Community nursing: give your views on new standards
Posted 19 October 2023 - 09:00
Field-specific standards for nursing cover learning disabilities, palliative and end of life care, and health and justice, and nurses’ views are sought during the consultation period
Nurses are being asked to share their views on new standards for three fields of practice in community nursing.
The Queen’s Nursing Institute (QNI) has developed field-specific standards for community learning disability nursing, community palliative and end of life care nursing, and health and justice nursing.
The standards will underpin and support specialist practitioner qualifications (SPQs) offered by higher education providers in the UK.
‘Expert feedback’ on standards is needed
The QNI has worked with representatives from health and social care organisations from the four countries of the UK to develop the standards.
QNI assistant director of nursing programmes Agnes Fanning said: ‘We would encourage all nurses working within these specialisms, as well as educators and people with lived experience, to read the draft sets of standards.
‘Your expert feedback during the consultation period is warmly encouraged and will help us ensure the field-specific standards encapsulate the unique skills and advanced practice within these specialisms.’
New standards designed to enhance existing NMC standards
The QNI began developing the standards after the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) introduced a core specialist community nursing qualification last year, aimed at nurses working in any setting in the community.
It was hoped the all-encompassing SPQ would future-proof new post-registration standards also agreed by the regulator in July 2022, by allowing it to be applied to new community nursing roles.
But there were concerns that the NMC’s standards did not detail exactly what was required to prepare nurses working in specific fields, for example district nursing, and that a single set of common standards would be applied to all nurses regardless of their specialism.
Charity creating nine sets of standards
The QNI’s new field-specific standards aim to provide more detail and enhance the NMC standards. The charity is looking to create nine individual sets of standards for advanced practice and has launched consultations on six of them.
The current consultation is open until 9 November.
Give your views on the draft standards
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