Specialist Community Public Health Nursing (School Nursing) PGDip

This module prepares you for advanced, autonomous practice as a Specialist Community Public Health Nurse (SCPHN) School Nurse, fostering innovation and leadership across diverse community settings. You’ll develop skills in evaluating health needs through community profiling and digital data analysis, and apply national and local policy in practice while recognising the influence of global socio-economic strategies. The module covers infection prevention, vaccination, and disease surveillance, alongside the importance of medicines management. You’ll explore how the home environment influences child and youth development, with an emphasis on early intervention and safety. Advanced communication and cultural competence are key to promoting mental health and inclusive care.

Module content will include:

1. Develop the skills, knowledge and attributes to demonstrate a high level of autonomy, entrepreneurship and innovation as a Specialist Community Public Health Nurse (SCPHN).
2. Evaluate community health needs and assets via the use of community profiling whilst showing the ability to synthesise data and information using digital technology.
3. Leading and organisation of specialist community public health practice within a range of settings with application of national and local policies showing an understanding of the link between global and national socio-economic political strategies linking to SCPHN practice whilst being aware of ethnicity, diversity, accountability, confidentiality and the role of statutory bodies.
4. An understanding of the SCPHN role in sharing information regarding communicable diseases and surveillance including infection prevention and control and immunisation and vaccination programmes.
5. Understanding the impact of the home environment on children and young people's growth and development through engagement, prevention and early intervention, promote safety and reduce risk behaviours in the home setting in relation to the child and young person's age and stage of development.
6. Appreciate the importance of medicines management with respect to administration, optimisation and reconciliation, and the positive impact of correct medicines management on people’s current and future health outcomes. 
7. Advancing communication skills and strategies for promoting positive mental health and the welfare of children, young people and families and as a culturally competent practitioner remaining sensitive to a wide range of values, attitudes, beliefs expectations, faiths and cultures.

This module develops leadership, management, and professional practice skills essential for working in complex health and care environments. You'll explore values, beliefs, self-awareness, and personal motivation through reflective practice, action learning, and personal development planning. Key leadership theories—such as compassionate, transformational, and situational approaches—are examined alongside the impact of policy, organisational culture, and service reorganisation. You'll gain tools for change management, cross-organisational working, and business case development, with a focus on economic and commissioning influences. The module also covers team leadership, partnership working, patient empowerment, cultural competence, conflict resolution, delegation, budgeting, and accountability—preparing you for effective leadership in healthcare settings.

Module content will include:

• Frameworks of analysis, values, beliefs, attitudes, self-awareness, personal motivation, mind mapping and personal action planning, and developing a vision for future direction. Reflective practice. Sources of expertise in practice. Action learning techniques.  
• Theories and models of leadership and management, including compassionate, situational, transformational and transactional leadership styles. The impact of reorganisation of services, including the influences of policy and organisational culture.  
• Change management theory; tools for analysing to achieve specific developments innovations and improvements in organisational systems, or in the health and wellbeing of the population. Working across organisational boundaries; formulating business cases for service development; and economic influences on service provision including commissioning and service development.  
• Patient/carer/service user participation models, advocacy, self-advocacy, self-efficacy, empowerment and partnership working. Leadership at the point of care, cultural competence and inclusivity.  
• Team analysis across agencies and disciplines including team development, team leadership, team participation, and implementation of change relative to partnership working and health and wellbeing, team role analysis, business planning, investment, value for money, managing conflict in teams.  
• Development of specific roles and responsibilities in practice including sustainability, accountability, delegation and conflict resolution techniques; time management; influencing and negotiating skills and conflict resolution with key stakeholders and agencies, budget management, staff discipline issues, investigating and managing complaints. 

This module equips you with the knowledge and skills to address health inequalities and promote wellbeing across communities, with a focus on children, young people, and families. You’ll explore strategies to mitigate health inequities and educate individuals on the risks of substance misuse and addictive behaviours, including signposting to support services. The module highlights the vital role of the SCPHN in promoting perinatal mental health and recognising early signs of mental ill health. You'll also develop expertise in safeguarding, risk management, and interprofessional collaboration. Emphasis is placed on culturally competent, inclusive practice that challenges stigma and supports vulnerable populations effectively.

Module content will include: 

1. The importance of understanding inequalities in health outcomes and health inequity and taking appropriate action to mitigate their impact on people, communities and populations.
2. Discussion of the opportunities to educate individuals on the risks to themselves and others of the abuse of tobacco, alcohol and other substances and potentially addictive behaviours by signposting to accessible services.
3. The importance of the SCPHN role in promoting mental health for parents, families, infants and children during the perinatal period and in the assessment and early identification of perinatal mental ill health.
4. Review how the SCPHN should work to safeguard and prioritise support for children, young people and families most at risk, escalating concerns and providing specialist expertise for safeguarding and child protection pathways.  
5. Interprofessional working, safeguarding policy, collaboration with other agencies and disciplines, managing and monitoring  risk. 
6. Culturally competent practice to establish positive relationships and facilitation of inclusion, recognising the potential impact of stigma, bias and assumptions that people may make about school-aged children and young people.

This module provides a comprehensive foundation in public health theory and practice across the lifespan, focusing on population health and community wellbeing. You'll explore emerging public health themes, policies, and governance at local, national, and global levels, supported by epidemiology and demography to assess health needs and social determinants. Emphasis is placed on ethical, legal, and evidence-based frameworks that empower inclusive, person-centred care and health promotion. You'll develop skills in partnership working, community development, and safeguarding, while gaining specialist knowledge in social prescribing, genomics, and epigenetics. The module also covers infection control, vaccination, and managing public health incidents—preparing you for effective, community-focused practice.

Module content will include: 

• Underpinning theories and principles of public health across the lifespan, population health and the wellbeing of people and communities. Emerging public health themes, key policies, strategies and related governance requirements, including global and national policies and research. 
• Understanding epidemiology and demography. Specialist knowledge and application of epidemiological evidence at national and local policy levels, to include utilisation of data in the assessment and identification of need within social determinants of health across the lifespan. 
• Utilisation of professional, legal and ethical frameworks to empower individuals and communities to engage effectively with public health and health promotion initiatives promoting person centred inclusive care. Adopting an evidence base to underpin specialist community and public health nursing practice to support innovative approaches to influence people’s motivation, choices and behaviour to maximise their health potential.  
• Partnership roles. Understanding the unique contributions which specialist community nursing and public health nursing practice make to establishing and maintaining collaborative partnerships with people, families and communities.
• Understanding of how culturally responsive resources and community and strength-based assets support health and wellbeing. Application of specialist knowledge of social prescribing and commissioning. Identifying those who are vulnerable and taking action to support, safeguard and protect them. Understand and apply genomics and epigenetics in sufficient detail to inform the concept of health as a fundamental human right and a shared value. 
• Understanding how communities are developed and sustained in relation to their specialised characteristics and assets, and acknowledge their impact when planning preventative strategies to reduce inequalities within a diverse and multicultural society. Political and economic drivers in communities which impact upon resource allocation and health. Understanding how to assess, plan, implement and evaluate major incidents and outbreaks in population health. Infection prevention and control including immunisation and vaccination programmes.

The content of this module is designed to enable students to meet the needs of service users, carers, young people and organisations in the 21st Century and to achieve the Nursing and Midwifery Council (2022) Standards of proficiency for specialist community public health nurses. The spheres of practice will be taught and assessed throughout the module and at the end of the programme and point of registration, the registered SCPHN SN will be proficient in all core and field proficiencies within the spheres. 

Sphere A: Autonomous SCPHN practice

Sphere B: Transforming specialist community public health nursing practice: evidence, research, evaluation and translation 

Sphere C: Promoting human rights and addressing inequalities: assessment, surveillance and intervention  

Sphere D: Population health: enabling, supporting and improving health outcomes of people across the life course 

Sphere E: Advancing public health services and promoting healthy places, environments  and cultures

Sphere F: Leading and collaborating: from investment to action and dissemination

This module develops your ability to engage with evidence-based practice and data-driven decision-making to improve professional and clinical outcomes. You'll explore key research concepts, including formulating research questions, sampling, data validity, and the use of qualitative and quantitative methods. Various research designs—such as ethnography, surveys, and mixed methods—are introduced alongside practical data collection techniques like interviews, observation, and audits. Ethical and legal considerations, including data protection, confidentiality, and cultural competence, are emphasised throughout. You’ll also learn how to audit current practice, involve service users, and apply quality improvement models to drive innovation, evaluate services, and lead meaningful change in professional settings.

The module content will include:

• Data and professional practice: Evidence-based practice, benchmarking, audit, evaluation, practice development and quality improvement. 
• Key concepts and issues in social and behavioural research: Research topics and research questions, answering questions with data, validity and reliability of data, qualitative and quantitative data, description, exploration, finding connections, formulating and testing hypotheses, populations and sampling, cultural competence in research practice. Research traditions and designs: Ethnography, survey, experiment, mixed method, research process. 
• Gathering and analysing data: Observation, questionnaires, interviews, surveys, audits, psycho-biometrics. Data analysis and drawing conclusions. 
• Ethical and legal frameworks, constraints in specialist practice, data protection, confidentiality, human rights, cultural competence, Helsinki declaration.  
• Auditing current practice: Prioritisation, best practice standards, service and carer user involvement, collecting data, analysis and evaluation. 
• Quality Improvement: QI models; co-production with service users; community of practice; leadership; monitoring methods and techniques for dissemination.