Specialist Community Public Health Nurse

On a Specialist community public health nurse apprenticeship course, you’ll help support and enable people to make informed choices about managing health challenges.

A specialist community and public health nurse assesses the health needs of individuals, families, workplaces, and the larger community to promote and protect good health and well-being, prevent illness, and provide interventions or advice to the NHS, local authorities, community interest companies, social enterprises, or schools. 

In this role, you will help and empower people to make informed choices about managing health problems to improve their quality of life and health outcomes.

You’ll also focus on deprivation, vulnerability, and advocacy, and you may be required to work in challenging environments with poor home and working conditions. Working with adults or children in their homes, hospitals, or workplaces all comes within this category. You will also assist in protecting children and adults.

What you’ll learn

On a specialist community public health nurse apprenticeship course, you’ll learn to:

• Develop and manage collaborative relationships with those involved in providing care to individuals and communities while ensuring that resources are negotiated and utilised ethically and effectively.
• Engage with clients in a way that exhibits professional curiosity, inquiry, honesty, and expertise to act in people’s best interests.
• Demonstrate decision-making and delegating realms of professional practice.
• Manage and implement a risk-based approach to detect and respond to those at risk of abuse.
• Inform people about health facts and laws truthfully, accurately, and situationally appropriate.
• Determine, implement, and evaluate specialised quality systems and risk management techniques.
• Contribute to establishing a learning and development culture for individuals, communities, and professional colleagues, including students, to aid them in growing professional confidence and competence.
• Use critical evaluation skills in designing, executing, and reviewing health promotion efforts for individuals, organisations, and communities to meet recognised standards.
• Find approaches to promote preventative self-care in individuals, organisations, and communities.
• Use auditing, research, and change management skills in collaboration with others to influence policy design, implementation, and amendment in clinical practice.
• Improve the health and well-being of individuals, groups, and communities by using advanced communication abilities.
• Determine, apply, and evaluate advocacy skills for health and well-being protection and promotion.
• Implement and evaluate strategies and procedures that assist vulnerable children and adults’ care needs, such as safeguarding, abuse, and violence.
• Collaborate to capitalise on organisational or community resources and assets that benefit persons in vulnerable groups.
• Influence public behaviour to improve physical and mental health and well-being by supporting local and national efforts such as immunisation, smoking cessation, and healthy eating campaigns.
• Organise and engage in research efforts, as well as to conduct statistical analysis
• Begin and/or lead evidence-based activity to enhance public health practice and expand the evidence base.
• Critically examine and synthesise research, evaluation, and audit results, and apply them to your own and others’ practice.
• Disseminate research results via media to improve public health practices.
• Using evidence-based methodologies, gather, collect, monitor, and analyse data regarding projects and policies, local groups and services, and user feedback and engagement forums.
• Use interpersonal and communication skills to interact with other professionals and teams.
• Take part as a leader and an active participant in multi-professional gatherings.
• Influence and negotiate to achieve outcomes that promote and protect people’s, groups’, and communities’ health and well-being.
• Communicate with, and refer to other professionals and organisations in your sector.
• Incorporate behaviour modification knowledge and skills into therapeutic therapies to promote involvement in health-promoting activities.
• Establish services that will employ specialised skills and knowledge to protect and improve public health.
• Identify and treat a wide range of social, physical, and mental health concerns within your scope of practice in people of all ages.
• Use assessment procedures during health assessments to assist you in making judgments concerning informed consent, deprivation of liberty, and the mental capacity process relevant to your scope of practice.
• Make shared decisions with your client group and the wider professional team to build a shared plan of care to meet the identified need, which may include referral to other providers or groups.
• Gather, assess, apply, and effectively communicate information on individuals, groups, and populations.
• Observe and comprehend parent-infant, child, and young person interactions, and then use evidence-based interventions to encourage the behaviours necessary to build and maintain a positive parent/child relationship.
• Evaluate and analyse situations throughout time to ensure that care plans and employment programmes meet the changing needs of individuals, communities, and populations.
• Maintain relationships with individuals and communities to lead, administer, analyse, and evaluate planned screening, health surveillance, and child and family health assessments.
• Communicate and engage with individuals, groups, and populations so that they may comprehend and participate in activities that will assist them in improving their health outcomes and effectively responding to various health concerns within the client base and service environment.
• Increase public health knowledge, capacity, and trust in public health measures that individuals, communities, and populations may use to improve their health and social well-being at important stages of human development.
• Work in various challenging circumstances while recognising and embracing diversity and fostering fair service delivery for individuals, communities, and populations, particularly vulnerable and hard-to-reach groups.
• Examine the effectiveness and long-term feasibility of identified solutions, including collaborative efforts.
• Recognise, comprehend, and apply national and local research, policy, and legislation concerning your current practice area.
• Begin changing, evaluating, influencing, and contributing to policies and suggesting changes in collaboration with consumers, communities, employees, and other stakeholders.
• Collaborate with others to develop, implement, and evaluate evidence-based programmes and activities to improve health, well-being, and service.
• Identify, understand, and apply health and safety rules and allowed standards of practice pertaining to the environment, the well-being, and protecting individuals who work with the greater community.
• Advocate for person-centred treatment by developing joint health needs assessment that shows the recording of the child’s voice and the involvement of clinicians working with families.
• Develop the capacity and confidence of individuals, groups, and populations to influence and empower them to use current services and resources.
• Lead and execute community-based preventive health programmes with individuals, communities, and populations across service, profession, and organisational boundaries.
• Collaborate with others to prevent and protect the public’s health and safety from specific threats.
• Use a range of techniques, including technology, to provide professional advice and information on health issues that impact families, children, and adolescents.
• Inform employers and managers on the potential health effects of common chemical, physical, and biological agents, as well as techniques for avoiding and/or mitigating the impact on employee health.
• Inform employers, managers, and employees about workplace stress’s mental, emotional, and physical effects.
• Influence the creation of a happy working environment
• Conduct a risk assessment to identify when health monitoring is required and the health surveillance approach.
• Recognise what specific health surveillance training is required and get access to it for their job function.
• Advise to employers on job suitability and fitness for work after health surveillance exams.
• Data on occupational injuries and illnesses should be collected, analysed, and presented.
• Employers and supervisors should be counselled on the prevention and treatment of workplace injuries and illnesses.
• Interpret and apply a wide range of laws, including data protection, employment legislation, and health and safety standards, and provide companies with guidance as required.
• Engage in data protection, diversity and inclusion, access to medical reports, and vulnerable person protection in safe and confidential professional practice.
• Inform organisations on the national drivers, public health, and economic goals affecting employment, health, and well-being, as well as how to use knowledge to improve practice.
• Conduct a thorough functional assessment using a bio-psychosocial paradigm.
• Inform employers and management about your work skills.
• Conduct a functional assessment of physical and mental well-being and decide workability based on the findings.
• Identify and support those with mental health issues and advise on accommodations for individuals with learning difficulties.
• Public health and organisational data are used to influence, lead, and manage employee health and well-being programmes.
• Inform organisations about the potential effects of changing work circumstances and a multigenerational workforce on employment and workability.

Entry requirements

You’ll usually need:

• Must already be a registered nurse on Part 1 of the NMC register or a registered midwife
• Apprentices without level 2 English and maths will need to achieve this before taking the end-point assessment.

Restrictions and requirements

You’ll need to:

• pass enhanced background checks

Assessment methods

The End Point Assessment comprises two distinct assessment methods: 

• Exam
• Written Assignment

Duration, level, subjects and potential salary upon completion

Apprenticeship standard

More information about the Level 7 Specialist Community and Public Health Nurse Apprenticeship standard can be found here.

Apprenticeship end point assessment

For more information about the End Point Assessment Process, please read the Institute of Apprenticeships’ information page