Nursing Practice (Child)

BSc (Hons)

Location

Centre for Health Innovation Stafford

UCAS code

B731

Start dates available

  • September 2026

This degree combines professional placements in community healthcare settings with state-of-the-art simulation, which is embedded throughout our course and allows our students to experience real life scenarios within the safety of the University setting.

This course is approved by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) for the purpose of providing eligibility to apply for registration with the NMC as a children's nurse.

On successful completion of study, we will issue the following award: BSc (Hons) Nursing Practice (Child)

Duration

  • Full-time course runs for 3 years
  • Full-time with a foundation year runs for 4 years

Work placements

Your placements will be in a variety of hospital and community settings within the NHS and independent sector. You will care for children aged from 0-18 years old, including healthy and acutely ill children, those with long term conditions and also children with complex needs.

This breadth of care will help you develop a range of clinical skills essential for nursing. You will need to travel to your placements and work a variety of shifts to ensure you gain the full range of learning experiences to meet the course requirements. Throughout your studies, your clinical mentors and enthusiastic tutors will support and encourage you to make the most out of your studies.

Our NHS settings include:

  • Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
  • Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
  • Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust
  • The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
  • The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust
  • The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust
  • University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust
  • University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust

Course content

The course consists of a variety of modules, which are designed to enable the integration of theory with practice incorporating evidence and research. Care, compassion and values-based family centred care is a central theme throughout.

From the beginning of your studies, you will be given the opportunity to learn about the care needs of children, young people and their families, along with some shared learning between child, adult and mental health fields of nursing on common themes relevant for all during your course.

There will also be opportunities to work collaboratively with a range of different health care professionals. There is also an emphasis on service user and carer involvement.

Academic year

The course operates on a modular basis. Each credit taken equates to a total study time of around 10 hours. Total study time includes scheduled teaching, independent study and assessment activity.

All students take a total of 120 credits per level and 360 credits for the degree as a whole. Your overall grade for the course and your degree classification are based on the marks obtained for modules taken at levels 5 and 6.

Professional body accreditation

Recognised by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) for the purpose of registration as a qualified nurse (child).

Nursing and Midwifery Council

Modules

The tables provide an indicative list of the modules that make up the course for the current academic year. Each module is worth a specified number of credits. Our teaching is informed by research, and modules change periodically to reflect developments in the discipline. We aim to ensure that all modules run as scheduled. If for any reason a module cannot be run we will advise you as soon as possible and will provide guidance on selecting an appropriate alternative module where available.

Year 1 compulsory modules
Children And Young Peoples Nursing Care 20 credits
Children And Young Peoples Nursing In Practice 1 20 credits
Children And Young Peoples Nursing In Practice 2 20 credits
Children And Young Peoples Nursing In Practice 3 20 credits
Mental Health And Physical Health Through The Lifespan (Rn) 20 credits
Professional, Legal And Ethical Considerations 20 credits
Year 2 compulsory modules
Altered Mental Health And Physical Health Through The Lifespan 20 credits
Children And Young Peoples Nursing In Practice 4 20 credits
Children And Young Peoples Nursing In Practice 5 20 credits
Children And Young Peoples Nursing In Practice 6 20 credits
Human Factors: Risk, Decision-Making And Uncertainty 20 credits
Physical Assessment And Preparation For Prescribing 20 credits
Year 3 compulsory modules
Children And Young Peoples Nursing In Practice 7 20 credits
Children And Young People's Nursing In Practice 7,8,9 60 credits
Children And Young Peoples Nursing In Practice 8 20 credits
Children And Young Peoples Nursing In Practice 9 20 credits
Peer Learning And Teaching In Professional Nursing Practice 20 credits
The Evidence-Base For Practice 40 credits

Entry requirements

  • Typical UCAS Offer: 112 points, plus GCSE in Mathematics and English at Grade C (4) or above
  • A levels: BBC
  • BTEC: DMM Access awards (60 credits, with 45 at Level 3)
  • All applicants are individually assessed and a range of qualifications are accepted, so applicants are invited to enquire directly with the School.
  • An interview, Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check and occupational health screening form part of our selection process. You must also sign the Health and Social Care awards Contract of Professional Behaviour at the start of the programme.
  • All applicants must be 18 years of age at the start of the programme.
  • This course requires IELTS 7 for students whose first language is not English.

We understand that you might have experienced a challenging run up to higher education and may have not met the entry requirements as listed. If this is the case don’t worry, contact us and our team of expert advisors can guide you through the next stages of application, or help you find the perfect course for your needs.

For equivalent entry requirements in your home country, please see the information on our country pages.

Choose your country

Get country-specific details on entry requirements, fees, scholarships and support services. Choose your country to see how University of Staffordshire can support you from application to arrival.

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Facilities

Immersive Suites

Our immersive suites can simulate almost any environment from hospital to office and house to roadside. The suite allows 360 projection with realistic sounds from that environment.

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Nursing Skills Lab (Stoke and Stafford)

You'll experience a range of real-life activities such as life support, venepuncture, birth management, obstetric emergencies, cannulation and drug administration.

Lifelike Living Space (Stafford)

The lifelike living space lets you practice your skills in a variety of non-clinical settings, including our configurable house environment.

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Clinical Simulation Suite (Stafford)

These state-of-the-art labs allow clinical procedures to be simulated, so that our students are safe and confident before treating real patients.

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Careers

Graduate Earning potential

Nursing is a career that offers excellent prospects and earning potential. On qualification you will start on over £25k and with experience and further development & training you have the potential to reach positions in advanced clinical practice where you could earn over £49k.

Graduate destinations

Employment opportunities for nurses are varied and exciting. Our graduates find employment with a range of local and national employers. They work in a variety of community and hospital settings, including internationally renowned children’s hospitals within general and specialist wards and departments. Some take the opportunity to use their internationally recognised qualification to work abroad.

Employment opportunities

Completion of this course will give you an academic qualification and will lead to eligibility to register with the Nursing and Midwifery Council as a children’s nurse. You will have the ability to gain graduate employment as a children’s nurse working in a diverse range of settings.

All students have access to Careers, Placements & Employability, our dedicated careers team.

Teaching and assessment

Teaching

You will be taught through a variety of methods including: lectures, group work, clinical skills sessions, seminars and workshops. In addition, you will have timetabled meetings with your personal tutor at least twice a year.

Simulation

The course utilises a five-stage approach to teaching and learning, ensuring students develop a strong evidence base for practice, whilst also supporting them to develop their clinical skills, communication and team working. As part of the five stage approach to teaching and learning, simulation is embedded throughout our course and allows our students to experience real life scenarios within the safety of the University setting.

At Staffordshire University, we have state of the art facilities which help us to recreate the ‘real world’ experiences such as our Centre for Health Innovation, which is a unique, multi-purpose space, and allows us to recreate a vast range of different clinical environments, from community settings, to wards and even operating theatres. We also have access to immersive and virtual reality technologies to allow us to further develop the learning environment for our students enhancing learning.

The team strive to make our simulations a real as possible and draw on a wealth of clinical and teaching experience to help achieve this.

Assessment

Your course will provide you with opportunities to test your understanding of your subject informally before you complete the formal assessments that count towards your final mark. Each module normally includes practice or ‘formative’ assessments, for which you receive feedback from your tutor.

Practice assessments are developmental and any grades you receive for them do not count towards your module mark. There is a formal or ‘summative’ assessment at the end of each module. This includes a range of coursework assessments, such as essays, reports, portfolios and written examinations. The grades from formal assessments count towards your module mark. You will also be assessed in the practice learning placements by a clinical mentor. This will include both formative and summative assessment.

Learning support

In addition to the excellent support you will receive from your course teaching team, our central Academic Skills team provides group and one-to-one help to support your learning in a number of areas. These include:

  • study skills such as reading, note-taking and presentation skills
  • written English, including punctuation and grammatical accuracy
  • academic writing and how to reference
  • research skills
  • critical thinking and understanding arguments
  • revision, assessment and examination skills
  • time management

Additional support

Our Student Inclusion Services support students with additional needs such as sensory impairment, or learning difficulties such as dyslexia.

Feedback

You will normally receive feedback on coursework assessments within 20 working days following the date of submission. Examination feedback may take a variety of formats. However, as a minimum, generic feedback will be made available to all students who take written examinations. Feedback on your practice learning will be given by your clinical mentor.

Your study time will consist of class contact hours, self-directed learning, assessment and placements where appropriate. Your actual contact hours will depend on the subject area, on the option modules you select and professional body requirements.

Year 3

17% of time in lectures, seminars or similar
33% of time in independent study
51% of time in work based learning

Independent learning

When not attending lectures, seminars, laboratory or other timetabled sessions, you will be expected to continue learning independently through self-study. Typically, this will involve utilising a range of digital resources including our virtual learning environment; reading journals, articles and books; working on individual and group projects; undertaking research in the library; preparing coursework assignments and presentations, and preparing for examinations. Your independent learning will be supported by a range of excellent facilities. These include the library, open access computer facilities and informal learning zones.

Year 3

25% practical assessments
75% coursework
0% written exams

Staff

You will be taught by an expert teaching team whose expertise and knowledge are closely matched to the content of the modules on the course. The team includes senior academics and professional practitioners with industry experience.

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

Fees

For the course starting on 21 September 2026 the tuition fees are:

Study option UK / Channel Islands International
Full-time £9,535 per year of study £19,380 per year of study

UK and Channel Island students: This tuition fee is agreed subject to UK government policy and parliamentary regulation. If the UK government passes appropriate legislation, the fee for subsequent years of study may increase in each academic year. But this increase will not exceed the rate of inflation as measured by RPIX**. Any change in fees will apply to both new and continuing students. The University will notify students of any change as early as possible. Further information about fee changes would be posted on the University’s website once this becomes available.

**RPIX is a measure of inflation equivalent to all the items in the Retail Price Index (RPI) excluding mortgage interest payments.

Included in the fees:

The School will fund uniforms, occupational health screening and DBS services.
Not included in the fees:

Some students may choose to take an elective placement outside of our standard Practice Learning Placement circuit. Where this is the case, the costs associated with travel, accommodation, insurance etc will be the responsibility of individual students.

INTERNATIONAL APPLICANTS ONLY

International Students, like all others, should be aware of the additional costs they will incur of travelling to their Practice Learning Placements (which constitutes fifty per cent of the course over three years). This is in addition to the costs associated with studying away from home such as accommodation.

International Students are unlikely to be eligible for the additional financial support offered to some UK/EU students. 
Accommodation and living costs

Accommodation and living costs are not included in our fees. 

Sources of financial support

If you receive funding from Student Finance you may be eligible to apply for additional benefits. Details can be obtained by reading our additional funding web pages, or visiting www.gov.uk.

Scholarships and additional funding

As an undergraduate student at Staffordshire, you may be eligible for additional financial support through one of our scholarships and bursaries. You can visit our funding page to find out more and check your eligibility.

Our students

The support you get from your lecturers is absolutely second to none. For me, there couldn’t be a better university to go to. It’s like a little family.

Genevieve Buxton

Student

Apply

Location Award Study option Start date
Centre for Health Innovation Stafford BSc (Hons) Full-time 21 September 2026 Apply now

Rules and regulations

If you are offered a place at University of Staffordshire, your offer will be subject to our rules, regulations and enrolment conditions, which may vary from time to time.

Students of University of Staffordshire enter into a contract with us and are bound by these rules and regulations, which are subject to change. For more information, please see: University Policies and Regulations.

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