Community health care nursing acknowledges the specialist contribution of nurses to the delivery of high quality health care and health promotion to a diverse range of patients and clients in varied settings within the community; community specialist practice is the exercising of higher levels of judgment, discretion and decision making in clinical care, enabling students to develop and innovate community nursing practice; this programme equips students with the knowledge, skills and attitudinal qualities necessary to select and employ a range of soundly-based practices to meet the changing health needs of the population. This forms the basis for leadership and management of care within a multidisciplinary team; during the programme time is divided equally between the university and the practice setting; both the undergraduate and postgraduate route is delivered on a modular basis; all learning is directly relevant to current and future roles; students develop skills of critical reflection, enabling students to analyse and synthesize research materials, theory and practice and to adopt a systematic and rigorous approach to planning and evaluation of care and care programmes; students employ a range of clinical, educational and public health interventions in a skilled and sensitive manner appropriate to the domain of practice; students also undertake care and programme management within the context of organisational settings and policy/legal frameworks and provide leadership within appropriate team situations; learners examine factors that promote and inhibit effective collaborative working and taught nurse prescribing within the parameters of current legislation; nurse prescribing is optional for those students undertaking the general practice nursing programmes.