Study Nursing and graduate with a university degree

One of the most rewarding careers you can consider, nursing offers a challenging and stimulating course. Today’s nurses are required to assess patients’ needs, care for them and support both the patients and their families, while playing a full and crucial role in the wider healthcare team. Our nursing course is designed to give you the skills and confidence necessary to fulfil that role in the healthcare teams of tomorrow. Careers in nursing are dynamic as the healthcare sector responds to developments in health and emerging health priorities, rising expectations among users and carers and changing societal attitudes. Through the use of clinical scenarios and extensive skills training, we will prepare you for working in an ever-changing healthcare environment.

Study at one of our 3 campuses at Stirling, Highland campus at Inverness or Western Isles campus at Stornoway.

The course is accredited by the Nursing and Midwifery Council.

Year 1

2 Highers at BB or above.  A-levels CD. IB Diploma with a total of 25 points. HNC or HND with Bs in Graded Units.

Access courses and other UK/EU and international qualifications are also welcomed.

General entrance requirements apply.

Required subjects

English Standard Grade (3), Intermediate 2 (C), GCSE (C) or equivalent. Maths Standard Grade (3), Intermediate 2 (C), GCSE (C) or equivalent.

Other information

If examinations are taken over two sittings, or there are repeats or upgrades, the entrance requirements may be higher.

Students who meet the residence eligibility criteria may be eligible for the Nursing and Midwifery Student Bursary. Further details are available from the Student Awards Agency for Scotland (SAAS):www.saas.gov.uk

Full-time (theory and practice learning in each semester).

Access courses and other UK/EU and international qualifications are welcomed.

What other criteria are considered for BSc Nursing

Application procedures

As well as the entry requirements stated for the course, students applying to nursing should be aware of the following:

Will there be an interview?

No. There is a compulsory Applicant Day which is designed specifically for entrants to nursing. The day will consist of:

• Registration - personal identity and educational qualifications check
• An overview of the course
• General information  - bursary, accommodation
• Group discussion
• Clinical skills session
• Campus tour
• Question and answer session
  

Applicant Day guidelines and information on the topic for group discussion will be provided at least two weeks in advance of the Applicant Day. You will be expected to have researched the topic specified in the guidelines to assist you with your contribution to the group session.

What other factors are involved?

All applicants are subject to a Disclosure Scotland check. This will show all spent and unspent criminal convictions including (but not limited to) cautions, reprimands, final warnings, bind over orders or similar and to the extent relevant to this course may also show details of any minor offences, fixed penalty notices, penalty notices for disorder.

Previous criminal convictions need not exclude you, but all convictions must be declared and some occurrences may result in an unsuccessful application. A panel may be convened to determine the applicant’s fitness for accessing practice placements.

All applicants must be passed fit by Occupational Health. This will require a questionnaire and also a personal visit to the campus in addition to and on a separate occasion to the Applicant Day.

To protect your privacy, neither of these checks will normally be carried out until an offer has been made.

Can I visit the University?

The selection process is part of a much wider Applicant Day which gives full information on the course and facilities specifically designed for nursing students.

BSc/BSc Honours Nursing

The course is structured so that you spend 50 percent of your time gaining practice experience in a clinical setting, underpinned by blocks of theory to support your development. Your clinical learning will be developed in a range of health and social care settings, from acute to community, rural to urban. The course is delivered to both Adult and Mental Health fields of practice. However, as you progress through the three years of the course there will be an increasing focus on your chosen field of practice (i.e. Adult or Mental Health nursing).

On successful completion of the course, graduates are eligible for registration with the Nursing and Midwifery Council in either the Adult or Mental Health field.

Adult Field of Nursing

Students undertaking the adult field of practice must practise autonomously and be responsible and accountable for safe, compassionate, person-centred, evidence-based nursing care that respects and maintains dignity. They must show professionalism and integrity, working in partnership with other health and social care professionals including service users, their carers and their families.

The adult nursing course develops your clinical skills and knowledge to work within the full spectrum of health and social care settings. A wide range of clinical skills are embedded throughout the course to help you acquire key skills in assessment, diagnosis and decision making. Adult nurses develop skills to meet the physical, psychological, spiritual and social needs of patients, supporting them through care pathways. This is achieved through working in clinical practice with other health and social care professionals to maximise opportunities for recovery, rehabilitation, adaptation to ongoing disease and disability, and raising public health awareness.

Your clinical experience will focus on the care pathway of a number of different settings including community day hospitals, ambulatory care and intensive care, as well as working with patients and their families in their own homes.

Mental Health Field of Nursing

Mental health nursing is an area of nursing that has as its focus the promotion of mental health, the prevention of mental illness, and the care of people experiencing mental health problems.

As a mental health nurse, the focus of your practice will be the establishment of relationships with service users and carers to help bring about an understanding of how they might cope with their experience, thus maximising their potential for recovery. These relationships are characterised by trust, respect, choice, control and partnership; the aim being for service users to lead as meaningful and fulfilling a life as possible in the presence or absence of symptoms. The course encourages you to take a values-based approach towards the service user and their family, and provides you with a well developed and evidence-based range of interpersonal and psychosocial skills to allow you to do this. Mental health nurses work as part of multi-disciplinary and multiagency teams that involve service users and their carers in all aspects of their care and treatment.

Conversion

The university also offers nursing conversion programmes in the above fields: Adult Conversion B740 and Mental Health Conversion B762.

Year 1

• Learning to Care
• Professional Practice
• Nursing Health and Wellbeing

Year 2

• Care Partnerships
• Care Pathways and Management
• Shared Decision Making
  

Year 3

• Managing Care Partnerships
• Managing and Leading Care
• Practice-based Learning

A wide range of approaches to teaching and learning is adopted by the School. Central to this is a student-centred approach which uses small group teaching (enquiry-based learning or EBL) in combination with lectures, seminars, group work and clinical skills teaching. You will be assessed by a range of methods including examinations, essays, reports, clinical skills assessments, presentations and assessments of practice.

View the sample timetable

BSc/BSc Honours in Professional Practice

These degree programmes are intended for:

• Registered Nurses or Registered Midwives who have successfully completed a Diploma in Higher Education at Stirling or an equivalent academic award at another institution.
• Experienced Registered Nurses and Midwives who qualified prior to 1992.
• Other Health Professionals registered with Health Professions Council

Recognition of Prior Learning
It is recognised that individuals will apply for the programme with varying levels of prior certificated or experiential learning. Applicants will be assessed on an individual basis, according to the current University of Stirling Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) Policy. Normally the maximum credit that may be granted is 286 credits.

Period and mode of study
From the date of first registration the maximum periods of study either on a full-time or part-time basis are as follows:

• BSc - 27 months
• BSc with Honours - 60 months

Programme of Study
For the award of the BSc in Professional Practice, students must successfully complete at least 352 credits in total, with a minimum of 66 credits having been completed at the University of Stirling.

For the award of the BSc with Honours in Professional Practice, students must complete the BSc programme, followed by a further 66 credits from the taught module list and a 66 credit dissertation.

Progress and other requirements
Grades of 3C or above are required in all modules. All taught modules must be completed before the dissertation is undertaken. Progression from BSc to BSc (Hons) is dependent upon 2F average, no resubmissions.

Distinction/Merit
For the award of the BSc in Professional Practice with Distinction, students must achieve two grades of 1C or better and no grades of 3, 4, 5 or X. For the award with Merit, students must achieve two grades of 2C or better and no grades of 3, 4, 5 or X.

Named pathways
In order to graduate with a named award, students must complete a minimum of 66 credits from the specialist modules listed for that award. Students who do not complete one of the designated pathways will be awarded the BSc or BSc with Honours in Professional Practice, as appropriate. Examples of named awards are available on the School of Nursing, Midwifery & Health website at www.stir.ac.uk/nmhealth

Enquiry-based learning groups are a key feature of our course. These groups allow you to develop the personal and professional attributes which will enhance your employability at the end of your three-year course.

It may be possible to spend a period studying abroad.

1st in Scotland and top 10 in the UK (in the most recent Research Assessment Exercise).

We have excellent relationships with each of the main partner NHS Boards associated with our campuses – NHS Forth Valley, NHS Highland and NHS Western Isles – which means that we work together to ensure that our course remains clinically excellent and that our students get the best possible experience while they are studying.

Academic strengths

Our curriculum is informed by research and encourages students to take an evidence-based approach to nursing care. There is also a strong articulation between our course and the Scottish Government’s Healthcare Quality Strategy for NHS Scotland.

Feedback from our clinical partners indicates that, as newly-qualified nurses, our students are seen as committed, enthusiastic and adaptable; confident and with the flexibility required to meet current service needs.

The majority entering employment find roles within the NHS, while others have found employment in other areas of the public sector, as well as with private healthcare providers and the voluntary sector.

In addition, internships may be available through the Scottish Government’s One-year Job Guarantee scheme