Additional Field of Practice (SCPHN)

Health Visitors and School Nurses are in the frontline of public health who are culturally competent and autonomous practitioners who are committed to improving the health and wellbeing of children, young people and their families.

This practice-based learning module will follow the student/registered SCPHN to evidence safe and effective SCPHN practice in their Additional Field. The Practice Assessment Documents have been developed to detail the specific standards of proficiency for Health Visitors (104 proficiencies) and School Nurses (109 proficiencies) (NMC, 2022) and the student will be supported by a variety of practitioners to successfully complete these requirements.

Please note: Completion of this module will NOT lead to dual registration with the NMC.

The period of practice experience within this module is designed to reflect the Standards of proficiency for specialist community public health nurses (SCPHN) (NMC, 2022). The structure of the practice document will reflect your learning needs within a children’s public health workforce arena.

The practice assessment document is designed as a working document to aid, record and measure your growing competence. It is also a document which will allow you to evidence how you are achieving the proficiencies in your additional field of practice. The practice assessment document will be used by members of the SCPHN team and public health service where you will be based for the duration of the module, as a tool to assimilate evidence-based practice.

You'll be expected to take your learning from the SCPHN Field in which you are registered and apply this to the additional field within the practice setting. You will use your practice assessment document to demonstrate Level 7 thinking and critical analysis of your experiences in practice. Practice will be evidenced in the document by analysing and identifying relevant practice issues and suggesting or implementing changes. The Standards of proficiency for specialist community public health nurses (NMC, 2022) will form the basis of the proficiencies that you will be assessed against for completion of the module.

Teaching and learning in the practice setting should allow free movement from the supervised learning experience to a return to observation, when necessary, for further and repeated experience to encourage and support confident practice in the additional field. The practice experience will be based on observation, supported practice and supervision which will be determined by a negotiated arrangement between a Practice Assessor and student.

The module allows flexibility for students to commence according to their organisation’s priorities and the availability of Practice Assessors and Practice Supervisors within their service. When there is more than one student undertaking this module at one time, the Academic Assessor will support all students to access group supervision to facilitate learning from students within different services and localities.

Students will be further supported during the module by a member of the ARU Community Nursing Team who will act as the link facilitator between ARU and the practice placement. This will include signposting to student services such as study skills and student support services, and the learning resources on the LMS and library as required. The LMS will offer additional resources for students to access to support their theoretical learning. The Academic team are also able to share resources, initiate discussion boards, pose and answer questions for all students undertaking the module during the same trimester. This will reflect the needs of the students as they progress through the module and offers the potential for skype or group learning sets. In order to access this, the module requests that students are supported to access 12 self-directed study days during the course of module completion (Full Time and Part Time). This will provide the students with learning time to support the theory-practice linkage.

Upon completion of the module, students will be expected to:

Health Visiting

1. Demonstrate an ability to actively uphold the human rights of all those you engage with and recognising their uniqueness, seeking to address health inequalities whilst advocating for those who are vulnerable.
2. Proactively build trusting relationships to support and improve the health outcomes of people across the life course.
3. Critically explore public health services, working collaboratively to promote health places, environments, and cultures.
4. Demonstrate an in-depth critical understanding of the leadership of SCPHN practice, actively managing and co-ordinating care and collaborating with other services.
5. Demonstrate competency against all standards of proficiency for SCPHN health visiting practice.

School Nursing

1. Demonstrate an ability to advocate for the rights of all school-aged children and young people, including those who may be vulnerable but not visible to other services or agencies, addressing health inequalities.
2. Proactively develop open and meaningful conversations with school-aged children, young people and families and use knowledge to make appropriate interventions to support and empower them to make life choices that prevent ill health, manage emerging risks, and improve ongoing health and life outcomes.
3. Encourage the development of healthy environments and cultures and evaluate the impact of these on the health and wellbeing of school-aged children and young people, whilst actively promoting school nursing services.
4. Demonstrate an in-depth critical understanding of the leadership of SCPHN practice, actively managing and co-ordinating school nurse services collaborating with other services.
5. Demonstrate competency against all standards of proficiency for SCPHN school nursing practice.

Assessment

There are two elements of assessment assigned to this module.

• You'll be assessed in practice through a Practice Assessment Document which will be submitted electronically upon completion. The Practice Assessment Document is to be completed within practice and marked as a PASS/FAIL by the Practice Assessor. All proficiencies must be achieved at a ‘Demonstrated’ level to successfully complete the module.
• You'll also be required to submit 4x 500-word reflections of your experiences in practice. These reflections need to demonstrate your ability to write at Level 7 and your skills in critical analysis using relevant and appropriate literature to inform your practice. The 4 reflections will be submitted electronically and marked by the Academic Assessor as a pass/fail.

Please note: The new Additional Field of Practice Module will commence May 2024 whilst the new full SCPHN Programme is undergoing revalidation with the NMC to commence January 2025.