Course description
Nurses are at the centre of modern healthcare and enjoy a career that is both exciting and rewarding. At City, you can choose to study nursing at BSc or Diploma level.
Whether you opt to take the degree or the diploma, both lead to professional registration as a nurse in one of three specialist areas: adult, children’s or mental health nursing. Whichever branch of nursing is chosen, students will combine study with practical work in a range of clinical placements in hospitals and the community in north and east London. Once qualified, graduates are equipped to work as a nurse anywhere in the world.
You choose which branch of nursing – child, adult or mental health – you would like to specialise in but will share some modules with students from different disciplines. You will also be able to work interprofessionally alongside students from other disciplines within the healthcare sector.
Adult nursing
You will study the care of adult patients with a range of healthcare needs. Some patients may have acute illnesses, others may have more long-term needs. You will learn how to care for all your patients in a number of hospital and community care settings.
As a qualified adult nurse you have a wide choice of areas in which to work, such as: the community, accident and emergency, care homes for the elderly, operating theatres, hospital wards or through health promotion and education.
Course modules include topics as diverse as perspectives of acute care and growing old in a caring community. Consequently, you will have a wide choice of placements on surgical wards, operating theatres and in community settings such as nursing homes.
Children’s nursing
You will study the care of children with a range of healthcare needs and will learn how to best provide support to their families. As a children’s nurse you will have to be versatile and resilient. You may be called on to care for children who have long-term health problems, mental health or special needs, or who are terminally ill. It is essential that as a children’s nurse you can empower children of all ages and also provide support to families who are caring for their sick child.
Your placements will be spent on some of London’s leading paediatric units; you will learn the latest techniques and developments in children’s nursing.
Once qualified you will be able to work in areas such as the community, the child’s own home, school, children’s hospices, hospital wards, special care baby units, intensive care, accident and emergency units or operating theatres.
Mental health nursing
Mental health nursing is a challenging branch of nursing that requires exceptional communication skills. Other key qualities required include an empathetic nature and the desire to assist people with complex and varied problems.
You will learn to nurse and communicate with people of all ages and ranges of mental health problems and will have the opportunity to study within both the community and hospital-based facilities.
Areas of study include the theoretical issues relating to mental health nursing, mental health in the context of the family, group-based approaches toward mental healthcare and contributing factors within the context of the community. You will also have the opportunity to further your clinical skills in a variety of care settings including acute adult, older adult, rehabilitation, forensic and community placements.
Course content
The degree course follows the same curriculum as the diploma. The major differences are in the depth of study and the greater emphasis on leadership and research, in the degree course. Also degree students benefit from working interprofessionally alongside students from other disciplines within the healthcare sector. Students doing the diploma have the opportunity to switch to the BSc at the start of the third year, subject to achieving specific academic and practice requirements.
Year 1
Year 1 aims at facilitating your transition to becoming a nurse and healthcare professional. It starts with a week’s orientation, including an introduction to the six curricular themes of the course. These are: fundamental aspects of care; psychosocial sciences and public health; professional Nursing and Midwifery knowledge; personal and academic development and research; applied biological sciences; practice. Nursing and midwifery students have shared lectures during year 1 of the course, but are divided into branch specific groups for all seminars and group work.
All nursing students study the following core modules in the first year:
* Building professional knowledge
* Health and society
* Fundamental aspects of care
* Developing knowledge and skills
* Essentials of applied human biology
* Introduction to delivery of professional care
Year 2
The second year is designed to help students develop their identity as a nurse and health care practitioner. Some shared learning takes place between nursing and midwifery students, but more time is dedicated to branch-specific learning.
In the second year, the core modules are:
* Research and evidence based practice
* Progressing professional knowledge
* Experience of health and illness
* Delivery of professional care in the wider context
You will spend half the year gaining practical experience on clinical placements in both community and hospital settings. For adult and mental health this includes care of older adults, and for childrens nurses an experience in a special school is included. This experience includes planned interprofessional education with other health care students.
Specialist modules include:
Adult nursing
* An introduction to adult nursing practice
* Developing adult nursing practice
* Altered pathology in adults
Children’s nursing
* Introduction to child health
* Applying the fundamental aspects of care across the lifespan, the child and the family
* Applied biological sciences in children’s nursing
Mental health nursing
* Fundamental aspects of mental health nursing
* Applying fundamental aspects of care across the lifespan of the child and the family.
* Applied biological principles in mental health practice
Year 3
The third year enables you to develop and apply the knowledge and skills required to become a nurse and health care practitioner - and to develop professional autonomy. Some time is spent in shared learning between nursing and midwifery students.
Year 3 shared modules followed by all students:
* Using evidence as a basis for practice
* Consolidating professional knowledge
* Ethics and law
* Managing care and promoting health gain
* Developing professional autonomy. This is a practice-based module whereby students spend the final 11 weeks of the course on a practice area of their choice. Mental health students are supervised caring for a caseload of clients/ patients, a process called client attachment.
Specialist modules include:
Adult nursing
* Evaluating and disseminating adult nursing practice
* Applied biological sciences in adult nursing
* Advanced biological sciences applied to adult nursing
Children’s nursing
* Managing care in acute situations
* Advanced biological sciences applied to children’s nursing
Mental health nursing
* Essential mental health nursing skills
* Biological basis of mental health and pathophysiology
Teaching and assessment
At City you will benefit from some of the most hi-tech facilities around – including a fully simulated ward and a hi-tech skills bus – the first of its kind in the UK. These facilities enable students to practise and re-practise their nursing techniques and even to watch themselves back on video. Lectures are used to introduce specific topics and help students to understand concepts or particular nursing issues, Facilitated group work develops skills of critical analysis. Enquiry based learning is used to help students develop team working, presentation, research and collaboration skills. Other teaching approaches include biology practicals in the laboratory and self-directed and facilitated practice of clinical and communication skills. We also offer excellent IT facilities and support. All modules have a specialist area provided online in City Space, which incorporates information about the module, references, and other learning tools. In practice placements all students have a named mentor who is specifically trained to teach, assess and facilitate their learning.
Assessment
Each theme is assessed by a variety of methods including multiple choice, short answer exams, reflective essays, case study reports, lab reports, care study, group presentation, medicine calculation test, and a seen scenario exam. Practice is assessed through a practice portfolio, which is assessed by the student’s mentor and personal tutor and Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) in the simulated environment. Degree students also do a 6,000 word project during their final year.
