Community Practitioner Prescribing for Nurses and Midwives (V150) - Level 6 - AC6709

Our prescribing team include subject specialist tutors and prescribers who are actively engaged in researching the prescribing landscape and contributing to contemporary prescribing knowledge and practice.  We aim for this to be a transformational learning process where you will engage in interactive, interesting and motivating learning experiences, which will help you towards confident and competent prescribing decisions. We will support you to engage in interactive and social learning opportunities through tutor directed learning activities, peer learning groups, e-learning activities, interactive mobile applications, seminars, peer review as well as group and individual tutorials. We also have a fabulous virtual learning suite where you can immerse yourself in a range of interactive applications including human anatomy and physiology.

In this module you will learn through a combination of interactive lectures, seminars, practical workshop sessions, e-lectures, apps, tutor directed learning and self-directed study (SDS). The module will be delivered at Northumbria University by lecturers and practitioners with specialist prescribing practice knowledge and experience.

We have found that health care professionals who actively engage in the learning process and participate in peer learning activities are more successful in passing the module assessments and are able to more readily apply the principles of prescribing to their practice setting. You will be encouraged therefore to share your own expertise with your peers and debate practice issues to enable you to make evidence based recommendations to influence the care provided to patients. You will be required to actively engage in research rich learning through an enquiry based approach to support and direct authentic learning. At level 6, research rich learning will be based on critical analysis of current research and an application of this to contemporary practice. At level 7 critical evaluation and synthesis of contemporary prescribing research will be undertaken and application to practice demonstrated.

 Making active use of the Electronic Learning Portal (Blackboard Ultra) will give you the flexibility between taught sessions to access module materials remotely. You will have access to two specific useful e-learning resources which include the OVID Human Body app and website to support your development of anatomy and physiology knowledge and relate to pharmacokinetic and dynamic actions of the products you may prescribe and Safe Medicate to support and demonstrate your numeracy assessment skills. Taught sessions will be supported by a period of supervised practice and learning objectives.

Working with your prescribing supervisor in practice will help you to identify your learning needs and plan prescribing related learning activities to meet the RPS Competencies and practice related components. You can then plan these activities within your 10 days of supervised practice between your taught days (total of 10 of which 5 taught are and 5 are directed learning); supervised practice means that your learning is overseen by your supervisor but the activities you undertake may involve a range of experiences e.g. engaging with a pharmacist, shadowing an experienced prescriber etc.

Module Assessment

There are a range of formative assessments within lectures, seminars, workshops and mock exam and regular practice learning which will lead to your summative assessments.

The summative assessment strategy consists of FOUR components, all of which need to be passed to successfully complete the module and be eligible for the award of Community Practitioner Prescriber. These include;

• Numeracy assessment
• Written Pharmacology Examination                 
• A short written essay  
• Achievement of Royal Pharmaceutical Society Competencies for All Prescribers which is demonstrated within clinical practice and includes a learning log, service user feedback and personal reflection  

The taught days within the module are delivered at Coach Lane Campus where you will also have access to our award-winning library, clinical skills centre and virtual learning facilities. Over the course of the module, you will work in partnership with your practice supervisor/designated prescribing practitioner to identify opportunities for you to apply and integrate learning of clinical, legal and professional requirements alongside current available evidence to support your prescribing journey towards achievement of competence in practice. Your designated prescribing practitioner /  or NMC assessor will assess your progress towards achievement of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society competencies in practice.  Our specialist academic tutors and assessors will support your learning and will work with your designated prescribing practitioner/practice assessors to monitor your progress through the module assessment to completion.

Northumbria University has been ranked in the top quartile in the UK for research power in Allied Health Sciences and Nursing. Additionally, more than 80% of our research activity in Allied Health Sciences and Nursing is rated as world-leading or internationally excellent (REF 2014).

The ability to prescribe changes a nurse’s role and enables practitioners to not only provide seamless care for patients, but consult, diagnose and prescribe a treatment pathway autonomously.