Community matron
Community matrons provide care and support to people with long-term or complicated health conditions.
Salary range: £37,570 to £43,772
How to become a community matron
You can get into this job through:
- working towards this role
- applying directly
Work
You can get into this job through professional development training with your employer.
You’ll need to be a registered nurse in any branch, or other registered health professional, for example a speech and language therapist.
You’ll also need:
- to study for an appropriate postgraduate master’s qualification
- specialist knowledge across different nursing procedures and practice
- in-depth knowledge of long-term health conditions and treatments
- experience of leading and managing a team
Direct application
You can apply directly if you’re a registered nurse or health professional and have between 3 and 5 years’ post-registration experience. Some employers may also ask for:
- a degree or postgraduate diploma in community practice, specialising in district nursing, health visiting or practice nursing
- a relevant teaching or mentoring qualification
- a nurse prescribing qualification
More information
Registration
- you’ll need to register with the Nursing and Midwifery Council
Further information
You can find out more about working in healthcare from Health Careers.
What it takes
Skills and knowledge
You’ll need:
- customer service skills
- the ability to work well with others
- the ability to use your initiative
- to be flexible and open to change
- sensitivity and understanding
- to enjoy working with other people
- the ability to come up with new ways of doing things
- knowledge of teaching and the ability to design courses
- to be able to carry out basic tasks on a computer or hand-held device
Restrictions and requirements
You’ll need to:
What you’ll do
Day-to-day tasks
Your day-to-day duties could include:
- carrying out physical examinations and treatments
- referring patients to a specialist
- managing the care and support patients receive
- identifying patients who may be at risk of being admitted to hospital when they don’t need to be
- managing services to make sure the focus of care is in the home and community for as long as possible
- teaching patients, carers and relatives to spot changes that could lead to conditions getting worse
- organising extra support, like home care or respite care
- making sure policy guidelines and procedures are followed
- maintaining patient records
Working environment
You could work at a hospice, in a prison, at an adult care home, at a client’s home or in an NHS or private hospital.
Your working environment may be physically and emotionally demanding.
Career path and progression
With experience, you could progress to service management level and become head of community nursing.
You could also move into health promotion work, teaching or training.