Nursing (Adult) BSc(Hons)

NMC and vaccination requirements

For all nursing courses leading to registration with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) as a nurse, you must demonstrate the following:

• completion of 10 years general education
• successful completion of literacy and numeracy assessments during the interview process
• evidence of study within the last five years is desirable
• evidence of commitment to the profession
• passing of occupational health and Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks
• ability to meet travel requirements to attend placements
• ability to follow a shift pattern that could cover any part of a 24-hour seven-day cycle.

Occupational health screening and vaccinations
You will need to complete an occupational health screening and we strongly encourage that you get all of the required vaccinations. Particular vaccinations are a requirement of certain NHS placement providers and are in place to protect you and the patients. Without the appropriate vaccinations you will not be able to undertake some placements – and this may impact on your ability to complete your course. The list of required vaccinations is updated by the NHS and may change over the course of your studies.

Top reasons to choose this course

• Accredited by the Nursing and Midwifery Council.
• Varied placements in both acute and community settings, plus an opportunity to experience nursing overseas on an international placement.
• Learn in our clinical skills and simulation suites, and practice independently in our nursing skills zone.
• Interprofessional collaboration with students on our child and mental health nursing courses.  
• Support throughout your degree from our student-run Nursing Society.
• Non-repayable grant of at least £5,000 each academic year.
• 94% of our graduates are in work or further study 15 months after their degree and 96% of working graduates are in highly skilled work as nursing professionals – Graduate Outcomes Survey.
• Brighton is in the UK top 25% for graduate earnings in nursing and midwifery, three years after graduating – Longitudinal Education Outcomes 2022.

Course structure

You’ll share some modules with students on our other nursing courses, allowing you to benefit from interprofessional collaboration, sharing knowledge and expertise. You will also benefit from patients contributing to your learning through shared stories.

In each year of the degree you engage with both theory and practice learning. The course alternates between academic terms and blocks of practice. In total during your degree you will complete 2,300 academic hours and 2,300 of practice learning.

Theory sessions in academic terms take place at the university. You will attend Monday to Friday with independent study days. Practice placements are in blocks and are 37.5 hours per week. 

As a student on this course you’ll also get to participate in Schwartz Rounds – hour-long sessions where students come together to listen to stories and share reflections in a supportive and confidential environment. The sessions offer the opportunity to reflect on the emotional aspects of clinical practice and are designed to support students and recent graduates working in complex settings.

Recognising that patients are at the heart of everything the NHS does, we have embedded the core values of the NHS Constitution — respect, dignity, compassion and collaboration — into our curriculum.

Making sure that what you learn with us is relevant, up to date and what employers are looking for is our priority, so courses are reviewed and enhanced on an ongoing basis. When you have applied to us, you’ll be told about any new developments through Student View.

Year 1

You are introduced to the profession of nursing and begin  developing the required knowledge and skills as well as an understanding of the structure and function of the human body. 

Modules

• Nursing Assessment in Partnership with People

  This module will enable you to undertake a holistic nursing assessment of a person in terms of their mental, physical, social and spiritual needs. You’ll learn the importance of completing an assessment in partnership with the person, taking into account their circumstances, characteristics and preferences.

  You will also gain an understanding of the role of the nurse in assessing the person’s needs as a member of the multi-disciplinary team (MDT).

• Planning Nursing Care in Partnership with People

  This module will enable you to plan nursing care based on the information gained from a holistic nursing assessment. You’ll learn the importance of identifying priorities in the mental, physical, social and spiritual needs of the person and formulating a plan of care in partnership with the person and the multi-disciplinary team (MDT).

• Human Biology for Nursing

  This module will enable you to explore human biology in relation to the health, well-being and illness of a person across the lifespan. You’ll develop an understanding of how human biology and altered physiology underpins your developing nursing practice.

• Practice Learning for Nursing Year 1

  This practice assessment of the course is divided into three parts. This module comprises part one, which will enable you to begin developing the knowledge, skills and values required for nursing practice.

  You will integrate learning from your placement and at university in order to meet the Future Nurse: Standards of proficiency for registered nurses (Nursing and Midwifery Council [NMC] 2018).

You may also get the opportunity to take part in the Alzheimer’s Society’s award-winning Time for Dementia programme and follow a family’s dementia journey over a 12-month period. Students have described this as an ‘inspirational’ element of the course.

Year 2 

You continue to build your skills and knowledge in professional practice. You will start to develop the principles of adult nursing and gain an insight into the clinical settings in which nurses work, such as public health, acute services, community and research.

Modules

• Quality Improvement Using Evidence-based Nursing Practice

  In this module you will explore the range of evidence used in evidence-based nursing practice and learn how to appraise this to improve quality of nursing care. You will look at principles of quality improvement such as patient safety, clinical governance, safeguarding, risk assessment and management, audit and evaluation.

• Nursing to Promote Health and Prevent Illness

  This module explores the role nurses have in promoting health and preventing illness by looking at the theory and concepts of public health and health protection. Content includes public health and education, for example health literacy, health impact needs assessment and lifestyles changes; current public health strategies; social and environmental determinants of health including health inequalities at local and global levels; and collaborative working with health and social care professionals.

• Approaches to Nursing Adults with Long-term Health Conditions

  You will develop the necessary knowledge, skills and values to care for adults with long-term health conditions during this module. Adult and mental health nurses will increasingly encounter service users who require support and management of such conditions, so this module will teach you to recognise the complexity of living with long-term health conditions and appraise the range of approaches to nursing adults with such conditions.

• Nursing Assessment and Management of Clinical Deterioration in an Adult

  This module focuses on the nursing assessment and management of clinical deterioration in an adult. You will learn to recognise how clinical deterioration can present and explore the evidence-based management and pharmacology of clinical deterioration in an adult in community or hospital settings. You will also enhance your clinical decision-making, interpersonal nursing care and interprofessional working.

• Practice Learning for Adult Nursing Year 2

  This module is part 2 of your practice assessment where you will develop the knowledge, skills and values required for adult nursing practice. You'll be able to integrate your placement and university learning to meet the Future Nurse: Standards of proficiency for registered nurses (Nursing and Midwifery Council [NMC] 2018). 

Final year

You will complete an extended project and develop your professional practice further in the areas of leadership, physical assessment and complex care needs.

Modules

• Contemporary and Future Nursing Practice

  In Contemporary and Future Nursing Practice you will analyse the context of, and contemporary influences on, nursing practice. These factors include health economics, health and social care policy, technology and research. You will learn how to improve the service for users and their family/carers and support sustainability in healthcare. You will also explore the importance of exercising political awareness as global citizens and your role in shaping the future of the nursing profession.

• Palliative and End of Life Care Using an Integrative Nursing Approach

  In this module you will learn to apply an integrative approach in the nursing care of people who are at the palliative or end of life stage of their disease trajectory. You will look at areas including therapeutic relationships and collaborative working; principles of palliative and end of life care including bereavement/loss, ethical/legal issues and advanced care planning; and holistic needs assessment, including physical, emotional and spiritual aspects of care.

• Leading and Managing Nursing Care and Effective Teams

  In this module you will enhance your self-awareness and gain an appreciation of organisational leadership and management in healthcare. You’ll develop your own leadership values for your professional practice in relation to contemporary leadership theory. You will explore team working and its influence on a person-centred culture as well as collaborative interprofessional/multiagency working.

• Enhanced Nursing Assessment and Clinical Decision Making

  This module allows you to develop your clinical decision-making abilities by enhancing your nursing assessment skills of adults with various diseases and in varied healthcare settings. The module explores healthcare delivery and the essential input of nursing to the patient assessment agenda. You will develop cognitive and clinical skills that can be used in consultations, clinical examinations and interpretation of data.

• Practice Learning for Adult Nursing Year 3

  You will further develop your knowledge, skills and values required for adult nursing practice during this module. It provides placement- and university-based learning to enable you to meet the Future nurse: Standards of proficiency for registered nurses (Nursing & Midwifery Council [NMC] 2018). Module content includes person-centred, safe and compassionate care; health promotion and illness prevention; and assessing and prioritising health care needs.

Facilities

Placements and practice learning 

Our flexible approach to practice-based learning and excellent links with local healthcare trusts enable us to offer clinical practice in hospital and community settings, working alongside multi-professional teams.

You will complete 2,300 hours of practice learning, including 150 hours of simulated practice learning, over the course of your degree. This includes approximately 20 weeks each year in practice placements across Surrey, Sussex and Kent.

Practice placements are 37.5 hours per week and you will be supported by a practice supervisor. A day on placement can be between 07:00 and 22:00, and placements are likely to include school holidays, some weekends and some nights.

Community placements offer experience in schools, doctors surgeries, with health visitors and community staff.

It is currently possible for eligible students to claim back excess travel costs; this is reviewed each year by the NHS. If you’re not a UK citizen, you are unlikely to get help with travel costs unless you have permission to live permanently in the UK. 

Supporting you 

You will receive lots of support throughout your nursing degree and will have access to: 

• academic assessor
• personal tutor
• practice liaison lecturers
• practice assessor in clinical practice
• practice supervisor in clinical practice
• student support and guidance tutor (SSGT)
• wellbeing support.

Nursing Society
Our student-run Nursing Society provides support for all nursing students at every stage of their degree.

The society facilitates group learning and extracurricular lectures from speakers across the multidisciplinary team.

Study abroad

Course fees

Additional funding support

UK students studying nursing, midwifery and some allied health professions subjects receive a non-repayable grant of at least £5,000 each academic year. Find out more on the NHS website.

This scholarship is supported by The Gittins Family Charitable Trust and is open to first-year full-time undergraduates who are studying Nursing (Adult) BSc(Hons) and have a home household income of £25k-£45k. There are two scholarships available, providing £1,000 a year for three years of undergraduate study.

The RKS Scholarship

The RKS Scholarship will fund one student’s annual fee of £9,250 for three years of undergraduate study (total value of £27,750). Applications need to be male or identify as male or non-binary and be a full-time student with a firm offer on a Podiatry BSc or Nursing (Adult or Child) BSc. They will need to be eligible to receive a full student finance package, a University of Brighton Bursary, Care Leaver’s Bursary or Estranged Student Bursary.

The fees listed here are for the first year of full-time study if you start your course in the academic year 2025–26.

You will pay fees for each year of your course. Some fees may increase each year.

UK undergraduate and some postgraduate fees are regulated by the UK government and increases will not be more than the maximum amount allowed. Course fees that are not regulated may increase each year by up to 5% or RPI (whichever is higher).

If you are studying part-time your fee will usually be calculated based on the number of modules that you take.

Find out more

• Brighton Boost – cost of living help for our new undergrad students. Find out about how we can help with your study, accommodation or travel costs and more...
• Fees, bursaries, scholarships and government funding info for UK and international undergraduate students
• Student finance and budgeting while studying
• Read our student contract and tuition fee policy (pdf) for more on University of Brighton tuition fees.

Campus where this course is taught

Accommodation

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Support and wellbeing

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