• What is nursing and what is a nurse?
• A very brief history of nursing
• An Introduction to the fields of nursing practice
• Professionalism and nursing
• The attributes of good nursing

• Studying for a nursing degree
• NMC standards and ESCs
• Learning about all fields of nursing
• What is expected of you as an independent and professional learner
• Learning in a placement
• The challenges you might meet

• The relationship between theory and practice
• An introduction to evidence-based practice
• Reflection
• The relationship between reflection and evidence-based practice
• Strategies for finding and judging the quality of evidence
• The importance of correctly citing sources of evidence

• Academic writing
• Assessment skills
• Academic support

• What do we mean by ethics?
• The importance of values
• Ethical theories
• Ethical principles
• Ethical decision-making

• Understanding negligence
• Court cases
• The law and providing healthcare
• Confidentiality

• An overview of accountability
• The importance of professionalism in nursing
• Fitness to practise

• What is professional resilience?
• Professional requirements for good health
• Psychological concepts for resilience

• The changing NHS structure and systems
• Being a leader as a nursing student
• A leadership model for nursing students
• Spreading innovation

• Quality in health and social care settings
• Why quality monitoring is important
• A definition of clinical governance
• An overview of the seven pillars of clinical governance
• The role of the nursing student in ensuring quality care

• What makes good care and what makes care good?
• ••How you can apply quality care initiatives within your practice
• ••The role of the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) in making care good
• ••When care is not good

• A toolbox for nursing
• Nursing theory – how models for nursing practice are constructed
• Using nursing philosophy in the care you deliver

Section content

• What is value-based, person-centred care?
• Compassion
• Caring
• Dignity
• Person-centred care
• Spirituality
• What to do if care is not value-based or person-centred

• What it means to be a patient
• Types of carers
• How can healthcare professionals help?
• Planning care collaboratively

• The role of APIE
• Assessment
• Planning
• Implementation
• Evaluation

• Why communication is so important
• Verbal and non-verbal communication
• Self-awareness
• Communicating with children
• Communicating with non-English speakers

• Communication challenges in nursing
• Handling challenging situations
• Support for you

• Risk assessment and management in nursing
• Risk assessment
• The skills needed to effectively manage risk
• Risk management

• What is record-keeping?
• Legal and professional issues related to record-keeping
• Ensuring you keep satisfactory records
• Consequences of poor record-keeping
• The role of the nursing student in record-keeping

• Clinical decision-making
• Types of decisions
• How nurses make sound decisions
• The decision-making process
• The role of patients

• Nurses’ role in health promotion
• Defining health
• Inequalities in health
• Promoting health in nursing practice
• Nurses as role models

• What do we mean by the term ‘safeguarding’?
• Safeguarding adults
• Safeguarding children
• The legal framework
• Abuse
• The safeguarding role of nurses

• Why patient education is important
• What is patient education?
• Behaviour change and goal-setting
• Understanding the nurse’s role in sourcing and sharing information

• Infection prevention and control and stand­ard precautions
• The importance of hand hygiene
• Standard precautions and gloves
• Your responsibilities as a waste producer
• Management of used linen

• Fundamental skills in the care of all patients
• Respiratory rate
• Pulse rate
• Blood pressure
• Capillary refill time
• Temperature
• Early warning scoring systems
• Urine output
• Blood glucose
• Weight

• An understanding of types of pain
• Assessment of pain
• Managing pain

• Asepsis and aseptic technique
• Asepsis and your practice
• Specimen collection

• The skin
• Caring for a patient with a wound
• Pressure ulcers
• Leg ulcers
• Diabetic foot ulcers
• Surgical wounds
• Traumatic wounds
• Wound assessment and management

• The principles of safe patient moving and handling
• Remaining healthy
• Efficient movement principles

• The priorities of first aid
• The ABCDE of resuscitation
• Medical emergencies

• Medicines optimization and holistic person-centred care
• Administering medicines
• Calculating the right dose

• Malnutrition in the UK
• Nutritional screening and assessment
• Care planning
• Providing assistance and support
• Adjuncts assisting a patient’s nutritional intake

• Assisting patients with their elimination needs
• Assessing bowel functioning
• Bedpans, urinals and commodes
• Use of incontinence pads
• Caring for a patient with a urinary catheter
• Urinalysis

• Hygiene and person-centred care
• Your role as a nurse in assisting a patient with their hygiene needs
• Bed-bathing
• Shaving
• Oral care
• Washing and trimming nails

• Cultural and spiritual considerations
• Performing Last Offices
• Following Last Offices
• Psychological care
• Caring for yourself

• A brief overview of the development of the NHS
• Primary, secondary and tertiary care
• The organization and delivery of health­care in the UK
• Challenges facing the UK healthcare system
• A patient’s journey through an experience of care

• What is public health?
• Why public health is important
• Inequalities in health
• Public health policy
• Public health practice in nursing

• Understanding the importance of interpro­fessional and multi-professional working
• Working as an individual and working in part­nership with others
• Benefits and challenges of interprofes­sional working

• Why psychology is applicable to nursing
• Understanding psychology and psychologi­cal approaches
• Psychology and the patient
• The psychological impact of attitude

• What is sociology and why should we study it?
• Understanding key sociological perspec­tives – family, poverty, disability and stigma

• Health policy, politics and the political con­text of nursing
• The impact of health policy devolution in the UK
• UK health policy themes

• The global role of the nurse
• Differences and similarities in healthcare systems and patients’ health beliefs across countries and cultures
• The importance of cultural competence in nursing care
• International placements and learning opportunities