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Nursing Associate

Entry requirements


A level

E

Accepted towards tariff/grade requirements

AQA Level 3 Technical Level (1080 glh)

PPP

Accepted towards tariff requirements

Accepted on its own at Merit Merit or towards tariff/grade requirements with other qualifications

Accepted towards tariff requirements

Access to HE Diploma

P:45

Cambridge International Pre-U Certificate - Principal

P3,P3,P3

Accepted towards tariff/grade requirements

International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme

24

Leaving Certificate - Higher Level (Ireland) (first awarded in 2017)

H4,H4,H4

Accepted towards tariff requirements

Accepted on its own at Merit Merit or towards tariff/grade requirements with other qualifications

Accepted towards tariff/grade requirements

OCR Cambridge Technical Extended Diploma

PPP

Accepted towards tariff requirements

Accepted towards tariff/grade requirements

Accepted towards tariff requirements

Accepted towards tariff requirements

Accepted towards tariff requirements

Accepted on its own at Merit Merit or towards tariff/grade requirements with other qualifications

Pearson BTEC Extended Diploma (QCF)

PPP

Accepted towards tariff requirements

Accepted on its own at Merit Merit or towards tariff/grade requirements with other qualifications

Accepted towards tariff/grade requirements

Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diploma (first teaching from September 2016)

PPP

Accepted towards tariff requirements

Accepted towards tariff/grade requirements

Scottish Advanced Higher

D,D

Individual Advanced Highers can be accepted with Scottish Highers towards tariff requirements

Scottish Higher

C,C,C,C-B,C,C

T Level

Pass (D or E)

UCAS Tariff

48

Accepted towards tariff/grade requirements

You may also need to…

Attend an interview

About this course


Course option

2years

Full-time | 2024

Subject

Nursing

Nursing Associates work with Registered Nurses to care for patient and service users of different ages and in a range of settings. Nursing Associates are members of the nursing team and are accountable for their own practice. This full-time 2 year FdSc will prepare you to be a highly skilled autonomous and reflective practitioners who is able to deliver high quality, compassionate, professional and safe care.

**Ranked 12th in the country for general Nursing** in the Best UK University Guardian League table (2024), consistently achieving a high students’ employment rate, you can be confident that you will be equipped with the skills and knowledge when you graduate.

Our aim is to help you to develop into a safe and effective nursing associate who is caring and compassionate and able to deliver high quality care to people of all ages and in a range of settings. The programme is a 50/50 split of theory and practice to enable you to develop your knowledge and apply this in clinical practice. You will have a range of practice placements allowing you to develop your competence in caring for people of different ages and in different settings.

FdSc Nursing Associate has been approved by **the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC)**. This means you can be confident that this programme meets the standards of education, training, conduct and performance required for nurses in the UK. After successful completion of this programme, you’ll be awarded a FdSc and can apply to register as a **Nursing Associate** with **the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC)**.

**FdSc Nursing Associate** graduates can apply to one of our BSc Nursing programmes, and subject to successful interview, can complete a further 18 months of study. This will enable you to gain BSc (Hons) in Nursing and apply for a registration with the NMC as a Registered Nurse in one of the areas:

**BSc (Hons) Adult Nursing**
**BSc (Hons) Children and Young People’s Nursing**
**BSc (Hons) Learning Disability Nursing**
**BSc (Hons) Mental Health Nursing**

**By studying at the University of Northampton, you can be sure that:**

- You will experience student life at the University’s £330 million Waterside Campus. Come along to an Open Day and find out more.

- At UON we guarantee a room in our Halls of Residence for all new full-time, first year students who apply and accept their room offer by June 2024 - and we won't ask for a deposit for September 2024*.

- Students enrolling on this course at Northampton will be provided with their own brand new laptop** to keep at no additional cost. All sports clubs and societies are free to join at Northampton and every essential course text book is available via the library, meaning you won’t have to purchase copies. For more information on this visit our website (northampton.ac.uk/benefits).

- Our expert academics teach in small groups supported with one to one assistance. Our academics and students form a tight bond, providing individualised support and guidance whilst challenging students academically.

- Whatever your ambitions, we’re here to help you to achieve them. We’ll support you to identify the skills you’re learning during your course, find your strengths and secure practical experience so that when it comes to applying for jobs or further study you’ll feel confident in standing out from the crowd.

✱ eligibility criteria apply. See northampton.ac.uk/student-life/accommodation/ for more information
✱✱ eligibility criteria and terms and conditions apply. See northampton.ac.uk/benefits for more information

Modules

**STAGE 1:**
•Discovering My Identity as a Nursing Associate (compulsory)
•Professionalism and Public Protection for Nursing Associates (compulsory)
•Exploring the Evidence Base for Nursing Associates (compulsory)
•Developing Competence in Safe, Effective Administration and Optimisation of Medicines for Nursing Associates (compulsory)
•Foundations of Practice for Nursing Associates (compulsory).

**STAGE 2:**
• Developing My Nursing Associate Identity Towards Becoming a Registrant (compulsory)
• Applying Understanding of Nursing Professionalism and Protection of the Public in Nursing (compulsory)
• Interpreting the Evidence Base Influencing Nursing Associate Practice (compulsory)
• Demonstrating Competence in the Safe, Effective Administration and Optimisation of Medicines for Nursing Associates (compulsory)
• Advanced Work based Learning for Nursing Associates (compulsory).

*Students must take all modules. All modules have supplementary regulations applied.

**Module information is quoted for 2023/24 entry. Please note that modules run subject to student numbers and staff availability, any changes will be communicated to applicants accordingly.

Assessment methods

Assessment on this programme is by a variety of methods including written assignments, presentations, scenario assessments and assessment in clinical practice.

Tuition fees

Select where you currently live to see what you'll pay:

Channel Islands
£9,250
per year
England
£9,250
per year
EU
£9,250
per year
Northern Ireland
£9,250
per year
Scotland
£9,250
per year
Wales
£9,250
per year

The Uni


Course location:

University of Northampton

Department:

Faculty of Health, Education and Society

Read full university profile

What students say


How do students rate their degree experience?

The stats below relate to the general subject area/s at this university, not this specific course. We show this where there isn’t enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.

Nursing

Sorry, no information to show

This is usually because there were too few respondents in the data we receive to be able to provide results about the subject at this university.


Who studies this subject and how do they get on?

93%
UK students
7%
International students
14%
Male students
86%
Female students
84%
2:1 or above
13%
First year drop out rate

Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)

C
C
C

After graduation


The stats in this section relate to the general subject area/s at this university – not this specific course. We show this where there isn't enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.

Nursing (non-specific)

What are graduates doing after six months?

This is what graduates told us they were doing (and earning), shortly after completing their course. We've crunched the numbers to show you if these immediate prospects are high, medium or low, compared to those studying this subject/s at other universities.

£21,909
low
Average annual salary
99%
low
Employed or in further education
99%
med
Employed in a role where degree was essential or beneficial

Top job areas of graduates

99%
Nursing and midwifery professionals
1%
Sales, marketing and related associate professionals
1%
Information technology and telecommunications professionals

19,890 nursing qualifications were awarded in 2015, making it much the most popular degree in the country. Despite that, we have a serious shortage of nurses - estimates suggest that we're over 20,000 nurses short - that is only set to continue. So it's no surprise to see that the very large majority of nursing graduates go on to become nurses, and that starting salaries are pretty competitive. There are lots of different specialties to choose from (including midwifery), and the most common by far is adult nursing, but the typical end result for graduates is the same — they go on to become nurses (or midwives). That’s not to say that you can’t do anything else. Some nursing graduates get other jobs - usually, but not always, in health or caring professions, or management, and with nurses in such demand, there are always going to be options for you. Do be aware that even this doesn't necessarily guarantee you can get the exact nursing job you want exactly where you want though - some flexibility in type of job and location will still help your career.

What about your long term prospects?

Looking further ahead, below is a rough guide for what graduates went on to earn.

Nursing (non-specific)

The graph shows median earnings of graduates who achieved a degree in this subject area one, three and five years after graduating from here.

£30k

£30k

£31k

£31k

£34k

£34k

Note: this data only looks at employees (and not those who are self-employed or also studying) and covers a broad sample of graduates and the various paths they've taken, which might not always be a direct result of their degree.

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This information comes from the National Student Survey, an annual student survey of final-year students. You can use this to see how satisfied students studying this subject area at this university, are (not the individual course).

This is the percentage of final-year students at this university who were "definitely" or "mostly" satisfied with their course. We've analysed this figure against other universities so you can see whether this is high, medium or low.

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This information is from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), for undergraduate students only.

You can use this to get an idea of who you might share a lecture with and how they progressed in this subject, here. It's also worth comparing typical A-level subjects and grades students achieved with the current course entry requirements; similarities or differences here could indicate how flexible (or not) a university might be.

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Post-six month graduation stats:

This is from the Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education Survey, based on responses from graduates who studied the same subject area here.

It offers a snapshot of what grads went on to do six months later, what they were earning on average, and whether they felt their degree helped them obtain a 'graduate role'. We calculate a mean rating to indicate if this is high, medium or low compared to other universities.

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Graduate field commentary:

The Higher Education Careers Services Unit have provided some further context for all graduates in this subject area, including details that numbers alone might not show

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The Longitudinal Educational Outcomes dataset combines HRMC earnings data with student records from the Higher Education Statistics Agency.

While there are lots of factors at play when it comes to your future earnings, use this as a rough timeline of what graduates in this subject area were earning on average one, three and five years later. Can you see a steady increase in salary, or did grads need some experience under their belt before seeing a nice bump up in their pay packet?

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