QNI publishes three more community nurse standards
The Queen’s Nursing Institute (QNI) has developed new standards for a further three specialisms within community nursing.
The ‘field-specific standards’ cover health and justice nursing, community learning disability nursing and palliative and end-of-life care nursing.
The announcement follows a consultation on the standards which closed in November 2023.
Last year, the QNI launched field-specific standards relating to six other fields of community nursing. These covered adult social care nursing, community children’s nursing, community mental health nursing, district nursing, general practice nursing and inclusion health nursing.
The QNI has urged higher education institutions (HEIs) delivering specialist practitioner qualification (SPQ) programmes in any of the nine fields of nursing practice to map their courses against these standards.
Those that do will receive a QNI endorsement, which includes the programmes being listed on the QNI website and successful students receiving QNI certification.
The QNI standards build on the Nursing and Midwifery Council’s post-registration standards for SPQ community nurses.
The organisation said the standards had been developed around the four pillars of advanced practice – clinical practice, leadership and management, education, and research – to show that those who have completed the SPQ are working at an advanced practice level.
Crystal Oldman
Dr Crystal Oldman, chief executive of the QNI, said the field-specific standards had “real benefits to nurses, employers and patients”.
She said: “Nurses will have access to clearly articulated educational pathways based on standards which are consistently applied by HEIs for their field of practice.
“Nurses graduating from SPQ programmes endorsed by the QNI will have recognised skills and knowledge, mapped against all relevant national standards, to enable them to practice and to lead teams at an advanced level, improving care for patients, families and residents with complex needs.
“There are also wider benefits in terms of staff development, recruitment and retention across the system.”
