respect and autonomy of individuals and communities. Collectively they highlight the core values of SCPHN practice (NMC 2022) emphasising the importance of person-centred care, leadership, innovation, equity and continuous learning. 

This programme will support students within their chosen field of practice (School Nursing) to focus on and support the holistic needs of school-aged children and young people. Learners will understand the wider determinants of health and are committed to addressing health inequalities across the life course, through health education, health promotion and evidence-based age and maturity appropriate interventions. School Nurses collaborate and work effectively with teams and other professionals across a range of sectors and agencies.

This  is in accordance with:

• Standards of Proficiency for Specialist Community Public Health Nurse (2022)
• Standards framework for Nursing and Midwifery Education (2023)
• Standards for student, supervision and assessment (2023)
• standards for post registration nursing programmes (2023)

The standards of proficiency for SCPHN (NMC 2022) reflect the teaching, learning and assessment within the programmes to ensure all students receive the appropriate breadth of knowledge and experience to become a SCPHN practitioner. 

The programme is dynamic, relevant and innovative utilising a variety of teaching and learning approaches that will engage and inspire students. These include lectures, seminars, group work activities, simulation and tutorials. LJMU’s Learning and Teaching Strategy 2023-2030 has guided the programme delivery to ensure that students develop critical thinking alongside progressively higher order thinking skills. 

In addition to theoretical teaching, learning and assessment, students also experience learning within practice environments.  A range of learning and teaching strategies support practice learning,.

A model of teaching and learning will be applied across the programme that fosters independence in the acquisition of knowledge and the facilitation of the application of theoretical knowledge to nursing practice; students will therefore:

• Be enabled in acquiring knowledge through supported independent learning. This will include being directed to scholarly activities that will prepare them for scheduled teaching activity that is provided directly by members of staff in real time, either face-to-face or synchronous online. This may take the form of lectures, seminars, tutorials and webcasts.
• Be supported in engaging in online asynchronous activity. Examples include asynchronous tutorial discussions, tutor-facilitated discussion boards, and tutor-facilitated collaborative or individual projects. While they may not be present at the same times as the students, academic staff actively, iteratively and directly engage with students to facilitate and guide learning, and are visible, engaged and active in the virtual learning environment.
• Consolidate theoretical learning in the practice learning environment whilst being supported and assessed by practice supervisors and assessors and academic assessors.

Assessment encompass a wide range of authentic processes, incorporating poster presentations, professional conversations, literature reviews and a business plan.  These assessments run parallel to the practice assessment document (PAD) which assesses the students competency in practice (NMC 2022).

The programme is divided to 40% theory and 60% practice. Thus learning opportunities are supported within practice by the assessor/supervisor in order for the student to attain their proficiencies. This is support by regular tripartite meetings which are held at least 4 times during the programme.
The student will spend 60% of their time on the programme working in practice they must achieve NMC (2022) specialist practice proficiencies to pass the programme and these are assessed in practice by the practice assessor.