Nursing (Child) BSc(Hons)

Course structure

You’ll share some modules with students on our other nursing degrees, 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. Theory sessions in academic terms take place at the university. You will attend Monday to Friday with independent study days. Practice placement blocks are 32 hours per week and are eight and 10 weeks long.

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

In year 1 you will explore the nature of nursing and develop your clinical and communication skills, which will be assessed in both the university and practice settings. You will also study the biological and behavioural sciences that inform nursing practice.

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).

Year 2

You continue to build your skills and knowledge in professional practice. You will start to develop the principles of child 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
• Nursing to Promote Health and Prevent Illness
• Child Development and Transitions
• Assessing and Planning Complex Care in Children's Nursing
• Practice Learning for Children’s Nursing Year 2.

Final year

In your final year you will continue to specialise in children's nursing and focus on more complex patient and client needs. You will undertake a dissertation and will also begin to develop management and leadership skills as you prepare to enter professional practice.

Modules

• Contemporary and Future Nursing Practice
• Leading and Managing Nursing Care and Effective Teams
• Children's Nursing in Context
• Enhanced Physical Assessment of the Child
• Practice Learning for Children’s Nursing Year 3.

Facilities

Placements

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

You will spend 50% of the course studying theory which requires attendance in lectures and the other 50% on placement. You must accumulate 4,600 hours in total over the three years before you can register with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC).

Practice placements are up to 32 hours per week and you will be supported by a mentor. Clinical placements take place across Sussex in locations including Hastings, Eastbourne, Brighton, Haywards Heath and Worthing.

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

It is currently possible to claim back excess travel costs, this is reviewed each year by the NHS.

A day on placement can be between 07.00 and 22.00, some weekends and some nights.

Supporting you

You will receive lots of support throughout your child nursing degree course. During your course you'll have access to: 

• personal tutor
• practice liaison lecturers
• mentors in clinical practice
• PASS (Peer-assisted Study Sessions) nursing student leaders
• student support and guidance
• welfare.

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

Meet the team

Alan Monaghan
Alan has great enthusiasm for children’s nursing and for his subject area of acute child clinical practice and anatomy and physiology. He is renowned for the innovative and fun methods that he uses to teach students.

Alan started his nursing education at the University of Surrey in 1990. He also completed his post-registration course in children’s nursing and as a result has a dual qualification. Following his graduation he commenced a rotational post in Wessex Neurological Centre.
Next, Alan embarked upon children’s nursing, critical care training and subsequently became a Clinical Nurse Specialist at St George's London and the Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital Brighton.

Within this time he completed his Practice Teacher qualification and then continued to gain Teacher status with the Nursing and Midwifery Council. Alan is also the original author of the Brighton Paediatric Early Warning Score (PEWS) which has been implemented in countries such as USA, Canada, Brazil, China, Norway, Portugal and Italy

Alan successfully studied for a masters degree at the University of Brighton, and joined the School of Sport and Health Sciences in 2011.

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.

The fees listed here are for full-time courses beginning in the academic year 2023–24.

Further tuition fees are payable for each subsequent year of study and are subject to an annual increase of no more than 5% or RPI (whichever is the greater). The annual increase for UK students, who are subject to regulated fees, will increase no more than the statutory maximum fee.

You can find out more about our fees in the university's student contract and tuition fee policy (pdf).

The tuition fee you have to pay depends on a number of factors including the kind of course you take, and whether you study full-time or part-time. If you are studying part-time you will normally be charged on a pro rata basis depending on the number of modules you take.

Campus where this course is taught

Accommodation

Local area

Maps

Support and wellbeing

Sport at Brighton