Nursing Associate Foundation Degree
Study level: UndergraduateHNC/HND courses
The Nursing Associate role gives you the chance to make a real difference to the quality of life and care of people in a wide range of healthcare settings.
Year of entry
Location
Coventry University (Coventry)
Coventry University (Vauxhall, London)
CU Scarborough (Scarborough)
Wiltshire College & University Centre (Salisbury)
Study mode
Full-time
Duration
2 years full-time
Course code
B700
Start date
September 2024
January 2025
May 2025
Course overview
Fully accredited1 by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) providing eligibility for registration as a Nursing Associate on successful completion of the course (registration is subject to meeting good health and character requirements and payment of a registration fee).
- Well-established clinical placements2,5, teaching and research links with local collaborating NHS trusts and other healthcare providers, such as private hospitals, hospices and community settings.
- Study locations in Coventry, London, Scarborough and Salisbury.
- Course start dates:
September 2024 entry – all locations
January 2025 entry – all locations
May 2025 entry – Coventry University (Vauxhall, London) and Wiltshire College & University Centre (Salisbury) only
Joint Top Modern University for Career Prospects
Guardian University Guide 2021 and 20225 QS Stars for Teaching and Facilities
QS Stars University RatingsTop 10 UK Student City (Coventry)
QS Best Student Cities Index 2024Why you should study this course
Development of the health and social care workforce is pivotal to building the capacity and capability needed to deliver compassionate, high-quality evidence-based care to a diverse and ageing population. This course gives you the opportunity to develop a range of practical skills and the underpinning knowledge to allow you to make a real difference to quality of life and care of people of all ages and in a wide range of healthcare settings.
The Nursing Associate foundation degree is designed to meet the educational requirements necessary for the nursing associate role, enabling successful graduates to register as a Nursing Associate with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) (further details about the registration fee, eligibility and process are available on the NMC website), and work supporting registered nurses delivering hands-on care in a wide variety of clinical settings.
It also offers a pathway to other nursing roles, including that of a graduate nurse through progression onto a pre-registration programme. After successfully completing this course it may be possible to transfer on to the second year of a BSc Nursing degree, but this would depend on NMC requirements and standards and your chosen field of nursing, therefore this cannot be guaranteed.
Equal time and weighting is given to the practical and theoretical components of the course. The course is taught by experienced nurses and healthcare professionals who will support you in your journey to becoming an NMC-registered Nursing Associate.
We have well established clinical placements, teaching and research links with local collaborating NHS trusts and other healthcare providers, such as private hospitals, hospices and community settings, and are commended by the NMC for our collaboration.
Placements2 will take place with one of our collaborator settings, which will normally be in the same region as your chosen campus, however, to ensure you have a breadth of placement experiences, and to ensure that all required NMC experiences are covered, you may be required to travel to attend placements. We aim for placements to be allocated within 45 minutes drive of the Trust and do our best to minimise travel time for our students. For Coventry students this should take place within the Coventry and Warwickshire area. For Scarborough students this will be in the area of North Yorkshire and East Riding. London based students will have placements within the wider London area. Salisbury based students will be based in the Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust. Please be aware that due to potential restrictions and capacity, placement locations may change. In your placements you will be supernumerary (not counted in the staff numbers) and will have an allocated Practice Assessor and Practice Supervisor to facilitate and assess your learning in practice.
In response to a high demand for the nursing associate role, we offer a route on to this course at our Coventry, Scarborough and London campuses, as well as from Wiltshire College and University Centre in Salisbury. The course was developed in collaboration with health and social care employers in Coventry and Warwickshire, Scarborough, Salisbury and Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust in London. Our practice learning collaborators provide clinical learning placements for students and input to the ongoing development and evaluation of the course.
The programme was shortlisted for a Student Nursing Times and Apprenticeship award in 2019 and over 10% of students who completed the first programme secured places on the prestigious Florence Nightingale Leadership course. This course is a direct entry (i.e. not part of an apprenticeship) version of the nursing associate foundation degree apprenticeship course.
for Student Satisfaction in the Midlands in Nursing
The Complete University Guide 2024
Accreditation and professional recognition
This course is accredited1 and recognised by the following professional bodies:
Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC)
The course is currently accredited by the Nursing and Midwifery Council for the 2024/2025 intake and on successful completion of the course you will be eligible to apply to join the Nursing and Midwifery Council Nursing Associate register. Registration is subject to meeting good health and character requirements and payment of a registration fee. Further details about the registration fee, eligibility and process are available on the NMC website.
Nursing Associates are important members of the nursing team, contributing significantly to patient care. Watch our video to find out more.
What you'll study
This course gives you the opportunity to develop a range of practical skills and the underpinning knowledge to allow you to make a real difference to quality of life and care of people of all ages and in a wide range of health care settings.
Equal time and weighting is given to the practical and theoretical components of the course. The course is taught by experienced nurses and healthcare professionals who will support you in your journey to becoming an NMC registered Nursing Associate.
We regularly review our course content, to make it relevant and current for the benefit of our students. For these reasons, course modules may be updated.
How you'll learn
This course offers a blended mode of delivery combining a wide range of online resources including videos, quizzes, games and workbooks with contact teaching time which includes workshops, seminars and clinical skills teaching in laboratories.
As digital literacy and technology is such an important factor in the delivery of healthcare, you will be supported to develop your digital literacy from the outset of the course.
In a typical 30-hour week, you will have around 15 hours of teaching contact hours which is made up of lectures and tutorials supplemented by online learning. This will lessen as you progress through the course and become better equipped to use the online learning resources. Developing independent learning capabilities and using digital learning resources are essential to equip you for lifelong learning and further study.
As an innovative and enterprising institution, the university may seek to utilise emerging technologies within the student experience. For all courses (whether on-campus, blended, or distance learning), the university may deliver certain contact hours and assessments via online technologies and methods.
Since COVID-19, we have delivered our courses in a variety of forms, in line with public authority guidance, decisions or orders, and we will continue to adapt our delivery as appropriate. Whether on campus or online, our key priority is staff and student safety.
Assessment
A wide variety of assessments are used throughout the course with half of the assessments taking place in your clinical placement areas. All of the assessments are designed to integrate theory and practice and to build on previous learning experiences. As you will be working 30 hours each week on your university studies or placement, this has been taken into account during the scheduling of the assessments to ensure a balanced and manageable assessment load both within modules and for the duration of the course.
Assessments include case study-based essays, presentations, reflections, practical clinical examinations, teaching Service Users or peers, and exams such as drug knowledge and calculations. Resources such as interactive workbooks and online quizzes are provided to help you assess your own learning as well as preparing you for assessments. Compassionate and caring attitudes and values are central to the role and will be assessed throughout the course.
The Coventry University Group assessment strategy ensures that our courses are fairly assessed and allows us to monitor student progression towards achieving the intended learning outcomes.
Entry requirements
Typical offer for 2024/25 entry.
Fees and funding
2024/25 tuition fees.
Student | Full-time | Part-time |
---|---|---|
UK | £9,250 per year | Not available |
For advice and guidance on tuition fees and student loans visit our Undergraduate Finance page and see The University’s Tuition Fee and Refund Terms and Conditions.
Tuition fees cover the cost of your teaching, assessments, facilities and support services. There may be additional costs not covered by this fee such as accommodation and living costs, recommended reading books, stationery, printing and re-assessments should you need them.
Facilities
Careers and opportunities
The Nursing Associate foundation degree includes a comprehensive range of modules which were developed in collaboration with health and social care employers. This helps ensure our graduates are equipped for employment in a wide range of health and social care settings both locally and nationally.
Throughout the course you will have opportunities to experience a variety of clinical placements and visits to different care settings which will help you decide where you would like to apply to work on completion of the course2.
Where our graduates work
Our graduates are employed in acute care organisations, community care settings and within general practice and social care.
How to apply
-
UK students
Full-time students applying to start in September should apply for this course through UCAS. Part-time students should apply directly to the university. Read our application pages to find out your next steps to apply.
If you'd like further support or more information about your course get in touch with us today.
Chat with our admissions team
Complete our contact form.
-
Disclaimers
Coventry University together with Coventry University London, Coventry University Wrocław, CU Coventry, CU London, CU Scarborough, and Coventry University Online come together to form part of the Coventry University Group (the University) with all degrees awarded by Coventry University.
1Accreditations
The majority of our courses have been formally recognised by professional bodies, which means the courses have been reviewed and tested to ensure they reach a set standard. In some instances, studying on an accredited course can give you additional benefits such as exemptions from professional exams (subject to availability, fees may apply). Accreditations, partnerships, exemptions and memberships shall be renewed in accordance with the relevant bodies’ standard review process and subject to the university maintaining the same high standards of course delivery.
2UK and international opportunities
Please note that we are unable to guarantee any UK or international opportunities (whether required or optional) such as internships, work experience, field trips, conferences, placements or study abroad opportunities and that all such opportunities may be unpaid and/or subject to additional costs (which could include, but is not limited to, equipment, materials, bench fees, studio or facilities hire, travel, accommodation and visas), competitive application, availability and/or meeting any applicable travel, public authority guidance, decisions or orders and visa requirements. To ensure that you fully understand any visa requirements, please contact the International Office.
3Tuition fees
The University will charge the tuition fees that are stated in the above table for the first Academic Year of study. The University will review tuition fees each year. For UK (home) students, if Parliament permit an increase in tuition fees, the University may increase fees for each subsequent year of study in line with any such changes. Note that any increase is expected to be in line with inflation.
For international students, we may increase fees each year, but such increases will be no more than 5% above inflation. If you defer your course start date or have to extend your studies beyond the normal duration of the course (e.g. to repeat a year or resit examinations) the University reserves the right to charge you fees at a higher rate and/or in accordance with any legislative changes during the additional period of study.
4Facilities
Facilities are subject to availability. Access to some facilities (including some teaching and learning spaces) may vary from those advertised and/or may have reduced availability or restrictions where the university is following public authority guidance, decisions or orders.
5Placements
Satisfactory health clearance and enhanced criminal record disclosure is also required. As part of the health clearance checks, you will be required to provide information about your immunity and vaccination status. The information you provide will be used to determine your eligibility to go on placement(s). Placements are provided at the placement provider’s discretion. The University is, therefore, unable to guarantee the provision of placements or the location and type of placement offered.
Student Contract
By accepting your offer of a place and enrolling with us, a Student Contract will be formed between you and the university. A copy of the current 2023/2024 contract is available on the website for information purposes however the 2024/25 Contract is currently being updated so please revisit this page before submitting your application. The Contract details your rights and the obligations you will be bound by during your time as a student and contains the obligations that the university will owe to you. You should read the Contract before you accept an offer of a place and before you enrol at the university.