Primary and Community Care (District Nursing) (SPQ) MSc – 2021 entry

On our MSc Primary and Community Care (District Nursing) course, you’ll develop the knowledge and clinical skills needed to effectively provide care to people in their homes and those with continuously complex conditions. You’ll transform into a critical and discerning practitioner, capable of driving innovation and change in health and social care. 

This course is taught by clinicians and researchers with experience in working in the NHS, ensuring everything you’ll learn is up-to-date and meets the needs of the progressive healthcare sector.

This course meets the Nursing and Midwifery Council’s (NMC) standards for specialist education and practice. On successful completion of the first year (full-time) or two years (part-time) of this course, you’ll be eligible to record your specialist practice qualification with the NMC.

Throughout your hands-on clinical training, 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 on 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. If you choose part-time, your teaching will take place across two academic years.

Course length

Full-time

This course can take a minimum of 1 year – 2 years and 4 months 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 and 4 months 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 and 4 months, 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 and 4 months 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. 

Important: In light of the Covid-19 pandemic the University has revised its courses to incorporate the ‘Hybrid Learning Experience’ in a departure from previous academic years and previously published information. The University has changed the delivery (and in some cases the content) of its programmes. Further information on the general principles of hybrid learning can be found at: Hybrid learning experience | University of Surrey.

We have updated key module information regarding the pattern of assessment and overall student workload to inform student module choices. We are currently working on bringing remaining published information up to date to reflect current practice in time for the start of the academic year 2021/22. This means that some information within the programme and module catalogue will be subject to change. Current students are invited to contact their Programme Leader or Academic Hive with any questions relating to the information available.

The University operates a credit framework for all taught programmes based on a 15-credit tariff. Modules can be either 15, 30, 45 or 60, 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:

Timetable

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). Wednesday afternoons are normally reserved for sports and cultural activities. Part-time classes are normally scheduled on one or two days per week, details of which can be obtained from the Academic Hive. 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.