Primary and Community Care (District Nursing) (SPQ) MSc – 2022 entry

• Study a hands-on, clinical curriculum to develop the knowledge and skills needed to effectively provide care to people in their homes and those with continuously complex conditions, and lead on innovation and change within modern health and social care. 
• Spend half of your training in clinical placements to practise your skills in healthcare settings, under the supervision of qualified practitioners. 
• Access our Clinical Simulation Centre, including our Immersive Learning Environment and Critical Care Unit, to practise real scenarios on lifelike manikins and actors. 
• Learn from a multidisciplinary team of lecturers, who are all healthcare professionals with experience of working in the NHS. 
• Meet the Nursing and Midwifery Council’s (NMC) standards for specialist education and practice and record your qualification with the NMC. 

You’ll develop values that employers and the public need from modern healthcare professionals, such as compassion, good communication skills, teamwork, and treating patients with dignity and respect. 

You’ll learn high-level clinical skills and develop an in-depth knowledge of primary and community care nursing. You’ll study topics, including community nurse practitioner prescribing (V100), decision making, health assessment, leadership, management of long-term conditions, mental health, and primary and community care policy. 

You'll have the opportunity to complete a research dissertation in an area of personal interest, which we’ll match with the expertise of our academic staff, ensuring you get the best support.

This course can be taken either full-time or part-time. 

Course length

Full-time

This course can take a minimum of 1 year – 2 years to complete, depending on what qualification you wish to attain. 

After 1 year, you’ll have gained a PGDip Primary and Community Care (District Nursing) (SPQ) qualification and you’ll be eligible to record this with the NMC. 

If you wish to progress to a full MSc qualification, you must complete an additional 1 year of part-time study, during which you’ll write a dissertation. You must submit this within five years of starting the course. 

Part-time

This course can take a minimum of 2 years – 3 years, depending on what qualification you wish to attain. 

After 2 years, you’ll have gained a PGDip Primary and Community Care (District Nursing) (SPQ) qualification and you’ll be eligible to record this with the NMC. 

If you wish to progress to a full MSc qualification, you must complete an additional 1 year of part-time study, during which you’ll write a dissertation. You must submit this within five years of starting the course. 

Modules listed are indicative, reflecting the information available at the time of publication. Please note that modules may be subject to teaching availability, student demand and/or class size caps.

The University operates a credit framework for all taught programmes based on a 15-credit tariff. Modules can be either 15, 30, 45, 75 and 120 credits, and additionally for some masters dissertations, 90 credits.

The structure of our programmes follows clear educational aims that are tailored to each programme. These are all outlined in the programme specifications which include further details such as the learning outcomes:

Course timetables are normally available one month before the start of the semester. Please note that while we make every effort to ensure that timetables are as student-friendly as possible, scheduled teaching can take place on any day of the week (Monday–Friday). Part-time classes are normally scheduled on two or three days per week, details of which can be obtained from the course administrators. View our Timetabling Policy (PDF).

Contact hours can vary across our modules. Full details of the contact hours for each module are available from the University of Surrey's module catalogue. See the modules section for more information.