Did you know?
We know that making decisions about where to study can be daunting, so here's some key facts about BSc(Hons) Child Nursing and BSc(Hons) Midwifery so you can feel reassured about your choices.
You'll be employable
Our courses are regulated by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), and there’s always a demand in the profession, both here in the UK and abroad.
You're in it together
Throughout our courses, we encourage you to learn from each other, and share your experiences. You’ll also get to work with service users and find out about their experiences of particular health conditions and their treatment, allowing you to develop as a professional and understand situations from both a patient’s and a professional’s point of view.
You can be recognised for your achievements
We are very proud of our students and love to see them shine. Our students are nominated and shortlisted in the ‘Student of the Year’ categories of the National Student Nursing Times Awards on a regular basis – which is fantastic! We’ve had winners in 2015 and 2016, including Roxanne Williams who won for Children’s Nursing last year. The success continues this year with ten nominations across several categories, including Danielle Elizabeth Hunt for Student of the Year – Children’s Nursing. Watch this space to see how our students do at the awards ceremony in April – and who knows, in the future this could be you!
You'll get extra qualifications
As well as getting your degree, as a student midwife you’ll also have the chance to gain not one but two additional qualifications! You’ll get the skills to perform the Newborn and Infant Physical Examination (NIPE) on newborn babies, which has previously only been performed by junior doctors. This is a rare offer in UK universities so you’ll stand out from the crowd. You’ll also gain stage 1 accreditation from the World Health Organisation UNICEF Baby Friendly – the highest level available from a university – which demonstrates standards in breast feeding and midwifery practices.
You'll get hands on
The structure of our course means that you’ll spend 50 per cent of your time on placement, and 50 per cent at the University. The placements are in blocks allowing you to really embed into your work environment, and get the most out of the time you spend there. Birmingham is a large, multicultural city, and we have links with several hospitals across the region including Birmingham Children’s Hospital and Birmingham Women’s Hospital, which will give you access to a plethora of cultures and conditions to really enhance your knowledge and training. As a midwife, you’ll need to have 40 births under your belt by the time you graduate. So, in addition to clinical practice sessions on campus, it’s hands on all the way!
You’ll access fab facilities
Our excellent facilities include our skills rooms such as two hospital wards with beds, cots and incubators in, as well as both birthing and baby simulation mannequins that are ready to be your patient, an operating theatre, a laboratory, a home environment room and an x-ray suite. We also have our SPACE room (Skills Practice and Care Enhancement) where you can practice procedures and use specific equipment to improve your practical skills. 727 midwifery students accessed the facilities in SPACE during the last academic year. You can also access our Virtual Case Creator (VCC) and take part in serious online simulation games.
You'll be taught by experts
Our staff are all registered health care professionals in the field in which they teach – so our midwifery staff are midwives and our child nursing staff are child nurses! They have a wide range of clinical experiences and interests to really enhance your learning and have worked both in inner city and rural environments, both in the UK and abroad.