The development of a practice based public health nursing course

Authors

  • Patricia Day Sheffield Hallam University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7190/jostle.v1i1.598

Keywords:

Specialist Community Public Health Nursing, role transformation, practice-based learning

Abstract

The Specialist Community Public Health Nursing course was revalidated in 2024 to meet the new Nursing and Midwifery standards of proficiency (2022). These standards involve the transformation of health visiting and school nursing to meet the complex needs of families. Practitioners are required to develop autonomous and innovative practice. Early intervention and prevention are key priorities to address health inequalities and improve children’s health.

The remodelled content of the modules and their assessment are entirely practice-based. Focus has switched from the ‘written word’ to encouraging students to develop interventions that can be applied to practice. Practice based themes include parenting and attachment, therapeutic communication, interventions to reduce health inequalities and promoting environmental health. Assessments are designed to be rooted in practice and consist of teaching resources, OSCEs, commissioning bids, conference presentations and community projects. These initiatives are in the process of being adopted in practice and will serve as a template for a public health nursing service which gives ‘every child the best start in life’ (Marmot, 2010).

References

Nursing and Midwifery Council (2022) Standards of proficiency for specialist community public health nurses (SCPHN). https://www.nmc.org.uk/standards/standards-for-post-registration/standards-of-proficiency-for-specialist-community-public-health-nurses2/

Marmot, M. (2010) Fair society, healthy lives : The Marmot Review : strategic review of health inequalities in England post-2010. https://www.gov.uk/research-for-development-outputs/fair-society-healthy-lives-the-marmot-review-strategic-review-of-health-inequalities-in-england-post-2010

Sheffield Hallam University Teaching and Learning Conference 2026 Book of Abstracts

Downloads

Published

2026-07-07

Issue

Vol. 1 No. 1 (2026): SoTL@SHU Learning and Teaching Conference 2026 Book of Abstracts

Section

Improving Learning — Practice, Pedagogy & Student Outcomes

License

Copyright (c) 2026 Patricia Day

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

  1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under the Creative Commons-Attribution (CC-BY) licence.This licence allows people to ‘copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format' and 'remix, transform, and build upon the materiafor any purpose, even commercially.'
  2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.