Nursing - Adult with Foundation Year - BSc (Hons) *

This module is designed to support you in your transition to studying in a Higher Education environment at Birmingham City University. Through a range of class-based group and individual activities, discussions, debates, personal reflection and wider reading and research, you will have opportunities to consider academic conventions, which include: effective use of literature; sourcing and reviewing information; various forms of academic writing; developing reflective capacity. You will also receive guidance on study skills and strategies, which will enhance previously acquired skills.

These professional skills are transferable and will be valuable not only in the immediate context but throughout your continued education and employment. By engaging with this module, we have set out clearly what we expect of you at foundation and undergraduate level, and will equip you with the confidence, competence and capacity to utilise resources to be able to meet expectations in this environment.

An essential element of this module will be your ability to analyse and reflect on your own learning and the way in which you have applied your knowledge, skill and understanding to any academic context in which you have engaged to date. Communicating effectively through a variety of academic conventions is a key skill for any student and this will be a feature of this module.

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This module is designed to help you gain awareness and understanding of current challenges around Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity and how this impacts upon the Health, Education and Social Sciences sector, preparing you for your future education and journey into practice.

Introducing the Equality Act 2010 as the overarching legislation that focuses on Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity, the module is based on themes that are covered by this Act.  The nine protected characteristics, upon which a person can be discriminated, as laid down in the Equality Act, will be discussed throughout and you will be introduced to case studies relevant to your chosen pathways.

The module will give you the opportunity to discuss debate and reflect upon how challenges around Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity may present themselves. Using problem and inquiry based learning you will have the opportunity to explore and discuss ways of working which can help to minimise discrimination in your own practice.  The module will be made up of lead lectures, taught sessions, group work and individual study.

An essential element of this module will be your ability to analyse and reflect on your own experiences and perceptions, whilst gaining an awareness and appreciating the differences of others. 

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This module is designed to support you in your transition to studying in a Higher Education environment at Birmingham City University, allowing you the opportunity to negotiate learning of a bespoke subject. Under the guidance of tutors, you will be able to direct your learning and identify relevant learning opportunities that you feel enable you to learning more about a specific field of study.

The subject area within this module is student-led, with guidance and facilitation from designated academic and practice support. You will identify an area of study that you would like to review and evaluate, and which relates to your foundation year pathway and indicate programme.

A significant proportion of the module is based around negotiation with academic facilitators to identify extended areas of study and opportunities that are possible to enhance your towards completion of the study.

The module is not reliant on traditional taught subject sessions, although you will be expected to attend classes where you will work in peer learning groups exploring and developing your negotiated study. This approach to studying is closely allied to learning within the workplace.

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This module will focus on enabling you to gain a deeper understanding of the interpersonal skills and behaviours required to work in your chosen area. Through a range of class based and student focused activities you will explore the different concepts of effective interpersonal and professional behaviours essential to your own personal development and progression. By engaging in this module you will  reflect on your own and others  values, beliefs and behaviours identifying how this can impact on the way in which you will  be viewed by others. You will also address the importance of effective communication and how this can lead you to have a more professional approach in your chose area of work.

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An appreciation of the principles of Human Biology plays a central role in the understanding of the workings of the human body. This module is organised into three distinct phases from fundamental principles, to physiological processes, and then disruption of the interplay of such systems in human disorders. This understanding provides a solid foundation for the subsequent study in a range of disciplines from healthcare, allied healthcare, and other disciplines requiring an understanding of human biology. The topics covered will also be underpinned by practical activities. Pre- and post-session activities will help to develop your key transferable skills such as being able to reflect and ask probing questions as well as being able to think independently.  Development of these skills will ensure a growth in maturity and boost your confidence which will lead to unlocking your learning potential.

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Students embarking on health related studies and careers need to have a knowledge and understanding of the factors that contribute to creating good health.  Evidence shows that the majority of these factors lie outside of the healthcare and clinical remit and so it is important that students are aware of the wider social, economic, environmental and political drivers of states of health of the population, group or client group they may encounter.   As health services are reoriented towards prevention of ill-health and health improvement, all health science students need to consider the ways in which they may work in future, to both understand the social determinants of health and the principles and practice of health promotion in order to improve health, prevent ill-health and reduce health inequalities.

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The programme philosophy identifies that nurses need to respond to a rapidly changing health care environment. The change in the nature of nursing and the role of the nurse has led to a desire to clarify the contribution of nurses to patients’ experiences, health and well-being (Griffiths et al, 2008). In order to understand the nurse’s role it is imperative that student nurses following all four fields of practice develop a strong identity with the profession.

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The module will encompass the relevant principles of anatomy, physiology and microbiology to support the development of core nursing skills relevant to all fields of practice. The module is planned with due regard to the issues of care, compassion and communication, organisational aspects of care, infection prevention and control, nutrition and fluid maintenance, and medicines management. These essential nursing skills will be underpinned with a sound physiological basis, particularly with reference to patient observations. The module focuses upon the development of core skills that include communication to match the needs of a diverse patient population. This will enable content to reflect the course aims of producing a graduate who is knowledgeable and effective at registration and able to deliver high quality care for all. Successful completion of this module should facilitate students to practice in a compassionate, respectful way maintaining dignity and wellbeing and communicating effectively.

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Nurses will take a central role in the 21st century in delivering services for those who are sick and in promoting the health and wellbeing of individuals, in particular identifying any barriers that may impede recovery. Therefore:

• The aim of the module is to develop compassionate, caring nurses who are capable of delivering value-based care that respects individuals’ dignity.
• Emphasis will be on promoting understanding of the delivery of services to improve health and wellbeing and to reduce health inequalities.
• Nursing will be explored within the context of current socioeconomic, health and demographic trends. Concepts of diversity and equality will be explicit throughout the module content.
• Students will gain an awareness of health promotion/education to tackle health inequalities and support behavioural changes in an individual.

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In this module students will be able to develop their enquiry based approach to learning through utilisation of a variety of learning and teaching methods and technologies. Through doing so students will be enabled to identify and access a range of sources of information to best inform clinical practice and meet the changing needs of the client base, though the use of evidenced based practice.

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The focus of this module is to expand the student’s knowledge of and ability to apply, nursing values and evidence based practice (PV-EBP). This will be achieved via teaching critical analysis, updating academic writing skills appropriate for level 5, database searching and presentation skills via presenting a group work prepared poster.

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Nursing has been described as both an art and science. The artistry of nursing can be seen in the reflective, creative and innovative ways of practising caring, whereby individual patients and clients are empowered and the nurse’s interpretation of the situation, and their initiative, realises change in a constantly changing and often unpredictable clinical situation or contemporary healthcare setting. The scientific element of nursing practice can be seen to be comprised of critical analytical skills and application of a firm evidence base in the purposeful and practical response to health care needs.

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This module aims to prepare students to develop their knowledge, skills and professional values to deliver high quality essential and complex care to all service users. It is concerned with human experiences as individuals, families, groups, and communities across the life span.

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The content of the module will introduce a range of common assessment tools and will provide you with the knowledge and skills to enable you to assess and plan care for an acutely ill adult in a range of settings.

To help contextualise the theories you will meet three case studies who are used as exemplars to whom you will apply the assessment process and attendant tools. The relevant principles of anatomy and physiology will be introduced and will be applied to the module case studies to help you understand what is happening to these patients and why.

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This module will build upon the second year module “professional values and evidence based practice” and furthers students understanding of research-based evidence.
In this module students continue to assess the relevance, quality and application of research-based evidence. Students are required to write a literature review, consider the research findings arising from the literature review, propose a nursing practice change based on this literature review findings and then consider issues relevant for changing nursing practice.

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This module aims to prepare students to be responsive to the changing health needs of adult service users with complex health needs. The use of case studies will directly reflect the hub and spoke placement model focusing on continually changing situations within a broad variety of both community and hospital based settings. It will allow learners to build upon earlier work in the curriculum to ensure that they develop robust recognition skills of early pathophysiological changes so they can be active participants in maintaining health.

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A student centred approach to teaching in preparing students to work within an ever changing healthcare environment, helping students to ease their transition from student nurse into registered practitioner.

• To enable the student to draw on reflective experiences and knowledge gained during the course in order to develop problem-solving skills
• To foster the development of a critical approach to the management of the student's own role in the delivery of health care. The module will be delivered using a Problem Based Learning approach throughout

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Contemporary health and social care issues are a subject that are threaded throughout the programme. There have been many important changes in the NHS arising from the Health and Social Care Act for example commissioning of services and greater patient/service user choice. The government’s response to the Francis Report (“Patients First and Foremost” DoH 2013) and reports from other professional, statutory and regulatory bodies have identified issues that impact on nursing students and their future role as Registered Nurses.

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