Nursing Associate
Coventry University
UCAS Code: B700 | Foundation Degree in Science - FdSc
Entry requirements
Minimum of one A2 level with minimum of 32 tariff points
Pass the Access plus GCSE English and Maths at grade 4 / C or above.
GCSE/National 4/National 5
Applicants should be educated to at least GCSE level, including GCSEs in Maths and English at grades 9-4/ A*-C or equivalent such as functional skills level 2 in Maths and English.
International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme
32 points
UCAS Tariff
Maximum of two qualifications at 16 tariff points each.
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About this course
**Fully accredited by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) providing eligibility for registration as a Nursing Associate on successful completion of the course (additional costs may apply).**
- Ranked 6th in the UK for General Nursing in the Guardian University Guide 2023.
- Well-established clinical placements, teaching and research links with local partner NHS trusts and other healthcare providers, such as private hospitals, hospices and community settings.
Development of the health and social care workforce is pivotal to building the capacity and capability needed to deliver compassionate, high quality evidence-based care to a diverse and ageing population. This course gives you the opportunity to develop a range of practical skills and the underpinning knowledge to allow you to make a real difference to quality of life and care of people of all ages and in a wide range of healthcare settings.
The Nursing Associate foundation degree is designed to meet the educational requirements necessary for the nursing associate role, enabling successful graduates to register as a Nursing Associate with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) (additional costs may apply), and work supporting registered nurses delivering hands-on care in a wide variety of clinical settings.
It also offers a pathway to other nursing roles, including that of a graduate nurse through progression onto a pre-registration programme. After successfully completing this course it may be possible to transfer on to the second year of a BSc Nursing degree, but this would depend on NMC requirements and standards and your chosen field of nursing, therefore this cannot be guaranteed.
Equal time and weighting is given to the practical and theoretical components of the course. The course is taught by experienced nurses and healthcare professionals who will support you in your journey to becoming an NMC-registered Nursing Associate.
We have well established clinical placements, teaching and research links with local partner NHS trusts and other healthcare providers, such as private hospitals, hospices and community settings and commended by the NMC for our partnership working.
Placements will take place with one of our partner settings, which will normally be in the same region as your chosen campus, however, to ensure you have a breadth of placement experiences you may be required to travel to attend placements. In your placements you will be supernumerary (not counted in the staff numbers) and will have an allocated Practice Assessor and Practice Supervisor to facilitate and assess your learning in practice.
In response to a high demand for the nursing associate role, we offer a route on to this course at the Coventry, Scarborough and London campuses. The course was developed in collaboration with health and social care employers in Coventry and Warwickshire, Scarborough and Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust in London. Our practice learning partners provide clinical learning placements for students and input to the ongoing development and evaluation of the course.
The programme was shortlisted for a Student Nursing Times and Apprenticeship award in 2019 and over 10% of students who completed the first programme have secured places on the prestigious Florence Nightingale Leadership course. This course is a direct entry (i.e. not part of an apprenticeship) version of the nursing associate foundation degree apprenticeship course.
Modules
Year One
On commencing the course, you will study two modules. This will be an introduction to science and a clinical skills module spanning 13 weeks before you start your first 10-week mandatory placement, which is sourced by the university. You will then undertake a module to develop more advanced clinical skills and underpinning knowledge before your second 10-week placement of year one.
Modules
Introduction to Nursing Science - 20 credits
Foundation Skills for Nursing Care - 20 credits
Foundations in Communication and Professional Practice (Practice Placement 1) - 30 credits
Applied Nursing Science - 20 credits
Promoting Health and Wellbeing and Preventing Ill Health (Practice Placement 2) - 30 credits
Year Two
In year two, you will learn about the evidence base underpinning nursing care and develop your knowledge of drugs and therapies for all age groups and fields of nursing. This will equip you for your first clinical placement of year two. You will then go on to develop your knowledge of legal and ethical aspects of care and advance your teaching skills prior to your final 10-week clinical placement of year two. As in year one all placements are sourced by the university.
Modules
Therapeutic Approaches in Nursing Care - 20 credits
Evidence-Based Nursing Practice - 10 credits
Providing and Monitoring Safe Care (Practice Placement 3) - 30 credits
Supporting Learning and Assessment - 10 credits
Foundations in Legal and Ethical Aspects of Care - 20 credits
Effective Teamwork and Transition to Nursing Associate (Practice Placement 4) - 30 credits
We regularly review our course content, to make it relevant and current for the benefit of our students. For these reasons, course modules may be updated.
Assessment methods
A wide variety of assessment are used throughout the course with half of the assessments taking place in your clinical placement areas. All of the assessments are designed to integrate theory and practice and to build on previous learning experiences. As you will be working 30 hours each week on your university studies or placement, this has been taken into account during the scheduling of the assessments to ensure a balanced and manageable assessment load both within modules and for the duration of the course.
Assessments include case study-based essays, presentations, reflections, practical clinical examinations, teaching Service Users or peers, and exams such as drug knowledge and calculations. Resources such as interactive workbooks and online quizzes are provided to help you assess your own learning as well as preparing you for assessments. Compassionate and caring attitudes and values are central to the role and will be assessed throughout the course.
Tuition fees
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The Uni
Coventry University
Hudson Building
CU Scarborough
School of Nursing, Midwifery and Health
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