The Postgraduate Diploma in Nursing with an optional endorsement in Maori Mental Health and optional pathway in Registered Nurse Prescribing aims to prepare nurses as skilled practitioners who are responsive to health service demands for increasingly complex population health needs. It will foster the development of nursing practice at an advanced level within the registered nurse scope of practice, using a generalist and/or specialist focus.

The Postgraduate Diploma in Nursing will enable registered nurses to undertake specialty and advanced clinical practice, health education and leadership and management roles.

Graduates with the optional Maori Mental Health endorsement will provide and/or co-ordinate nursing care to Tangata Whai Ora and whanau in the areas of health promotion, health maintenance and health restoration in both the community and institutional settings.

Graduates of the Postgraduate Diploma in Nursing with the Registered Nurse Prescribing pathway will be eligible to apply to the Nursing Council of New Zealand for an expanded scope of practice as a designated prescriber for populations with common and long-term conditions.

A graduate of the Postgraduate Diploma in Nursing will:
- Articulate an area of practice in relation to the health needs of specific communities and populations cognisant of the professional, legal and ethical responsibilities for advanced and extended practice roles.
- Integrate advanced concepts of pathophysiology and pharmacology in diagnostic reasoning and clinical judgement to provide skilled evidenced based nursing responses for people with complex health needs.
- Synthesise clinical, experiential, and cultural knowledge to engage in transformational and relational practice with clients that fosters growth, learning and change for health and wellbeing.
- Facilitate collaborative interprofessional team relationships in order to lead innovative and quality health care responses in partnership with colleagues, clients, families, whanau, and communities.
- Critically examine own advanced/extended practice responses to complex, challenging and rapidly changing clinical environments to identify requirements for ongoing professional growth and capability development.
- Actively contribute to the profession through scholarly activities, including research, teaching, leadership and quality improvement.

A graduate of the Registered Nurse prescribing pathway will also:
- Interpret client health needs to appropriately prescribe interventions and medicines within the registered nurse scope of practice and prescribing authority.
- Determine therapeutic approaches that enhance self-management of common and long-term conditions, in collaboration with clients, families, whanau and the interprofessional health team.
- Monitor and evaluate clients' responses to therapeutic approaches and communicate treatment plans and therapeutic outcomes to other professionals.

The Postgraduate Diploma in Nursing includes an exit qualification, the Postgraduate Certificate in Nursing. Graduates who have attained an overall B grade average or above will be eligible to apply for entry to the Master of Nursing programme.

Candidates for the Postgraduate Diploma in Nursing are required to have an undergraduate Nursing Degree or a qualification approved as equivalent by the Postgraduate Programme Committee. Candidates who do not have a relevant undergraduate degree or equivalent qualification may submit a portfolio and, if the application is successful, may be admitted on an equivalent basis.

All candidates (including international) must also:
- hold a current New Zealand practising certificate as a Registered Nurse; and
- have completed a minimum of six months of post-registration clinical experience within the previous five years; and
- be employed a minimum of 16 hours per week.

Candidates for the optional endorsement in Maori Mental Health must also:
- have at least two years of clinical experience in the mental health field, gained within the past five years; and
- identify as Maori, demonstrating knowledge of their whanau, hapu, and iwi; and
- demonstrate understanding of the role of tikanga Maori within their own nursing practice.

Candidates for the Registered Nurse Prescribing pathway must also:
- hold a current practicing certificate and must have completed three years equivalent full-time practice in an area of common and long-term conditions nursing; and
- have a collaborative working relationship with a multidisciplinary team and have the support of a designated authorised prescriber (DAP) as a mentor who will support her/him to prescribe; and
- undertake the practicum in an organisation that supports nurse prescribing through policy, audit, peer review, and accessibility of continuing education; and
- have identified and have access to an area of clinical practice in which to develop their prescribing skills and have up-to-date clinical knowledge relevant to their intended area of prescribing practice.

Candidates who have English as a second language are required to have an academic International English Language Test System (IELTS) score of 7.0 across all bands; or equivalent. The language assessment must be less than two years old at the time of application.