Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is celebrating the amazing achievements of our student nurses who have completed an innovative undergraduate degree course, designed to develop more nurses for the future.
The BSc Nursing (Adult) Programme (BNAP) is now in its fourth year and has been hugely successful, with 19 out of 30 qualified nurses securing a permanent job working at our hospitals.
The degree is an innovative partnership aimed at increasing the number of qualified nurses. The BSc Nursing (Adult) Programme is an adult nursing degree that runs in partnership with the University of Bolton. As a Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) approved programme, there is a 50 - 50% split between theory and practice, however students spend 75% of their time within a hospital setting between both the Preston and Chorley Hospital sites.
25% of the theory sessions are delivered within the hospital premises, enabling the students to access clinical experts more easily. The students are taught in small groups of no more than 30, they are supported by clinical nurse tutors, and have skills weeks prior to their clinical placements on our wards, enabling them to develop the confidence needed to care for our patients under the direct supervision of our fantastic staff.
During their final Clinical Skills Week, students are able to learn unique procedures such as venepuncture, cannulation, catheterisation and administration of medications in preparation for their future roles as staff nurses.
On Friday 17th August 2018, the year’s cohort who have been studying on this programme since September 2015, will come to the end of their three-year course.
We will celebrate this achievement with all of the students, their mentors, ward staff, University of Bolton lecturers and other senior members of the hospital, to commemorate their achievement on their official last day of being a student on the course during a special ceremony held at Chorley District Hospital. The day will include a presentation of an engraved hospital badge awarded to each of the 20 students. Graduates who continue at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals will be employed predominately on the ward on which they have just completed their final placement in order to make a smoother transition into working life and allow the student to work within their area of interest.
Bev Duncan, Clinical Nurse Tutor Lead at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals, said: “The students have all performed extremely well for the duration of their course and it is a great achievement that so many of the students who completed the course will be staying in full time employment with the hospital. We are really proud of the success of this course and the influence that it has had on other services'.
At Lancashire Teaching Hospitals, the 9th cohort is now set to commence, and it is growing in size each year with 30 students signed up for the September 2018 class.
Karen Partington, Chief Executive of Lancashire Teaching Hospitals, said: “We are passionate and committed to developing quality assured education and we have a history of success with the delivery of the undergraduate medical programme. That so many of graduate nurses have chosen to begin their career with us is testament to the excellence of the teaching programme, and shows that this is a great place to work.”