The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) have published the findings from its consultation on draft new post-registration standards for specialist community nursing and specialist community public health nursing.
The consultation sought views on three sets of draft standards: those for specialist community public health nursing (SCPHN), those for community nursing specialist practice qualification (SPQs) and the associated programme standards.
A large majority of the 2,363 respondents welcomed the three sets of standards, agreeing they were largely fit for purpose:
- 75 per cent agree that the draft core and field specific standards of proficiency reflect the specialist knowledge, skills, and attributes necessary for all SCPHN registrants. There was strong agreement that they meet the proficiency requirements for health visitors (76%), occupational health nurses (79%) and school nurses (83%).
- For SPQ, we asked about the applicability of the draft standards for each of the seven platforms of nursing. 72-88 per cent across the five fields of SPQ practice agreed they were applicable. 64 per cent of all respondents felt the standards were appropriate for nurses who practice in other community settings.
- For post-registration programme standards for both SCPHN and SPQ at least 67 per cent agreed with most of the proposals, with higher levels of agreement for many of them.
Professor Geraldine Walters CBE, Executive Director of Professional Practice at the NMC, said:
“We’re pleased there’s been so much interest in this work, which is borne out by the number of consultation responses we received. It was one of our most popular recent consultations, with well over 2,000 responses representing a wide range of views, including different fields of practice and all four nations of the UK.
“We’re pleased that the responses are generally positive with most people supporting the ambition and intention of these future standards. We also received lots of wider useful feedback, and it will take a few months to give the responses the consideration and scrutiny they deserve. We’ll refine the standards and then take them to a public Council meeting for approval.”
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