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BSc (Hons) - Children's Nursing

You’re passionate, caring and want to make a difference in the lives of children. Our children's nursing degree is designed to give you the professional and academic qualifications you need to register with the Nursing and Midwifery Council and become a children's nurse.

This child nursing course will prepare you to work in a wide range of settings including A&E, neonates and specialist children's hospitals.

If you have already completed a FdSc Nursing Associate programme, you will be able to enter directly into the second year of this degree, enabling you to qualify as a children's nurse in just two years.

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Accredited by:

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Nursing & Midwifery Council

NHS trust partners:

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Course Overview

You'll divide your time equally between academic study and practice-based placements. You will be working with highly experienced professionals to support children, families and carers, and develop your skills and confidence. Placements are available across the sector including inpatient, community, private and voluntary sectors. Additionally, there is an opportunity for you to arrange an enrichment placement that could involve national or international work.

For students who wish to undertake placements closer to home, if you study at the Lancaster campus you may have the opportunity to undertake placements with the Lancashire Teaching Hospitals, Blackpool Teaching Hospitals, Lancashire and South Cumbria Foundation Trust, and University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay.

Our academic staff have extensive professional expertise and will develop your specialist knowledge and understanding of children's nursing at university. You will develop your independent thinking and problem-solving skills. Your learning will include the use of clinical labs, mock hospital wards, guest speakers, workshops and simulation. All of which will be supported by a wide variety of online learning opportunities, including our innovative virtual learning environment.

On this course you will...

  • Be prepared for a dynamic career, working with children, young people and their families.
  • Make use of first-class simulation facilities, allowing you to experience challenging cases and build your confidence in a safe environment.
  • Complete placements in a wide variety of settings of both inner city and rural environments.
  • Be taught by an experienced team of supportive practitioners with clinical experience in a wide range of settings.
  • Achieve an NMC professional qualification and have a clear career trajectory as a registered nurse when you graduate.
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Course Structure

What you will learn

The primary goal of the lecturing team is to see you become an excellent care provider, who has a firm and current knowledge of the acute and chronic physical conditions and diseases affecting children - enabling you to manage care and influence change in nursing.

If you want to make a smooth transition into a challenging but rewarding job in children’s nursing with a course that brings out the very best practitioner in you, our team will help you do just that.

You will spend 50% of the programme in clinical practice being supervised and assessed by clinical staff. The theoretical part of your degree is delivered by expert teaching staff and is based on the latest evidence and research, using modern teaching methods and technology.

Year one

You will focus on understanding children's health and development and enhancing your communication skills with children and families. Placements will be in both hospital and community settings.

  • Applied Biological Sciences for Health
    Learn essential knowledge of the fundamental concepts of anatomy and physiology relating to human body systems and applied to clinical practice and decision making.
  • Professional Practice and Accountability
    Explore the legal, ethical and professional concepts which inform the complexities of decision making in health & social care practice.
  • Developing Evidence Based Practice
    Develop skills in critical evaluation of the evidence base that informs practice.
  • Introduction to Communication and Interpersonal Skills
    Learn a variety of communication, interpersonal and self awareness skills required to provide culturally appropriate and compassionate nursing care.
  • Concepts of Health and Social Policy
    Explore perspectives of biological, psychological, social, cultural, spiritual and behavioural determinants of health and promote person centred wellbeing across the lifespan.
  • Introduction to Children's Nursing
    Gain knowledge and understanding of the fundamental principles that inform Children's Nursing Practice.
Year two

You will learn about complex care, sick children, children with long term conditions, children's mental health, palliative and end of life care. There is an opportunity for you to organise your own enrichment placement to get your own unique nursing experience.

  • Pharmacology and Medicine Therapeutics
    Learn to understand and apply the principles of pharmacology and medicine therapeutics in the management of care.
  • Living with Long Term Conditions Across the Lifespan
    Develop an underpinning knowledge relating to the causes, presentation and management of long term conditions across the lifespan.
  • Learning from the Lived Experience
    An opportunity for the analysis and formulation of contextual knowledge through problem based learning and reflection using narratives of individuals accessing health and social care.
  • Communication and Relationship Management in a Therapeutic Context
    Learn to recognise, select and utilise appropriate communication strategies and therapeutic skills.
  • Complex Care Needs of Children and Young People
    Develop knowledge and understanding around children and young people with complex care needs and the various environments that they are delivered in.
  • Managing Acute Care Needs of the Child and Young Person
    Develop knowledge of children and young people’s nursing in order to develop child centred care in acute care settings.
Year three

Your knowledge and skills will be further expanded and you will learn about neonatal and emergency care. You will also develop your management and service improvement skills, which will help you to prepare for a future staff nurse role.

  • Clinical Decision Making and Complex Care
    Consolidate professional competence in clinical decision making related to the management of complex care within contemporary health and social care.
  • Contemporary Issues and Change Management in Professional Practice
    Demonstrate your knowledge when promoting a synthesis of the evidence base to improve service quality within professional practice.
  • Public Health
    Learn to understand and evaluate the public health and social care agendas and their impact on individuals, groups and communities.
  • Leading and Managing Health and Social Care
    Prepare for working as a professional within an organisation.
  • Consolidation of Children’s Nursing Practice
    Consolidate your knowledge and skills in preparation for registered, autonomous practice as applied to children and young people.

Attend an Open Day at Cumbria

An Open Day is your opportunity to explore one of 5 campuses, meet your lecturers, and find out how the University of Cumbria could become your new home.

Take the next step towards achieving your dreams.
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