The practice learning structure

Practice learning has been organised into eight practice learning pathways, one of which each student must complete depending on their core practice-base. Please check with the Practice Tutor which pathway the student is following:

The practice learning pathway which your student is following can be accessed by clicking on one of the above.

The practice learning pathways for the BSc (Hons) Nursing (adult nursing and mental health nursing) are based on the commitment to provide practice learning opportunities that support the development of nursing excellence through the delivery of evidence-based, person-centered practice in the

promotion of mental and physical health and well-being
delivery of care interventions
management of service user care
spirit of team-working
facilitation of the learning of self and others
provision of inspirational leadership
role of innovator promoting continuous service improvement
management of change
context of personal and corporate governance.

The practice learning pathways are therefore designed to enable students to gain a breadth and depth of experience across a diverse range of care contexts and service user groups across the life span. Practice will be undertaken within a framework of inter-professional working and cross-agency working.

To achieve the above the practice learning pathways are based on a specification informed by:

the primacy of service user and carer well-being to nursing practice
the requirement to comply with NMC requirements for practice learning
coherent and consistent application of those requirements
partner, service user, carer and student views on what the profile of the nurse of the future should be

Your student must complete a total of 2300 hours of practice learning across the programme. During stage one (academic level one study) 600 hours of practice-based learning has to be completed, during stage 2 (academic level two) 855 hours and during stage 3 (academic level 3) 855 hours. Within each stage there is one practice module with a sibling theory module.

The practice learning hours within each of the practice modules are arranged into four Practice Learning Periods (PLPs). The hours allocated to each practice learning period must be completed within that period in other than exceptional circumstances when any variation should be negotiated between the mentor, practice tutor and student

Activity: Getting familiar with the Practice Learning Pathways

Open one of the four Practice Learning Pathway documents.

You will see that the pathway begins with the core principles, which underpin the organisation of the practice learning pathways. Familiarise yourself with this information first. Remember you can come back to these at any time to check them.

Once you feel confident that you understand these principles, move on and look at the tables. These provide the detail about the timing and duration of each of the practice learning periods along with the focus of each practice learning period.

Next section: Practice learning in the core practice-base