A nurse wearing a blue uniform and a white plastic apron stands beside an open car boot on a rural roadside, with water and grass visible in the background.

Community careers

Community nursing and midwifery can be broadly described as any nursing or midwifery care provided outside of an acute hospital setting. This includes healthcare provided in a person’s own home, GP surgeries, community hospitals, the custody suites of police stations, schools, prisons, or care homes.

Community nurses and midwives appreciate the importance of social determinants of health, try to understand the impact of people’s living and working conditions, and aim to mitigate inequalities and promote opportunities for improving health. They understand that ‘health is made at home, and hospitals are for repair’ (Crisp, 2020).

Community nurses and midwives focus on prevention and early intervention, and on population and public health. Community nurses and midwives work closely with a wide range of other professions and agencies including third sector providers and social care teams, as well as families and carers.

This part of our website is designed to provide you with information about the extraordinary contribution that community nurses and midwives can make to health and social care provision in Scotland.

Whether you’re thinking of becoming a nurse or midwife, applying for your first job, looking for career progression, or moving to a more senior position in the community, we hope these pages inspire and motivate you.

Community nurses care for people in or close to their own homes. Examples of their work include supporting people to self-manage multiple long-term conditions, enabling people to recover from illness or injury, helping people live with frailty, and promoting human rights-based approaches to care.

Community nurses can prevent unnecessary hospitalisation, provide complex care at home, prescribe medication, and teach people and their families to manage treatment regimens. They are advocates for people in their care and for their families and carers.

You can read more about Queen’s Nurses in community nursing roles below.

A person standing at an open garden gate with bushes and grass around them and a house wall with windows and roof visible behind them. They are wearing a blue nurse’s uniform – blue top and dark trousers, with a blonde bun and carrying a black bag with a long handle.

Nursing

District nurse

A smiling person with short grey hair and wearing a red jacket over a black and white striped blouse with a black star pattern, navy trousers and a blue lanyard is standing at a white front door with one finger outstretched about to press the doorbell. In their other hand they carry a bright pink bag. The door has two vertical glass panels and a gold letterbox. In the background paving, a raised flowerbed, a wooden fence and tree are visible.

Nursing

Health visitor

A person with short hair and glasses walks along a residential street on a sunny day. They are wearing a green parka with a fur-lined hood, a teal sweater over a collared shirt, and dark trousers. They carry a bag on one shoulder. Behind them is a row of brown brick terraced houses with sloped roofs and chimneys. Two cars are parked in front of the houses, and the front gardens have grass, gravel, and some planters. The sky is partly cloudy.

Nursing

Community mental health nurse

Two people walking with their backs to the camera. The person on the left has long brown hair and wears a grey hoodie and blue denim trousers. The person on the right hs curly blonde shoulder length hair. They wear a deep blue jacket and trousers. They walk on a grey path with greenery visible.

Nursing

Learning disability nurse

A person with long wavy brown hair wearing a multicoloured knitted hat, deep blue jacket and a backpack on one shoulder. They have sunlight on their face as they look into the distance. In the background blue sky, a large body of water, green hills and houses.

Nursing

School nurse

A person with short brown hair and wearing a blue nurse’s uniform of top and trousers, with a multicoloured lanyard stands by a set of perspex drawers. One drawer is open and full of bottles of pills. The person has a bottle in one hand. In the background there is an open blue curtain, cream walls and blue flooring, suggesting a clinical space.

Nursing

Inclusion health nurse

A person with long blonde hair and wearing a black long-sleeved top and a blue lanyard stands smiling with arms crossed. Behind them a wall with murals, one of a happy panda, the other a cartoon-style Noah’s ark with a panda, horses, giraffes and a lion visible.

Nursing

Community children’s nurse

A group of three people sit on a purple sofa and a turquoise chair. Two are smiling and look to be listening to the third person. The person on the left has mid brown hair past her shoulders is wearing a green nurses top with a white badge on it and blue trousers. The person in the middle has blonde hair below their shoulders and is wearing glasses, a black shirt with a white pattern of dots and flowers.

Nursing

Care home/social care nurse

Two people sit opposite each other one in an orange office chair, one in a smaller chair. The person on the left has shoulder length dark brown hair, is wearing a white shirt with rolled up sleeves and a skirt with a bold pattern of white, pink and red flowers. The other person is wearing a navy sleeveless top and dark trousers. They have curly black hair to their shoulders and they're getting their blood pressure taken by the person on the left.

Nursing

General Practice nurse

A healthcare professional is seated at a desk, engaged in conversation with another person whose arm is visible in the foreground. The professional is pointing to an informational leaflet on the desk, which is covered with various pamphlets and materials, including condom packs. A computer screen displaying an NHS login page is in the background, along with medical supplies and a blood pressure monitor on the wall. The setting appears to be a clinical consultation room.

Nursing

Sexual health nurse

Community midwives provide maternity healthcare services to expectant mothers and their families within their local communities. They support women to have healthy and safe pregnancies and to make choices about place of birth and infant feeding.

Their public health focus includes providing antenatal and post-natal education and support in areas such as antenatal and newborn screening and immunisation, breast feeding, and smoking cessation.

Community midwives play a crucial role in mitigating health inequalities, and they will often have unique opportunities to support women dealing with homelessness or insecure housing, to secure specialist help for those experiencing perinatal mental health difficulties, and to take action to reduce violence against women and girls.

Midwifery

Community midwife

Research knowledge rarely begins with a big, funded project, it begins with curiosity and ideas. The early sparks, questions, and interests need to be nurtured and explored; the accompanying passion and motivation needs to be encouraged and sustained. The skills for engaging with evidence, developing partnerships, and evaluating initiatives, all need to be learned.

Community nurses are often looking for a chance to try out good ideas; opportunities to develop essential skills in community engagement, project design, and evaluation; support to take on a personal and professional challenge; ways of linking with communities of interest; and a chance to share expertise in pursuit of better patient care and greater job fulfilment.

At QNIS we want community nurses and midwives to be confident about and interested in research, and to promote, influence, and participate in research activity in ways most relevant for their own roles.

Use the links below to explore more about careers in research, teaching and ways to collaborate.

Community Nursing Research Forum
Making connections

Four people are gathered around a wooden table in a meeting or discussion. One person is standing and leaning on the table, while the other three are seated. One of the seated individuals is using a laptop, another is taking notes in a notebook, and the third is listening attentively. There is a small plant on a side table in the background, and the setting appears to be a bright, professional indoor space.

Teaching & Research

Clinical Educator

Teaching & Research

Professor of community nursing

Teaching & Research

Community careers

District nurse

Health visitor

Community mental health nurse

Learning disability nurse

School nurse

Inclusion health nurse

Community children’s nurse

Care home/social care nurse

General Practice nurse

Sexual health nurse

Community midwife

Clinical Educator

Professor of community nursing

Senior lecturer