Work-based undergraduate (23 months)
Chelmsford, Peterborough (Guild House)
January, September
Train as a nursing associate apprentice - a new Band 4 role in the nursing workforce supporting registered nurses in primary, secondary, community and social care that will lead to registration with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC). You'll help to plan, coordinate and deliver care, and work to a nationally-recognised NMC code of conduct.
It's a brilliant way to start a rewarding nursing career and has given me opportunities that I would never have thought were possible.
Completion of the L5 Nursing Associate course will now permit you to register with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) on a Band 4 salary with your employer. Find out more about how the NMC regulates Nursing Associates.
In addition, your employer may support you to join the Registered Nurse Degree Apprenticeship (top-up) for adult nursing, child nursing, or mental health nursing. This allows you to apply up to 180 credits of Accredited Prior Learning (APL) from your Nursing Associate course, enabling you to study additional modules at Level 6 and specialise in adult, child or mental health nursing for a Band 5 role.
Module assessment
We use formative and summative assessment strategies in both theory and practice learning to provide you with opportunities to demonstrate your acquisition of practical skills and underpinning knowledge. Your development of a range of transferable skills critical to effective health care such as teamwork, communication (written and verbal), decision-making, leadership, facilitation and problem solving skills, are encouraged.
Assessments vary throughout the programme, and include QMP multi-choice testing, written assignments, presentations, and an e-portfolio. We also test medicine calculations online.
Assessment strategies, in accordance with the England Practice Assessment Document (PAD) for Nursing Associates, include:
This is completed using an e-practice assessment document (accessible off-line via the student tablet or on-line via a computer). There are dedicated staff within the University to support the use of this e-PAD, who would be happy to come into your practice area to help with this. This is one of the components that form the gateway to your Apprenticeship EPA.
End point assessment
The EPA for this Apprenticeship is a successful pass in two professional discussions.
Each will test your knowledge, skills and behaviours (KSBs) against the specific domains taken from the NMC Platforms for registered nursing associates.
These are:
You will be working towards these competencies throughout the course, and time is built in to prepare you for the EPA.
The Faculty of Health, Education, Medicine and Social Care is the largest in ARU, with over 7,000 students. Our Faculty is teeming with expertise and primed to meet the demand for creating health professionals, teachers, doctors, scientists and educators for the three districts we serve: Chelmsford, Cambridge and Peterborough.
We have been training undergraduates for professional roles for over 25 years, with a reputation for quality, dedication and ambition balanced with student satisfaction.
We know that to give our students the very best experiential learning, prior to getting into the workplace, simulation is second to none, for safe, realistic, learning environments. We have invested heavily in purpose built simulated wards, science labs and skills space, to support our students through their learning.
Our striking, modern campus sits by the riverside in Chelmsford's University and Innovation Quarter.
Guild House is our small, friendly campus in the historic city of Peterborough.
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* Applicants without a Level 3 qualification but healthcare experience will be considered on an individual basis for accreditation of prior learning (APL)/prior experiential learning (APEL).
** Applicants currently working towards a Level 2 qualification in either English or Maths must have gained the qualification prior to the start of the course. If you are unlikely to have evidence of either qualification before the start of the course, you should delay your application until you have these.
Applicants from outside the European Economic Area must provide evidence of achievement of the English Language Testing System (IELTS) test: at least 6.0 in the listening and reading sections, at least 6.0 in the writing and speaking sections, and at least an overall score of 6.0.
Only on provision of the evidence to demonstrate that you meet the requirements listed above will you be invited to attend an interview.