Welcome to your Nursing Practice (Child) course

It’s almost time to start your Children’s Nursing journey at Staffordshire University.

Welcome to your BSc (Hons) Nursing Practice – Child course, we very much look forward to welcoming you onto campus to begin your journey towards a becoming a Registered Children’s Nurse and enjoying a professional and rewarding career.

Nursing is a career that requires lifelong learning in a dynamic healthcare system and this course will provide a foundation for your nursing practice, and for your further individual development. This course fosters a learning environment that prepares you to deliver high quality compassionate nursing care committed to professional and personal values and responsibility. You will have the support of your own academic mentor and our experienced Children’s Nursing Team, as well as practice assessors and supervisors whilst on placement. Student services and wellbeing advisors are available on site, and our experienced students offer peer learning and support.

Your staff team

We want to make sure you know some of our team before you arrive. Hopefully this will help you recognise us and ensure you know who you can contact if you need any additional help and guidance.

Rebecca Boden

Senior Lecturer

Rebecca is a Registered Children’s Nurse and Staffordshire University graduate wide variety of experience and interests including children’s cancer care, human factors and leadership.

Rebecca's profile

Sophie Kempshall

Lecturer

Fiona Cust

Associate Professor

Fiona is a Registered General and Children’s Nurse and Health Visitor who has had a varied career in children’s nursing within acute and community settings. Fiona is actively engaged in research and regularly contributes to The Nursing Times Journal.

Fiona's profile

First activity

The first week of your course (23rd September 2024) focuses on welcome activities, designed to help you settle in. Meet the team, including your Course lead, Course director, members of the School Management Team, your academic mentor and become familiar with the campus. In addition, there will be opportunity to have an introduction to the simmersive rooms, to study skills and orientation to the library.

This initial week will provide you with information to enable a smooth transition to your university journey towards this exciting career ahead of you.

Course delivery

Teaching and learning is provided in different ways to meet the needs of differing learning styles and these include face to face taught sessions on campus, debates, seminars, problem based learning, group working activities and practical skills and simulation sessions.

Module assessments are varied and include reflective learning accounts, multiple choice exams, presentations, and practice learning assessment to name a few across the three years.

You will experience practical learning in our clinical simmersive labs and simulation suites which ustilise state of the art equipment to facilitate the best possible learning experience in our dedicated learning spaces.

You will be supported all the way through your course by an academic mentor and course teaching team, have access to student guidance advisors, study skills support and subject specific librarians. During your allocated clinical practice learning placements, you will have additional support from practice assessors, practice supervisors, practice learning area teams and clinical placement facilitators. Peer mentoring from fellow students is also available. You will gain practical learning experience in a variety of settings including hospital and community, within our partner trusts and independent providers.

Semester one activities

Following the week of Welcome activities, we have a week dedicated to Foundations for Learning where we include sessions on reflective writing, referencing, creating presentations and an additional information from the supportive study skills and library team.

The following week is dedicated to Foundations for Learning where we include sessions on reflective writing, referencing, creating presentations and an introduction to the supportive study skills and library team.

Your first module begins on week 3 of the first semester and is focused on Professional, Legal and Ethical Considerations for nursing. This module runs for 5 weeks and then you begin your children and young people’s nursing practice module which includes your first taught sessions in our simmersive labs.

Pre-Learning

You do not need to go out and buy books, as our campuses offer a wide range of resources and you will have access to e-books as well.

A good place to begin your pre-course learning is the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) website: Click here which provides you with information relating to the standards required of nurses, midwives and nursing associates. In addition to this the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has accessible and useful information.

Additional suggested reading includes:

  • The Royal Marsden Manual of Nursing Procedures (10th Ed) (2020) Lister, S.
  • Clinical Skills: An introduction for nursing and healthcare (2021) Richardson, R. Keeling, J.
  • Anatomy and Physiology: An introduction for nursing and healthcare (2020) Minett, P. Ginesi, L.
  • Numeracy and clinical calculations for nurses (2nd Ed) (2020) Davison, N.

Equipment and software

A lap-top computer is advised so you can take notes during taught sessions and write your assignments. Digital software, for example Microsoft 365 pro, is available for free download during your time on the course and is useful for all areas of the course, offering cloud storage for your assignments so you can access them from any device and Outlook for email communication.

Software link: https://staffsuniversity.sharepoint.com/sites/software/SitePages/Home.aspx

Trips and activities

As part of your course, you have a placement period where you can choose where you’d like to go – the elective placement. There’s so much choice available to you once you are a registered Children’s Nurse – working in the NHS hospitals, community settings, children’s and young people’s mental health care settings, you may wish to specialise, or continue your development by studying a MSc – there really are so many possibilities.

During your allocated placements, you’ll have had a really wide range of experiences in the Trusts and the Independent sector and you may choose to go back to a prior placement, or to go to an area where you’ve not yet had a placement. Most students do remain local, and some of our students even choose to go abroad. Whilst we can’t fund you got the elective placement, we’ve very happy to signpost you when you’re starting to plan your elective. Click on the links below:

The links above include discussion of funding options, and the Royal College of Nursing is as another potential source to look into: Scholarships and bursaries | Royal College of Nursing (rcn.org.uk)

Student uniform

You will be provided with a uniform to wear during placements and practical skills sessions. However, you will need to source suitable footwear to go with your uniform, advice will be provided on this during our welcome activities where we will also guide you through the uniform ordering process.

For further information please click here

Occupational Health

Before you go into our clinical practice learning environments you will be required to be cleared by our Occupational Health provider: Optima Health and be up to date with all required vaccinations. You will be required to complete an occupational health screening survey and it is very important that you are open and honest with any existing or past medical history to ensure your health, safety and wellbeing whilst on the course. Please Click Here for further information.

Groups and societies

We have active Nursing Society which you can be a part of further information can be found via the Student Union web pages Get Involved (staffsunion.com)

Academic skills

Whether you're joining us from school or college, or you're returning to education after some time away, everyone can benefit from the Academic Study Skills resources provided by the University library.

The Academic Skills team is here to support you throughout your academic journey and to help you gain the skills you need to reach your full potential. They can assist with academic reading and writing skills, give advice on how best to plan assignments, and help improve your time management.

The library's Academic Skills Guides offer the key information to make studying easier and give a comprehensive guide to the learning resources and services we offer.

Staffs CampusConnect

Staffs CampusConnect is our student-led community app for new students. Connect with other people from your course, hometown or country, and even those with similar interests.

To register, please ensure you use your Applicant ID (Student Number) that you received in your offer letter, and the email address you used in your application to us.

Register for CampusConnect

Welcome website

Our welcome website will provide you the link to your new student life. It's all about how you find your place at university, including everything from how to meet friends, feel confident in doing your academic work, being a member of your Student Union and getting involved in Union Societies, Academic Societies, Sports, Volunteering or representing your peers in your School.

Part of this Welcome Week - we have an exciting program of University and course level activities planned for you for your first week in September. We are also building an extended program for you to join a series of events throughout the first half of the autumn term. Further details will be shared with you via the Welcome website and Students' Union pages over the coming weeks.

Welcome website

Campus map

Use our campus map to familiarise yourself with our campus before you arrive.

Campus map (PDF)

Check your email

Please make sure you check your personal email account regularly over the next few weeks. We will be sending you lots of information about Welcome Week.

We look forward to meeting you in September.

If you have any queries please contact your course leader, Rebecca Boden: Rebecca.Boden@staffs.ac.uk

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