Which nursing and midwifery course is right for you?

If you are looking to get into a nursing or midwifery career, you've come to the right place, as we offer a range of courses all based at our City South campus. There are a lot of courses to choose from, so it's understandable if you can't make your mind up!

We're here to help, though. Read on to find out which course is right for you. All courses listed are accredited by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC).

Nursing – Adult

This degree focuses on the core knowledge you will need to become an adult nurse, covering modules such as ‘What is Nursing?’ and ‘Leadership and Teamwork’. As the course progresses it becomes more field-specific, ensuring you have everything you will need to apply for Registered Nurse (RN) status following completion. You will also spend much of your time on placement at various clinical and hospital settings around Birmingham getting valuable hands-on experience.

Don’t forget to make the most of our onsite facilities, including a mock medical ward, laboratories, and more.

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Nursing – Child

If you're interested in focusing on the care of children, our Child Nursing course will teach you all the professional skills needed to be able to deliver compassionate, empathic, and skilled family-centred care. You’ll work with real families to assess and provide high-quality healthcare, and develop your mental, cognitive, behavioural, social and spiritual health skills on top of your medical knowledge. 

Our amazing course tools include a virtual ward, otherwise known as ‘Virtual Case Creator’ (VCC). This online tool creates engaging and realistic scenarios so you can make informed medical decisions accordingly. It helps you to develop your ability to critically analyse and make important medical-related decisions.

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What are Dual Awards?

Many of our nursing courses are labelled as ‘dual award’, and you may be wondering what this means. A dual award course simply means that you’ll be specialising in two different fields of nursing, giving you the opportunity to register in both fields by the end of your four-year course. Typically, your first year or two will focus on all areas of nursing to give you a broad knowledge and set you up for specialisation. Your third and fourth years will be focused on your specialist areas, with practical and theoretical elements spread throughout the course.

These courses are also MSci qualifications, meaning you’ll be studying for four years and obtain both a bachelor’s degree and credits towards a master’s qualification at the same time.


Nursing – Adult and Child – Dual Award

This dual award course has a split focus on both adult and child nursing, with your third-year specialising on adult nursing and fourth year on child nursing. You’ll get the best of both courses combined to give you a MSci qualification. Our Simulation Babies (SIM Babies) give you the chance to apply specialist techniques to mock situations. SIM Babies come complete with software that mimics real-life symptoms, so you’ll be able to put your knowledge and skills to the test before going out into the real world.

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Nursing – Learning Disability

Impressively, our Learning Disability Nursing course has a 100 per cent employability rate, so you can be rest assured you’ll find a job after studying with us. Get to grips with our nursing facilities, including a mock ward and laboratories, which will prepare you for the placements you will undertake further into your course and subsequently into your real-life work experiences.

You’ll learn how to evaluate and provide complex care in a professional and kind manner, and also learn how to deliver accessible care through practical and theoretical methods. Another big focus is improving quality of services, which is important to all areas of medicine and nursing. Our students have gone on to work in a range of settings, from schools, wards, and care homes, to prisons and forensics units.

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Nursing – Adult and Learning Disabilities – Dual Award

If you want to become an expert in both Adult and Learning Disability Nursing, this dual award is for you. You will get the best of both areas in one degree and be able to register in both areas upon completion.

Become an expert in both areas and get equipped with all the knowledge needed during your clinical placements. Your placements will alternate between both areas, giving you experience with all individuals in a range of different medical settings. Like the other courses, your placements will take up a big chunk of the academic year, in fact over half of it will be spent on placement. This is so you can get thrown into real-life situations and gain confidence as an aspiring nurse.

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Nursing and Midwifery Courses

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Nursing – Learning Disabilities and Child – Dual Award

Like the Adult and Learning Disabilities MSci, this course instead focuses on children with and without learning disabilities. From year three onwards you’ll learn the core skills needed to care for a child that has learning disabilities. There is a focus on the demand for these services and equipping you with the tools to deal with a range of patients with different needs and levels of care.

One of the main focuses of the course will be Complex Care, an important area of all nursing but especially in relation to learning and other disabilities.

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Nursing – Mental Health

Want to become a professional practitioner in the mental health nursing sector? This course will teach you the basics of nursing alongside the crucial knowledge you will need to specialise in mental health.

Caring for people with mental health problems requires a lot of attention to detail and decision making and assessing risks. All of this will be covered in your time on the course, and you’ll be able to participate in Practice Placements which are organised around a practice hub and allied experience. This gives you the chance to practice your skills in a comfortable but professional environment before undertaking your course placements.

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Nursing – Adult and Mental Health – Dual Award

This course gives you the skills to work with adults as well as those with mental health needs. You’ll be taught skills that are crucial to working with those with complex mental health problems, and there is an emphasis on the importance of equality and accessibility in regard to working with mental health patients.

Your work will be both research and practice based, with your dual award focusing on medicine management, leadership, safe practices and more throughout both specialties. 

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Nursing – Mental Health and Child – Dual Award

An important crossover through nursing is children’s mental health. This is a sensitive topic that requires a patient, empathetic and knowledgeable individual. You’ll learn to develop these qualities throughout the dual award, alongside learning to prioritise the needs of a child and their family. You’ll identify and coordinate care plans through the use of our facilities, teaching guidance, and placement experiences.

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Nursing – Mental Health and Learning Disabilities – Dual Award

Another important crossover, this course will help you to identify the complex and sensitive needs of those with both mental health and learning disabilities. You will gain confidence working with individuals that have a range of needs through placement opportunities, with the ability to focus on your chosen area.

You’ll get the chance to focus on physiology in relation to learning disabilities and mental health. Our in-house laboratories will come in handy for this module, as they are well-equipped to help you learn about the way the human body works, and you will be able to perform investigative examinations.

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Midwifery and Midwifery with Public Health

Midwifery is an extremely rewarding career that gives you the satisfaction of caring for both mother and baby. Become a compassionate and knowledgeable midwife through our courses, where you’ll work with both simulated and real babies, and be able to take advantage of our birthing area.

You’ll cover all stages from pre-pregnancy, pregnancy, labour, postpartum and the first few weeks of a child’s life. It’s crucial to learn about all stages of pregnancy to ensure you can give the most up-to-date, best care for mother and baby. Other than these stages, you’ll become an expert in safeguarding; learning to support vulnerable women and families and draw from your compassionate nature.

You can also study our Midwifery and Public Health course, which helps you to learn about how midwives can contribute to public health, alongside core advanced public health modules.

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Health and Social Care

The Health and Social Care foundation degree is perfect for those that are already working within a health or social care setting, as it allows you to work alongside your course and sets you up to enhance your career and go into other areas such as nursing and radiography.

You’ll get an introduction to physiology and anatomy, and the main bulk of your learning will be work-based alongside some face-to-face lessons and activities. Part of the course can specifically focus on mammography and radiography should you wish to specialise in these areas.

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