Nursing Foundation Year

Our full-time Nursing Foundation Year will provide you with the necessary skills and knowledge to progress with confidence to your chosen nursing degree course.

What you will study

This foundation year course is designed to equip you with important foundational knowledge, confidence and good learning habits to transition successfully to university study.

As a foundation student, you’ll study full-time for one year at foundation level. You’ll gain an understanding of a nurse’s role and develop an awareness of the values and beliefs underpinning modern healthcare. You’ll become familiar with person-centred care and gain insights into interdisciplinary working. You’ll learn basic anatomy and physiology, writing and working with healthcare evidence, to prepare you for the next step of your nurse training.

After successful completion of the foundation year, you can progress to one of our nursing degree programmes:

Doing a foundation year has been so beneficial. I have gone into the first year of my Adult Nursing BSc with so much knowledge, a newfound confidence and the ability to support other students in my cohort. Cat, Adult Nursing BSc with Foundation Year

Teaching and learning

The foundation year’s academic year is divided into two semesters of 15 weeks each. Each semester consists of a period of teaching, revision/directed learning and assessment. Assessments in the first semester are formative and designed to offer multiple opportunities for practice and feedback.

You’ll be taught by a multidisciplinary team of lecturers including healthcare professionals with experience working in the NHS. Many are also active researchers, investigating topics such as cancer, dementia, ethics and compassionate practice as well as research into teaching and learning. The Nursing Foundation Year teaching team is:

Rachel Stead, Lecturer and Programme Lead (Learning Development)
Emily Hilling, Lecturer (Adult Nursing)
Linda Moore, Lecturer (Children and Young Person Nursing).

Day-to-day learning

Your teaching will be delivered through a combination of:

Group work (e.g. discussion groups)
Lectures
Online learning
Practical classes in the simulation centre
Seminars
Tutorials.

Outside of these, you’ll be expected to carry out independent study, including preparatory reading and seminar preparation activities, practice writing for weekly submissions and developing your summative coursework.

All foundation students are assigned a personal tutor to support you while you study.

Assessment

We use a variety of methods to assess you, including:

Annotated bibliography
Essay
Open book examination
Group project written account or spoken viva
Reflective account
Presentation
ePortfolio.

The foundation year for nursing allowed me to grow and develop my skills, particularly my writing skills. This set me up perfectly for progressing to the Adult Nursing BSc and working on my dissertation. Eloise, Adult Nursing BSc with Foundation Year

Facilities

You’ll benefit from our multimillion-pound facilities, home to our Clinical Simulation Centre, that includes two wards, an operating theatre and a community flat. You’ll be introduced to some of the equipment found in the NHS to carry out basic observations.

Our virtual environments, lifelike manikins and actors, will transport you to the centre of hospital wards, so you can practise your skills and get a taste of scenarios you may face during your training and when you’re fully qualified.

Take a virtual tour