Nursing - Mental Health and Learning Disabilities - Dual Award - MSci drafted
| Program start date | Application deadline |
| 2023-09-01 | - |
Program Overview
Our four-year undergraduate Nursing – Dual Award course gives you practice experience in two different fields of nursing as well as developing your leadership skills in a research-informed way, ultimately providing the opportunity to register as a nurse in two fields.
This MSci – an
integrated master’s
– is run alongside, and integrates, with our BSc (Hons) Nursing programme. You will learn together with students from different fields of nursing (Adult, Mental Health, Learning Disabilities and Child) and have tailored support to help you achieve the Level 7 elements of the course in year four.As a dual award course, you will spend time on placement in different hospital and clinical settings across the West Midlands area to help you qualify in your chosen fields of nursing.
The course is accredited by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) and you will be able to apply for Registered Nurse status in two fields of nursing on successful completion of the course. You could also gain 120 credits at Level 7 which you could use towards a Master's in future.
The reference to ‘dual award’ indicates the professional NMC dual registration you will be eligible for on successful completion.
This course is
not open
to International students.What's covered in this course?
In the first two years you will study with BSc (Hons) Nursing students on modules with integrated theoretical content, learning about all fields of nursing - Adult, Child, Mental Health and Learning Disabilities. The early part of the course aimed at developing your confidence and competence in working with and caring for people of all ages across the lifespan, with a range of health needs.
During the third and fourth year, the course focuses on your dual award. You will take mental health and learning disability nursing specific modules aligned to practice placements, which will help to build on your previous learning and develop proficiency in your chosen fields of practice. These modules will help develop you as a leader and critical thinker to apply research-informed, evidence-based care, to plan, evaluate and coordinate care, supervise other health professionals and gain confidence in the safe management of medication.
You will also benefit from having personalised, field specific academic and clinical support and bespoke action learning sets to accelerate research-informed evidence-based decision-making.
Your placement learning experiences may be within community, hospital or home environment settings and at a location anywhere within the West Midlands and potentially into neighbouring counties, particularly for the Learning Disability field placements. While on placement, you will be supported, supervised and assessed by practice and academic staff to develop your knowledge and skills.
We are committed to providing excellent, innovative, learning, teaching and assessment experiences through the use of technology, which we use to enhance your learning, through lectures, seminars, skills simulation and virtual learning. Engaging with practice partners and service users is also integral to our approach.
Our MSci Nursing dual award course has been designed to comply with the new Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) standards (2018) meaning that successful completion of this course makes you eligible to apply and be entered onto the NMC register in two of the four fields of nursing, Mental Health and Learning Disabilities.
Accredited By
This course is accredited by:
Why Choose Us?
Funding
- Nursing students will receive at least £5,000 a year in additional funding for maintenance and associated study costs.
Download the funding FAQs
recently extended £71 million City South Campus
, complete with real-life hospital environments and simulation equipment so you can practice your practical skills at all times – not just on placementBirmingham is one of the UK’s most diverse cities
outside of London, which provides you with a wide variety of experience that will be valuable to take forward into your future career.Opportunities to
go abroad
, if this is something you would like to explore during your time studying with usStudent finance
-
have you already had a student loan to study an undergraduate degree but would like to do a second degree in nursing, midwifery or the allied health professions? You may still be eligible forfunding
Studying with us during the Covid-19 pandemic
The University has put in place
measures in response to Covid-19
to allow us to safely deliver our courses. Should the impact of the pandemic continue in future years, any additional or alternative arrangements put in place by the University will be in accordance with the latest government public health advice, health and safety legislation, and the terms and conditions of thestudent contract
.Program Outline
Year One
Year Two
Year Three
Year Four
Year One
In order to fully complete this course and be eligible for application for entry onto the NMC register, a student must successfully achieve all 480 credits.
What is Nursing? 20 credits
The NMC standards aim to ensure that nurses are able to work in ways that are not only fit for today, but also for the future. Nurses are being asked to undertake more complex roles than ever before in an evolving health and care landscape requiring a depth and breadth of a range of topics (Smith, 2017). This module aims to provide an introduction to fundamental nursing knowledge and skills, as well as develop a pride in the profession and the role of the nurse.
Providing and Evaluating Care 20 credits
This module will focus specifically on the final stages of the nursing process which includes a systematic and collaborative approach to providing and evaluating care for people and families across the lifespan. You will learn how to support individuals and if appropriate their families and carers, to make informed choices through effective communication, relationship management skills and shared decision making. You will develop an evidence based approach to working in partnership with people, families and carers to continuously monitor, evaluate and reassess the effectiveness of all agreed nursing care plans and readjust agreed goals as necessary.
Introduction to Leadership and Teamwork 20 credits
The aim of this module is to help you start to enhance your skills in leadership, management and team-working, in addition to the development of your ability to promote health and assist people to modify their lifestyles to enhance healthier lives. Nurses are leaders who are participative, facilitative and emotionally intelligent. Effective leadership styles contribute to team cohesion, lower stress, and higher empowerment and self-efficacy. Leadership is a predictor of quality outcomes in health care settings. Authentic leaders offer good role modelling consistent with ethical values and vision for health care. They offer individualised consideration of staff, provide motivation and stimulate creativity and innovation (RCN 2017).
Assessing Needs and Planning Care 20 credits
Good nursing care is based on the identification of the needs of the person and should be appropriate to the nursing context in which the assessment takes place (DH, 2014). This module will focus specifically on the first two steps of the cyclical nursing process, a model that helps to deliver appropriate and effective care and resolve peoples’ needs by setting goals. Undertaking a comprehensive assessment is the first stage of the nursing process and one in which the nurse is required to ensure the person and, if appropriate, their family and carers are fully involved. A thorough assessment enables the second stage of the nursing process; that of planning care. It is at this stage that person-centred, holistic care can then be identified prior to the third and fourth stages of the process, which are known as providing and evaluating care.
Professional Practice 1 40 credits
The module provides you with an introduction to and ongoing support for practice elements of your programme. The module is designed to enable you to achieve practice proficiencies within your chosen field of practice through ongoing guided participation in care within the practice setting. The module offers preparation, development and consolidation to grow your confidence and acquire competence within the practice learning environment.
You will be able to practice and develop your nursing skills within a safe, supportive environment, participate in teaching and learning sessions that support begin to allow you to identify and reflect on your own learning needs and experiences in practice.
Year Two
Complex Care 1: Assessing and Planning 20 credits
This module aims to provide you with the knowledge and strategies to develop problem solving and decision making skills. These skills will enable you to undertake the assessment and planning of complex situations and health conditions across the life span in a variety of nursing settings.
Complex Care 2: Providing and Evaluating Care 20 credits
This module builds on previous learning to further advance your knowledge and skills to provide holistic care across a variety of care settings. You will explore theory in order to lead, deliver and evaluate complex care for a range of service users across the lifespan. Expanding on the modules in level four and complex care 1, you will continue to develop nursing care which is person centred, encompasses empowerment, uses effective communication and employs evidence based interventions.
Improving Quality and Safety in a Global Context 20 credits
In this module, you will get the opportunity to focus on issues of quality and safety in health care, incorporating a public health perspective in both a national and global context. Building on level four modules you will further your understanding of health policy, exploring what influences public health and causes health inequalities. Well-being as a concept will be further explored particularly in relation to sexual health, as will the service users/patient’s capacity to manage their own health and the role of the nurse in assisting patients/service users to make behaviour changes. This will also build on the work done in previous modules on empowerment and person and family centred care.
Leadership and Co-ordinating Care 20 credits
The NMC (2018) and HEE stress nursing leadership is a core nursing role in the delivery of modern health services. You will build on the skills developed at level four to further consider nursing leadership, legal aspects of nursing and management strategies required in contemporary health and social care settings.
Professional Practice 2 40 credits
The module provides you with the opportunity for further development and ongoing support for practice elements of your programme. The module is designed to enable you to achieve within your chosen field of practice through ongoing guided participation in care within the practice setting. The module offers year 2 preparation, development and consolidation to support confidence and competence within the practice learning environment.
Year Three
Nursing Care: Learning Disabilities 20 credits
This module aims to equip you to identify the holistic needs of the person with a learning disability and produce an evidence-based, co-ordinated, person-centred package of care that takes into consideration all current and future care needs of an individual with learning disabilities.
Medicines Management and Applied Physiology in Learning Disabilities Nursing 20 credits
This module aims to equip you with a secure understanding of physiology and systems of the body, focusing on specific health needs of people with learning disabilities, which will enable the assessment and provision of evidence based care and interventions. It also aims to develop your ability to critically appraise the use of medication amongst people with learning disabilities and ensure that legal, ethical and professional issues are considered.
Leadership and Decision Making in Learning Disabilities Nursing 20 credits
This module aims to help you examine your identity as a leader, leadership theory, policy and research to guide the management of care as a learning disabilities nurse. Caring for people with a learning disability in the health and social care setting has recently been met with an unprecedented pace of change and increasing levels of complexity and demand for services. Therefore provision of effective leadership in learning disabilities nursing is more important than ever before. As a result of these changes and to meet service demand, a number of new roles have been developed and introduced to the nursing workforce.
Delivering High Quality, Safe Nursing Care for People with Learning Disabilities 20 credits
This module aims to consolidate your risk assessment, decision making and appraisal skills to ensure safety and quality of care for people with learning disabilities across a range of areas. This is especially important for the learning disabilities nurse, because your role is central to ensuring equality of access to health care services for people with learning disabilities. The module supports you in becoming equipped with the skills and knowledge to work in partnership with a range of professionals, interdisciplinary teams and most importantly the service user, carer and family.
Professional Practice 3 40 credits
The module provides you with further development and ongoing support for practice elements of your programme. The module is designed to enable you to achieve within your chosen field of practice. This will be through ongoing supervision and by practising independently with minimal supervision within the practice setting. The module offers year 3 preparation, development and consolidation to support confidence and competence within the practice learning environment.
Year Four
Nursing Care: Mental Health 20 credits
This module aims to build upon the ideas and concepts from the previous modules for a deeper understanding of approaches to mental health nursing. You will be exploring ideas relating to bio-psychosocial approaches to mental health care with underpinning knowledge of epidemiology, demography and wider determinants of health. There are many different approaches to working with and exploring a person’s experiences, however this will be done in such a way that we will draw on critical perspectives and what this means for those approaches.
Medicines Management and Applied Physiology in Mental Health Nursing 20 credits
This module aims to prepare you with the essential theoretical and practical elements to be able to prepare and administer medicines safely within a mental health care setting. You will continue to build on skills gained at levels 4 and 5, in order to develop a systematic process for safe medicines management and pharmacology. Particular emphasis will be placed on disease processes relating to the current pharmacological strategies to treat ill health, and exploring evidence-informed strategies to promote medication concordance in people experiencing mental illness.
Leadership and Decision Making in Mental Health Nursing 20 credits
This module aims to help you examine your identity as a leader, leadership theory, policy and research to guide the management of care as a mental health nurse. Caring for people experiencing mental health problems has recently been met with increasing levels of complexity and demand for services. Therefore provision of effective leadership is more important than ever before. As a result of these changes and to meet service demand, a number of new roles have been developed and introduced to the nursing workforce.
Delivering High Quality, Safe Nursing Care in Mental Health Nursing 20 credits
This module aims to consolidate your risk assessment, decision making and appraisal skills to ensure safety and quality of nursing practice across a variety of mental health care settings. This is especially important for the mental health nurse because your role is central to ensuring equality of access to health care services for people with mental health problems. The module supports you in becoming equipped with the skills and knowledge to work in partnership with a range of professionals, interdisciplinary teams and most importantly the service user, carer and family.
Professional Practice 3 40 credits
The module provides you with further development and ongoing support for practice elements of your programme. The module is designed to enable you to achieve within your chosen field of practice. This will be through ongoing supervision and by practising independently with minimal supervision within the practice setting. The module offers year 3 preparation, development and consolidation to support confidence and competence within the practice learning environment.
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Course Structure
Year One
As an undergraduate, the first year prepares you for further study and facilitates your understanding of the principles which underpin nursing. This is supported by numerous placement learning experiences over the year.
Your University Modules are taught and assessed alongside your BSc (Hons) Nursing colleagues. Your Practice Placements are organised around a practice hub (e.g. hospital ward/unit/community hub) and allied experience, for example, mental health hub and learning disability allied experiences. For your practice assessment you will be assessed in one Field only.
Year Two
During this year university modules will continue to have a generic focus and help develop core nursing skills and knowledge in: leadership, assessment and evaluation of care. Clinical placements will be more targeted to your dual award, with placements in both fields of practice. At the end of the second year, clinical practice assessment will be in the same field as year one.
Again for this year, your University Modules are taught and assessed alongside BSc (Hons) Nursing colleagues. Your placements are organised as: Placement 1 Field A, Placement 2 Field B and Placement 3 Field A. For your practice assessment you will again be assessed in one Field only.
Years Three and Four
As you continue on the MSci dual award programme, placements in your third and fourth year alternate between your chosen fields of nursing. In these years, University modules follow the flow of placements. In the fourth year your University modules you will be assessed at Master's level.
Your Year Three University Modules are taught and assessed alongside BSc (Hons) Nursing colleagues in specific Field modules, which align to your field placements. Your placements are organised as: Placement 1 Field B, Placement 2 Field A and Placement 3 Field A. For your practice assessment you will again be assessed in one Field only.
Your Year Four University Modules are taught and assessed alongside BSc (Hons) Nursing colleagues in specific Field modules, which align to your field placements. Your placements will alternate between your two fields: Placement 1 Field A, Placement 2 Field A and Placement 3 Field A and B. In this year your practice assessment will be in both Fields.
You'll experience a mixture of teaching, self-directed study and practice-based clinical placements, spending half of your time each year on placement.
Upon successful completion you'll graduate with a MSci Nursing – dual award worth 480 credits and be eligible to apply for Registered Nurse status with the
Nursing and Midwifery Council
in both the Mental Health and Learning Disability fields of practice.
The Nursing and Midwifery Council
The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) works with partner organisations to set and maintain high standards of nursing and midwifery education across the UK.
This course has been approved and monitored by the NMC to make sure that the education and training on offer meets their standards.
To work as a nurse or midwife, you must pass an NMC approved course at a higher education institution (HEI) in pre-registration nursing and midwifery, leading to registration with the NMC.
Athena Swan Bronze Award
We have successfully secured the Athena SWAN Departmental Bronze Award recognising a commitment to gender equality.
The Athena Swan Charter is a framework which is used across the globe to support and transform gender equality within higher education (HE) and research.
