Programme Vision and Values

The BSc Nursing/Midwifery programmes are to prepare nurses/midwives to promote health, wellbeing and dignity across the lifespan through skilled, ethical and careful practice based on the best evidence and professional judgement i . This is achieved though the development of lifelong learning skills for the personal and professional development of knowledge, skills/competencies and attitudes over the duration of the programme, leading to level 8 award and professional registration with the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland. Programmes facilitate the learner to be active, reflexive, autonomous, and motivated by engagement in innovative teaching and learning activities throughout the duration of the student experience. Curricula are student-focused, research-led and research informed, with a scholarly approach to programme design ii, aimed at inspiring a passion and excellence in the learner’s discipline by forming identity, integrity, commitment and curiosity for the provision of holistic, safe, ethical, compassionate evidence based nursing/midwifery care. Curricula are developed with stakeholder iii involvement to ensure they meet the current and future needs of learners, and a complex and evolving healthcare system iv . The BSc programmes are designed with the learner at the centre. A wide variety of pedagogical approaches to teaching, learning and assessment enhance the student experience, encouraging the incremental development of learning v . Learning takes place in multiple environments across the university and clinical practice environments. The partnership with our professional and allied health professional clinical partners across the healthcare sector in programme design and delivery is a major strength. Learning is facilitated by the use of a variety of innovative pedagogies and technologies to meet emerging student, professional and health system needs vi . This commitment to curricular innovation ensures that there is alignment of programme learning outcomes, teaching and learning activities and assessment, in addition to enhancing the learner experience. Programmes are delivered by experts in the fields of education, practice discipline and professional standing, ensuring that learners experience a coherent, cumulative, research-based educational programme that meets all academic and professional regulations, standards and requirements. 

i School Strategy ii CRE Process doc iii Stakeholders include, school staff, students, graduates, NMBI, Clinical Partners, UCD Teaching and Learning, Employers, service users iv NMBI Standards and Requirements p7 & UCD T&L Strategy vi SNMHS Strategic plan p7

 

 

1 - Be an independent learner able to use critical questioning, reflection and decision making to build personal and professional scholarship throughout their career. He/she will be motivated to continue learning facilitating professional development/adaptation to the dynamically altering environment
2 - Demonstrate capacity to evaluate, critically analyse and apply research findings. Demonstrate the application and integration of best practice informed by national and international research in order to advance nursing/midwifery practice and health care delivery.
3 - Use technology effectively to enhance personal and professional development and practice, contributing to their learning, and the delivery of safe, evidence based healthcare.
4 - Demonstrate professional and disciplinary knowledge, skills, competencies and attitudes to deliver safe, high quality, compassionate, ethical, legal and accountable practice across the life spectrum and in diverse health care settings; evidenced in the learners safe, person-centred, competent care
5 - Communicate effectively with healthcare service users, families and advocates with the healthcare team and the wider society in a manner characterised by respect, hospitality, knowledge and skill. This skilled communication is distinguished by timely, just and comprehensive engagement.
6 - Collaborate effectively with the persons who are service users, their families, the public, peers and other members of the interdisciplinary team in a competent, compassionate and professional manner that respects autonomy, dignity and privacy.
7 - Demonstrate leadership and effect change in their practice area, promoting innovation by managing and delivering evidence based care. The extent of their learning and how it impacts on healthcare delivery and outcomes is measured through reflection and systematic evaluation
8 - Demonstrate critical awareness of the parameters for professional nursing practice, consistently and effectively applying knowledge of professional practice frameworks attentive to relevant legislative frameworks and national standards and guidelines, in the provision of safe and effective care
9 - Demonstrate organisation, mastery of complex, specialised skills, the ability to manage team and the care environment safely and effectively assessing risk, priorities, resources, quality and safety in a collegial and inter-disciplinary, person-focused manner that respects service users and peers
10 - Foster a supportive, quality clinical/work environment that facilitates practice with safety and the virtues of respect and kindness through provision of supervision, facilitation of learning, openness, efficiency, recovery, independence and well-being; engaging in continuous quality assurance/audit
11 - Collaboratively deliver researched, evidence based innovations and trauma informed care which is respectful of culture, diversity, beliefs and values in a sensitive, empowering, discreet and professional manner which informs service users health and lifestyle choices, health promotion and self-care

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.

Through the international student exchange programme, there are opportunities for you to travel abroad while studying.

The UCD School of Nursing, Midwifery & Health Systems has a student exchange arrangement with the University of Lund in Sweden, University of Athens, University of Malta and the School also hosts Junior Year Abroad students from a number of universities in the USA.

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

Students are required to take all core modules. Students must successfully complete all of the requirements for Stage 1 clinical practice module before progressing onto stage 2

Students are required to take all core modules and one elective module in the autumn trimester. 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

Students are required to take four (4) core modules and two elective modules in the spring trimester. In the autumn trimester students will take one clinical module at 25 ECTS credits and one core theory module at 5 ECTS credits. Students must successfully complete stage 3 clinical placement modules before progressing onto stage 4.

Students are required to take all core modules. There are no elective modules in this stage. Students must successfully complete all clinical modules for their stage before they complete the programme

Module ID	Module Title	Trimester	Credits
Stage 1 Core Modules
NMHS10360	Scholarship of Enquiry	Autumn	5
NMHS10480	Sci Principles Healthcare 1	Autumn	10
NMHS10490	Intro Psychology&Communication	Autumn	5
NMHS10500	Foundations in MH Nursing A	Autumn	10
NMHS10120	Foundations in Mental Health Nursing Part B	Spring	5
NMHS10440	Nursing Concepts and Values	Spring	5
NMHS10460	Sci Principles Healthcare 2	Spring	5
NMHS10510	Clinical Practice 1 (MH)	Spring	15
Stage 1 Core Modules
Stage 2 Core Modules
NMHS20210	Specialist Care Groups	Autumn	5
NMHS20720	MH Across the Lifespan	Autumn	5
NMHS20740	Patient Safety, Medication Management and Microbiology	Autumn	5
NMHS20830	Health Prom Research Spec Set	Autumn	5
PHAR20030	Pharmacology	Autumn	5
NMHS20710	Clinical Practice MH 2	Spring	30
Stage 2 Core Modules
Stage 2 Options - A)MIN0OF: You must register to one (1) elective module in the autumn trimester which can be selected from either one of the non-mandatory elective modules offered in the school or an elective module elsewhere in the university
NMHS10090	A Social History of Irish Healthcare	Autumn	5
Stage 2 Options - A)MIN0OF: You must register to one (1) elective module in the autumn trimester which can be selected from either one of the non-mandatory elective modules offered in the school or an elective module elsewhere in the university
Stage 3 Core Modules
NMHS33240	Ageing and Health	Autumn	5
NMHS33450	Clinical Practice 3 (MH)	Autumn	25
NMHS30610	Psychiatric Nursing (Acute Mental Illness)	Spring	5
NMHS30620	Psychiatric Nursing (Therapeutic interventions)	Spring	5
NMHS32290	Ethical&Legal Context Prof Pra	Spring	5
NMHS33460	Pop Hlth Diversity & Research	Spring	5
Stage 3 Core Modules
Stage 3 Options - A)MIN0OF: You must register to two (2) elective modules in the spring trimester which can be selected from either the non-mandatory elective modules offered in the school or elective modules elsewhere in the university
NMHS32340	Maternal and Foetal wellbeing	Autumn and Spring (separate)	5
NMHS32250	Arts and Health	Spring	5
NMHS32480	Introduct to Health Systems	Spring	5
Stage 3 Options - A)MIN0OF: You must register to two (2) elective modules in the spring trimester which can be selected from either the non-mandatory elective modules offered in the school or elective modules elsewhere in the university
Stage 4 Core Modules
NMHS30970	Evidence Based Practice for Healthcare	2 Trimester duration (Aut-Spr)	10
NMHS30280	Teaching and Assessing in the Practicum	Autumn	5
NMHS30290	Management and Quality Improvement	Autumn	5
NMHS31040	Extremes of Age in Mental Health	Autumn	5
NMHS32230	Collab Nurs Pra Mental H Recov	Autumn	5
NMHS32450	Health Promotion and Sociology	Autumn	5
NMHS33540	Clin Plac 4A (Internship) MH	Spring	5
NMHS33550	Clin Plac 4B (Internship) MH	Spring	5
NMHS33570	Clin Plac 4D (Internship) MH	Spring and Summer (separate)	7.5
NMHS33560	Clin Plac 4C (Internship) MH	Summer	7.5
Stage 4 Core Modules

		Award		GPA
Programme	Module Weightings	Rule Description	Description
BHNUR001	Stage 4 - 70.00% Stage 3 - 30.00%	Standard Honours Award	First Class Honours	3.68	4.20
			Second Class Honours, Grade 1	3.08	3.67
			Second Class Honours, Grade 2	2.48	3.07
			Pass	2.00	2.47
BHNUR007	Stage 4 - 50.00% Stage 3 - 30.00% Stage 2 - 20.00%	Standard Honours Award	First Class Honours	3.68	4.20
			Second Class Honours, Grade 1	3.08	3.67
			Second Class Honours, Grade 2	2.48	3.07
			Pass	2.00	2.47