Nursing (General)  (NSS1)

The purpose of the Bachelor of Science (Nursing) General Nursing is to prepare students to obtain a level 8 honours award and to register as a nurse with the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland (NMBI).  BSc General Nursing students will be prepared to promote health, wellbeing and dignity across the lifespan through skilled, ethical and careful practice, based on  best evidence and professional judgement. This is achieved though the development of lifelong learning skills for their personal and professional development of knowledge, skills, competencies and attitudes over the duration of the programme. This programme facilitates the learner to be active, reflexive, autonomous, and motivated through engagement in innovative teaching and learning activities throughout the duration of the BSc Nursing programme. The curriculum is student-focused and research informed.  This is evidenced through the formation of identity, resilience, integrity, leadership capability, commitment, and curiosity for the provision of holistic, safe, ethical, compassionate and evidence based nursing care. The curriculum is continuously developed with stakeholder involvement to ensure it meets the current and future needs of learners, and the complex and evolving healthcare system (community, primary and tertiary care).  A wide variety of innovative pedagogies and technologies ensure that teaching, learning and assessment approaches encourage the incremental development of learning. Teaching and learning takes place in multiple environments across the university and clinical practice settings.  A major strength of the programme is the partnership with our professional  clinical partners across the healthcare sector.  Programmes are delivered by experts in the fields of education and professional clinical practice. This ensures that learners experience coherent, cumulative, research-based educational programmes that meet all academic and professional regulations, standards and requirements. A unique strength of this programme is that fifty percent of the programme is clinically focused and students receive  supported clinical experience from  stage one of their programme.

1 - On successful completion of this programme students should be able to: Apply professional and disciplinary knowledge, skills, competencies and attitudes to achieve safe, competent and, compassionate nursing practice across the lifespan.
2 - Demonstrate knowledge and critical understanding of the key concepts , current advances, and theoretical approaches in the discipline of general nursing.
3 - Employ creative, reflective, and problem solving skills to ensure clinical decision making and care delivery is safe, effective, evidence based and person-centered.
4 - Be independent life long learners who will engage in continuing professional development throughout their career.
5 - Critically analyse, evaluate and apply research findings in order to advance nursing practice and health care delivery.
6 - Communicate with relevant stakeholders in a manner that is respectful, effective and professional.
7 - Collaborate effectively in partnership with and for persons who are service users, their families, and other members of the interdisciplinary team in a competent, compassionate, ethical and professional manner.
8 - Lead and effect change in their practice area, promoting innovation by managing and delivering evidence based care.
9 - Measure the extent of their learning and how it impacts on healthcare delivery and outcomes through reflection and systematic evaluation.
10 - Demonstrates a critical awareness of the parameters for professional nursing practice within the relevant ethical, legal and regulatory frameworks.
11 - Use technology effectively to facilitate adaptation to a dynamic societal and health systems environment.

If you are interested in a rewarding, exciting and challenging career in healthcare, then nursing is for you.

As a registered nurse, you have a wide range of clinical career options open to you, and with your academic and professional qualifications, you can choose to travel anywhere in the world. A degree in nursing provides you with the expert knowledge and clinical skills needed to care for people in a wide range of healthcare settings.

A nursing degree is a professional degree that allows the graduate to apply for registration as a nurse with the professional regulatory authority for nursing in Ireland, An Bord Altranais. A degree in Nursing at UCD is a four-year (or four-and-a-half-year for DN116 and DN117) honours degree that aims to develop knowledgeable, competent and caring professionals, by combining theoretical and clinical elements.

Students taking a degree in nursing pursue one of three modes of study as follows:
- BSc (Nursing) General Nursing (4 years) DN110/DN111
- BSc (Nursing) Psychiatric Nursing (4 years) DN120/DN121
- BSc (Nursing) Children's and General Nursing (Integrated) (4.5 years) DN116/DN117

Students interested in taking the General Nursing (DN110/DN111) or Children's and General (Integrated) Nursing (DN116/DN117) options will experience a variety of care settings, including acute medical and surgical, accident & emergency, operating theatre, intensive care, maternity and childcare, care of older persons, children's nursing and community care.

Students hoping to take the Psychiatric Nursing option (DN120/DN121) are placed in care settings such as acute assessment and admission, weight restoration programmes, addiction services, forensic services, child and adolescent services, intellectual disability services and community care.

Each nursing mode is pre-chosen through the CAO system and the programme content varies according to the mode being followed. However, all degree students follow a number of common modules in both the life and human sciences.

Examples of subjects studied in the life sciences include:
- Physics
- Chemistry
- Biochemistry
- Pharmacology
- Microbiology
- Structure & function of the human body

Examples of subjects studied in the human sciences include:
- Psychology
- Sociology
- Health & social policy
- Ethics

Core modules covered on the General Nursing option in particular include: Clinical Placement Operating Theatre and Clinical Placement High Dependency in Stage 2; Clinical Placement Maternity Care and Clinical Placement Out-patient Department in Stage 3; and Social Science for Healthcare in Stage 4.

Some core modules specific to the Psychiatric Nursing programme include: Foundations in Mental Health in Stage 1; Clinical Placement Addiction Services and Pharmacology & Pathology in Stage 2; Acute Mental Illness and Therapeutic Interventions in Stage 3; and Management & Quality Improvement and Health & Social Policy in Stage 4.

Core modules expressly found on the Children's & General Nursing programme include: The Child in Health & Wellness and Child & Family Centred Nursing in Stage 2; Child and Adolescent Special Healthcare Needs in Stage 3; Bioscience Applied to Nursing in Stage 4; and Clinical Placement Children's & General in the final stage.

The degree programmes emphasise the development of knowledge for clinical practice - the science of nursing science - and the development of a range of competencies needed for professional practice as a registered nurse. All three nursing degree programmes incorporate periods of theoretical and clinical instruction at each of the four/four-and-a-half stages and include a period of internship in clinical practice under the supervision of registered nurses as a member of the care team in the final year, for which you are paid a salary.

Depending on your chosen mode of study, you will undertake a range of theoretical and clinical modules that are designed to meet the professional requirements for registration in the particular division of the Register of Nurses.

You will study in state-of-the-art facilities in Ireland at the UCD School of Nursing, Midwifery & Health Systems building, located at the university's Health Sciences Centre. You will take your clinical placements within the School's partner university hospitals and in other healthcare institutions and settings.

In second year, you have the opportunity to study in Europe for a trimester. See www.ucd.ie/nmhs/courses/international/ erasmusexchange.

A degree in nursing is a passport to a rewarding and challenging career. Opportunities within Ireland are excellent with a wide variety of health service providers offering positions for registered nurses. There are also numerous opportunities for specialisation in any one of a large number of fields of nursing and healthcare. The nurse in the modern health services has excellent career prospects and has a wide range of opportunities for career advancement beyond initial registration. A graduate of nursing or midwifery from UCD has the ability to travel throughout Europe, the Middle East, the USA, Canada, Australia and beyond.

UCD Nursing Midwifery and Health Systems Programme Office
Health Sciences Centre
Belfield,
Dublin 4

Tel: +353 1 716 6407
Email: nursing@ucd.ie
Web: www.ucd.ie/nmhs

Stage 1

Students are required to take all core modules. There are no elective modules in stage 1. Students must successfully complete all of the requirements for Stage 1 clinical practice module before progressing onto Stage 2.

Stage 2

Students take all core modules. They also take one option/elective module in autumn trimester. Please do not select an elective in the spring trimester as you will be on clinical practice. For each theory module successfully completed at level 2, 5 ECTS credits will be awarded. A total of 30 ECTS credits will be awarded for successfully completed clinical practice at level 2. Students must successfully complete all of the requirements for Stage 2 clinical practice module before progressing onto Stage 3.

Stage 3

Students take all core modules. They also take two option/elective modules in the spring trimester. Please do not select an elective in the autumn trimester as you will be on clinical practice. For each theory module successfully completed at Level 3, 5 ECTS credits will be awarded. A total of 25 ECTS credits will be awarded for successfully completed clinical practice at Level 3. Students must successfully complete all of the requirements for Stage 3 clinical practice module before progressing onto Stage 4.

Stage 4

Students will take ten (10) core modules, five (5) of which will be clinical modules. Students must successfully complete all practice placement modules for their stage before they complete the programme.

See the UCD Assessment website for further details

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