New nursing curriculum for 2019
The Nursing and Midwifery Council have introduced new national educational standards for nursing. As such, we intend to commence a new curriculum in September 2019, based on these standards. This page will be updated as the new curriculum is confirmed.
Highlights of Nursing at Nottingham
- International opportunities; elective placement and ERASMUS funded European placement
- Some placement choices and a placement exchange scheme
- Tailor your learning with third year optional modules
- Benefit from the option to study extra qualifications
- Year one offers a shorter first year than the majority of nursing programmes, allowing more time to enjoy the University experience with a longer summer holiday
- Wednesday afternoons are free for participation in sports and clubs, when not in practice
We are one of a small number of schools in the UK which score highly in both teaching and research. We were rated ‘Gold’ in the 2017 Teaching Exercise Framework, ranked 8th in the UK for our research power (2014 Research Exercise Framework), and our students are outstanding, regularly winning local and national awards such as the Student Nursing Times Awards ‘Student Nurse of the Year’.
Our BSc Child Nursing course is aimed at those who are committed to providing excellence in care to children, young people and their carers, from birth to the age of 19. Students are expected to demonstrate the Chief Nursing Officer's six Cs of nursing, namely: care, compassion, competence, communication, courage and commitment.
Giving you three full years in your chosen specialism, this course is designed to build the skills and knowledge needed for a modern nursing career. We offer a person-centred approach, offering holistic care for the individual child or young person and their family, and you will gain clinical experience in a challenging yet supportive environment.
Alongside the huge range of University support services, particular care has been given to develop a course that supports you to become a confident and independent learner. As such, the course has been specially developed to provide the wide-ranging, high-level skills you need; not just in terms of the physical work you will do, but also by sharpening your creativity, critical judgement and ability to lead.
The Division of Nursing sits within the School of Health Sciences, which is a research active school. All our teaching staff are experts in the field, with many having published key nursing textbooks or having national or international research profiles.
Learning environments
The majority of study takes place at the Queen's Medical Centre, Nottingham, where we have a clinical skills centre and additional drop-in facilities where students can practice in a simulated environment.
Students benefit from learning with manikins, allowing them to gain confidence before working with real patients, as well as allowing them to experience scenarios which they may not encounter frequently in practice; for example cardiac arrests or critical illness.
Students can also take advantage of the free HELM Open database, offering over 200 quality, peer-reviewed online learning and teaching resources.
Getting to our Nottingham campus is easy, with a wide range of transport links available, from the tram – with stops at both Queen's Medical Centre and University Park Campus – to a number of public bus services.
Yearly breakdown
Year one
You will only have one placement in first year, lasting four-six weeks, and you will also have Wednesday afternoons free. Having just four-six weeks in placement means university catered accommodation, as opposed to non-catered accommodation, becomes a more viable option.
Clinical skill development is an essential part of any nursing course. This will occur both in teaching and practice. In the first year, you will study in a clinical learning environment, including a simulated ward setting, with experts through experience, expert nurses and university lecturers to develop communication and extended nursing skills to prepare you for nursing practice.
Your learning will encompass a range of different subjects, including:
- biological sciences
- professional nursing
- clinical learning
- evidence for nursing practice
This will enable you to meet children and young people’s mental, physical, cognitive and behavioural needs.
Years two and three
In years two and three you will continue to develop your nursing knowledge and skills in biological sciences, sociology, psychology and pharmacology to enable you to apply these when assessing, planning, implementing and evaluating nursing care. You will also develop critical thinking so you can apply the practical nursing skills you’ve learnt to make decisions about the child and family you are caring for.
You will experience a variety of placement opportunities in some of the Midlands’ leading healthcare trusts, receiving resilience based clinical supervision to prepare you for registered nursing practice.
An example of the clinical skills you will learn are:
- How to assess mental health and wellbeing status in children and young people
- Monitoring and documenting clinical observations and assessing and prioritising care accordingly
- Working with families to promote health
In year three you have the opportunity to select optional modules. You can choose these to either help guide your career or to expand your knowledge and skills. You also have a degree of choice for your final management placement which will help you decide your future career, or work in an area of practice you’ve not yet experienced.
Once you have successfully completed the course you will be eligible to register with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) as a registered child nurse.