Adult Nursing BSc (Hons) with NMC registration

The adult nursing course combines theoretical study with clinical experience within the NHS, independent and voluntary sectors. Our course will prepare you for a rewarding career caring for adults with acute, chronic and complex healthcare needs.

You deserve a positive teaching and learning experience, where you feel part of a supportive and nurturing community. That’s why most students will enjoy an innovative approach to learning using block teaching, where you will study one module at a time. You’ll benefit from regular assessments - rather than lots of exams at the end of the year - and a simple timetable that allows you to engage with your subject and enjoy other aspects of university life such as sports, societies, meeting friends and discovering your new city. By studying with the same peers and tutor for each block, you’ll build friendships and a sense of belonging.

Overview

Donna Edwards, Senior Lecturer. Adult Nursing, talks about the benefits of studying Nursing with Registration at DMU.

Adult nurses play crucial roles in healthcare settings by restoring and promoting health, supporting patients and their families, and responding to the varied healthcare needs of individual patients or communities.

During this course – thanks to strong links with service providers across the region – we can offer a range of placement opportunities embedded within all three years of the course. These opportunities are in field specific areas including dementia care homes, coronary care units, specialist medicine discharge teams, brain injury units, along with GP Surgeries and District Nursing Teams.

Placements are typically provided across the East Midlands, in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland and sometimes in surrounding counties. In your placement, you will work alongside practice supervisors and practice assessors to learn the practical application of nursing relevant to your chosen field.

During the course, students also have access to updated facilities, utilising simulation suites, VR technology and LearningSpace software. LearningSpace enables a 360-degree view of your simulation training environment which can be recorded and played back at any time, to help with assessments and self-reflection of your practice.

With an excellent reputation and good links with the local NHS trust and other potential employers, you will benefit from our NMC-accredited course when applying for jobs. This course is structured through Inter-professional (IP) learning. Allowing you to collaborate with other allied healthcare students and professionals, and gain a wider understand of issues and debates in the sector.

You will share learning opportunities with students from the other fields of nursing practice but an also engage in field of practice specific learning opportunities throughout the programme, to ensure that you develop your identity, knowledge and skills within the adult nursing field of practice.

Key features

The programme is accredited by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) and upon graduation of the programme, you will be eligible to register with the NMC.

Benefit from the teaching and research expertise of a highly-skilled and qualified team of academics, whose passion and commitment enables us to deliver high-quality professional education to our diverse studentship.
Develop your nursing skills and competencies in immersive facilities including mock hospital wards and a moving and handling suite which come complete with the latest simulation teaching resources.
Our strong links with local health and social care providers allow you to experience real-world situations through clinical placements embedded in all three years of the course.
DMU is one of the few universities in the country to offer block teaching, an innovative approach to teaching where you will study one or two modules at a time, instead of several at once. Benefit from faster feedback, a simplified timetable and a better study-life balance.
Have an opportunity to gain international experience as part of your studies with our DMU Global programme. Recently our adult nursing students visited the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to consider the incidence of acute and chronic kidney disease in the UAE, exploring treatment options, and visiting world class clinical areas.

For further details please contact:

Sam Humphrey

Programme Leader BSc Nursing (hons) with NMC registration

bscnursing@dmu.ac.uk

The NHS Learning Support Fund provides eligible students with additional financial support whilst studying for their degree:

training grant of £5,000 per year
parental support payment of £2,000 per year to help with childcare
help towards additional travel and accommodation costs to clinical placements over your normal daily travel costs
an exceptional hardship fund of up to £3,000 per student per academic year

Students must be eligible for tuition fees and maintenance support from the Student Loans Company (including certain residency criteria) to be eligible. Read more about the grant and eligibility criteria.

Nursing stories

More courses like this

UK
EU/International

Institution code: D26

UCAS course code: B700

Start date: September

Duration: Three years full-time (45 week year).

Location: De Montfort University Leicester UK

Fees and funding:

2025/26 fees: £9,535* per year

*subject to the government, as is expected, passing legislation to formalise the increase.

Additional costs: You may incur additional costs for this programme, including the cost of travelling to and from project/placement locations and the purchase of appropriate footwear for clinical practice environments.

How to apply

Order a prospectus

Book an Open Day

Submit a study-related enquiry

Institution code: D26

UCAS course code: B700

Start date: September

Duration: Three years full-time (45 week year)

Location: De Montfort University Leicester UK

Fees and funding:

2024/25 tuition fees for international students: £16,840

Find out more about available funding for international students.

Additional costs: Here at DMU we provide excellent learning resources, including the Kimberlin Library and specialist workshops and studios. However, you should be aware that sometimes you may incur additional costs for this programme.

How to apply

Order a prospectus

Submit a study-related enquiry

Entry criteria

GCSEs

Five GCSEs at grade C/4 or above including: English and Maths

Passes in Functional Key Skills in Level 2 Maths and English will only be accepted if the qualification and awarding organisation is regulated by Ofqual.

Plus one of the following:

A Level

A minimum of 112 UCAS points from 2 or more A levels, including at least two subjects at C or above. We do not accept General Studies or UCAS points achieved through music exams.

T Levels

Merit in Health overall

BTEC

BTEC National Diploma - normally in Health and Social Care or Applied Science at DMM
BTEC Extended Diploma - normally in Health and Social Care or Applied Science at DMM

Access course

AHE (Nursing and Midwifery)
AHE (Science)
AHE (Health Professions)

Pass in the QAA Access to HE with a minimum of 96 UCAS points

GCSE English and Maths or functional skills level 2 qualifications in English and Maths are required.

We will normally require students to have had a break from full-time education before undertaking the Access course.

International Baccalaureate 26+ points

English language requirements

If English is not your first language an IELTS score of 7 overall when you start the course is essential, with a 7.0 in all components except writing which should be at least 6.5. English language tuition, delivered by our British Council accredited Centre for English Language Learning (CELL), is available both before and during the course.

Interview: Yes

Professional conduct during the event will also contribute to the decision-making regarding an applicant’s application.

The recruitment process for this course includes assessing applicants by the content of their personal statement and interview for the core values of the NHS constitution.

Interviews will be delivered via Microsoft Teams.

Work experience: Yes

Applicants are required to demonstrate relevant work experience. This would normally include experience from formal or informal employment, school or college work placements, voluntary work and other relevant life experiences.

Non-academic requirements

As well as academic requirements, you will also be required to meet and fulfil non-academic requirements which are stated below:

Self-Declaration Form clearance
Occupational Health clearance
Enhanced DBS disclosure clearance

You submit an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service disclosure application form before starting the course (if you are overseas you will also need to submit a criminal records certificate from your home country), which needs to be cleared in accordance with DMU’s admissions policy. Contact us for up-to-date information.

We strongly advise that you opt for the DBS update service as it is possible that future placement providers may request a recent DBS and not one from the start of the programme. If you decide not to opt for this service then you will have to pay for the DBS again if requested by your placement provided – the university will not cover this cost.

You must meet and fulfil all non-academic requirements before 18 July 2025. Failure to meet this deadline may result in your offer being withdrawn.

Availability: This course has a limited number of places so that we can ensure a good quality placement experience. In exceptional circumstances this may result in the course becoming full before you have completed the admissions process. In this situation we will offer you the opportunity to be considered for a place on an alternative course.

Structure and assessment

First year

Block 1: Practice Experience 1

Block 2: Foundations of Anatomy, Physiology and Pharmacology

Block 3: Influences on Wellbeing

Block 4: Foundations of Field of Practise

Second year

Block 1: Practice Experience 2

Block 2: Research and Evidence Based-Practice

Block 3: Primary Care – Patient Journey 1

Block 4: Acute Care – Patient Journey 2

Third year

Block 1: Practice Experience 3

Block 2: Critical inquiry and research proposal

Block 3: Leadership and Service Improvement

Block 4: Managing Complexities in Nursing Practise

View more detailed module information.

Note: All modules are indicative and based on the current academic session. Course information is correct at the time of publication and is subject to review. Exact modules may, therefore, vary for your intake in order to keep content current. If there are changes to your course we will, where reasonable, take steps to inform you as appropriate.

Learning is supported by a strong system of personal tutors, teaching teams, academic assessors, practice work placements and enthusiastic practice supervisors and assessors. Teaching methods include:

Lectures (face to face and online)
Seminars
Webinars
Workshops
Presentations
Tutorials
Simulation activities
Clinical skills learning
Enquiry-based problem solving
Independent e-learning
Peer learning sets

You will complete blocks of clinical placements 40 hours per week and blocks comprised of theory and independent learning hours up to an equivalent of 37.5 hours each week.

Students in practice placements are allocated an academic assessor, practice supervisors and practice assessors to help develop and support learning in the practice context.

Inter-professional (IP) learning allows you to mix with other students and professionals, and understand wider issues and debates in the sector.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council introduced new national educational standards, the Future Nurse Standards of Proficiency for registered Nurses, in 2018. The curriculum from September 2021 onwards is based on these standards for nurse education.

Assessments

Assessments fall at the end of each block and are used to assess your theory and practice knowledge. We use a variety of methods that are designed to support you with developing skills vital to a career in nursing. These include:

Examinations – demonstrating resilience and working under pressure

Presentations and Vivas – developing verbal communication skills and the ability to effective communicate complex material

Essays – building strong written skills to support with communicating complex nursing information

Reflective practice – develop skills to engage with written reflection as required by the NMC

Teaching contact hours

Contact hours in a typical week will depend to some extent on the modules you are studying. However, typically you will have up to 16 contact hours of teaching per week.

The teaching team is made up of registered nurses and other health care professionals, who are qualified teachers and many actively engaged in research.

A number of our lecturers have doctoral level qualifications and bring their areas of specialism in to the breadth of teaching on the course.

The majority of the Adult Nursing lecturing team have also gained qualifications in different care specialties, and have a major role in teaching NHS staff and qualified nurses on our range of professional CPD and post-registration courses.

Accreditation

This programme is accredited by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), and has been developed to reflect the requirements of the NMC (2018) Future Nurse proficiencies standards of Nursing Education.

The nursing team have an excellent reputation and good links with the local NHS trust and other potential employers, which is beneficial when you are applying for jobs.

Facilities and features

Clinical skills and simulation facilities for Health and Life Sciences

At DMU we provide clinical skills and simulation teaching and practice that will enhance your theoretical learning by using a realistic, immersive environment that mimics the practice environments you will encounter during your clinical placements and in your career beyond. This provides our students with opportunities to develop cognitive, practical and interpersonal skills through a comprehensive programme of simulated experiences and clinical skills sessions, allowing you to develop the confidence to perform in the real world.

DMU have invested in extending and enhancing the range of clinical skills and simulation facilities available for health and life science students. We currently have two dedicated spaces on campus that provide flexible teaching and assessment spaces to meet a wide range of student’s needs.

Hawthorn building houses two ward environments, a dedicated midwifery suite, radiography suite and bespoke manual handling and paramedicine spaces, alongside contemporary analytical chemistry and formulation laboratories.

Heritage House offers three flexible teaching wards, a soft furnished space, audiology suite and observation room along with four dedicated clinical assessment rooms. Students will benefit from audio /visual technology that allows sessions to be recorded and live streamed, facilitating remote learning opportunities. This technology also enhances your learning opportunities through the use of meaningful debriefing of teaching and simulation sessions allowing you to reflect on your practice and improve in both ability and confidence before taking your learning into the real world.

Library and learning zones

On campus, the main Kimberlin Library offers a space where you can work, study and access a vast range of print materials, with computer stations, laptops, plasma screens and assistive technology also available.

As well as providing a physical space in which to work, we offer online tools to support your studies, and our extensive online collection of resources accessible from our Library website, e-books, specialised databases and electronic journals and films which can be remotely accessed from anywhere you choose.

We will support you to confidently use a huge range of learning technologies, including the Virtual Learning Environment, Collaborate Ultra, DMU Replay, MS Teams, Turnitin and more. Alongside this, you can access LinkedIn Learning and learn how to use Microsoft 365, and study support software such as mind mapping and note-taking through our new Digital Student Skills Hub.

The library staff offer additional support to students, including help with academic writing, research strategies, literature searching, reference management and assistive technology. There is also a ‘Just Ask’ service for help and advice, live LibChat, online workshops, tutorials and drop-ins available from our Learning Services, and weekly library live chat sessions that give you the chance to ask the library teams for help.

More flexible ways to learn

We offer an equitable and inclusive approach to learning and teaching for all our students. Known as the Universal Design for Learning (UDL), our teaching approach has been recognised as sector leading. UDL means we offer a wide variety of support, facilities and technology to all students, including those with disabilities and specific learning differences.

Just one of the ways we do this is by using ‘DMU Replay’ – a technology providing all students with anytime access to audio and/or visual material of lectures. This means students can revise taught material in a way that suits them best, whether it's replaying a recording of a class or adapting written material shared in class using specialist software.

Opportunities and careers

Placements

As part of this course, you will have the opportunity to complete a number of placements, which offer invaluable professional experience. Placements are typically provided across the East Midlands, in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland and sometimes in surrounding counties. Students must therefore be prepared to travel to access placement opportunities which are an essential component of the programme.

In your placement, you will work alongside practice supervisors and practice assessors to learn the practical application of nursing relevant to your chosen field. Placements are typically based in a variety of acute and community health environments and social care settings, including caring for individuals in their own homes.

Specific adult placements could be in the following areas:

Acute placement settings (emergency care, high dependency and critical care, theatre and recovery)
Surgery (orthopaedics, neurosurgery, gynaecology and urosurgery, vascular and cardiac surgery)
Medicine (cardiology, respiratory medicine, urology and renal medicine, gastroenterology, endocrinology)
Specialist nursing teams (heart failure nurse specialist, diabetes specialist)
Community placement settings (community hospitals, community nursing teams)
Nursing home placements
GP Practice placements
Outpatients (fracture clinic, cardiology clinic, eye clinic, dermatology, sexual health)
Prison nursing

Placement time includes a range of different shift patterns across a 24-hour cycle.

Further information

All students will be required to adhere to a uniform policy when in practice, in which they must be bare below the elbow. This is non-negotiable as it is an infection prevention requirement to safeguard the health and safety of all students and service users.

Graduate careers

There are a wide range of opportunities open for adult nurses after qualification. You could specialise in a certain field such as operating theatres, district nursing or intensive care or become a Nurse Specialist. You can also move into teaching, clinical research or management. The opportunities are never-ending and your personal tutor will support you and guide you through the process when considering different career pathways closer to qualification.

Upon successfully completing the course, nursing graduates are eligible to apply for NMC registration and can apply to work in a variety of roles throughout the NHS, charitable and private healthcare sectors. Registered nurses can start on a salary of £28,407 (NHS pay scales 2023/24). Once qualified, our postgraduate study opportunities can further enhance your knowledge and skills, including Post Registation Education, professional doctorates and master’s degrees such as Physician Associate Studies MSc.

DMU Global

DMU Global is our innovative international experience programme, which aims to enrich your studies and expand your cultural horizons – helping you to become a global graduate, equipped to meet the needs of employers across the world. Through DMU Global, we offer a wide range of opportunities including on-campus and UK activities, overseas study, internships, faculty-led field trips, volunteering and international exchanges.

Students on this course have recently undertaken a DMU Global trip to the UAE where they were able to coincide their visit with World Kidney Day, and explored the incidence of acute and chronic kidney disease in the UAE. As well as meeting with kidney nurse specialists and visiting world-class care facilities, students were able to enjoy taking in cultural experiences such as visiting the Burj Khalifa.

Take your next steps

Nine halls of residence and around 2,300 rooms, all of which are within easy walking distance of the campus.

Run by students for students, DSU offers more than 150 societies and almost 40 different sports clubs for you to get involved in.

Adult Nursing BSc (Hons) with NMC registration

Block teaching designed around you