New community nursing Field Specific Standards published

The Queen’s Nursing Institute has published the first six Field Specific Standards for Specialist Practitioner Qualifications (SPQs).

Service users/experts by experience, representatives from higher education and other institutions, and expert nurses were involved in the development of the Standards.

All four countries of the UK were represented in the process over the past 12 months.

The SPQ standards build on the NMC’s (2022) Standards and reflect an advanced level of practice in the fields of Adult Social Care Nursing, Community Children’s Nursing, Community Mental Health Nursing, District Nursing, General Practice Nursing, and Inclusion Health Nursing.

The QNI field specific standards have been built around the four pillars of advanced practice and are mapped to the domains, assisting with demonstrating the advanced level of practice at which nurses are being prepared to work in these roles.

Dr Crystal Oldman CBE, the QNI’s Chief Executive said: “There are real benefits to nurses, employers and patients flowing from the QNI Field Specific Standards.

“Individual nurses will have access to clearly articulated educational pathways based on standards which are consistently applied by HEIs for their field of practice.

“This will have a wider benefit in terms of staff development, recruitment and retention for employers across the system.

“Nurses graduating from SPQ programmes endorsed by the QNI will have recognised skills and knowledge, mapped against all relevant national standards, to enable them to practice and to lead teams at an advanced level, improving care for patients, families and residents with complex needs in community settings.”

The QNI Standards enable the development and assessment of SPQ programmes of study that are tailored to deliver the specific skills and knowledge associated with highly complex and specialist areas of community nursing practice.

Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) offering Specialist Practitioner Qualifications mapped against the QNI’s Standards will have an attractive offer for post-registration students wishing to practice at an advanced level within a recognised field of practice.

HEIs have been invited to develop and map their SPQ courses to the QNI Standards through the QNI’s endorsement process.

Endorsed programmes will be listed on the QNI website and successful students will receive QNI certifications.

A further three Field Specific Standards, in Health and Justice Nursing, Community Learning Disability Nursing, and Community Palliative and End of Life Care Nursing, will be published later this year.