19 April 2013
Around 80 pupils from Island schools will be finding out about a new university-standard nursing degree which they could be able to study without leaving Jersey.
On Tuesday (23 April), the Health and Social Services Department (HSSD) is holding a series of sessions at Jersey General Hospital to promote the pre-registration nursing degree and to gauge the invited students' interest in the programme.
HSSD will work with the University of Chester to deliver the course, and its start date will be confirmed after formal University Quality Assurance and Nursing and Midwifery Council endorsement at the end of May.
Julie Mesny, head of nurse education at Health and Social Services, said: “The plan is to start delivering the programme in September 2013 with a view to running it annually. HSSD has organised an open event this month so that interested students can come and meet the local nurse lecturers and the staff from the University of Chester.”
The entry criteria will be university-standard A levels or equivalent qualifications, and students will need to have been resident in Jersey for five years. Anyone accepted on to the course will not earn a salary, but will not have to pay course fees.
HSSD hope to offer 15 students the opportunity to access the three-year adult field of nursing degree programme with smaller numbers of students being able to access the mental health field of nursing programme from September 2014.
The University of Chester was chosen after a tendering process, and the contract will also include the provision of a variety of courses for registered nurses and midwives who are already working in HSSD, and for any nurses working in healthcare across the Island.
For many years the School of Nursing delivered the pre-registration nursing programme in Jersey, but it ended in the 1990s and Mrs Mesny welcomed its return.
“It gives real opportunities for islanders to access a career in nursing locally," she said. "We are really excited about the new programme and the potential for ‘growing’ many more local nurses to support the future care needs of Islanders. The students will be following the same programme as the other students do across the United Kingdom and have to meet the rigorous academic standards of studying to a degree level. As importantly, all nurses have to meet the exacting nursing care standards set by the Nursing and Midwifery Council.”
The Nurse Education Department at HSSD has been delivering nursing and midwifery top-up degrees for Jersey's registered nurses and midwives for the past ten years and it will continue to do so with the new partnering university.
Chief Nurse Rose Naylor said “We are really looking forward to working in partnership with our colleagues in Chester and are very grateful to all those who were involved in the tendering process. To be able to train locally and then work as a nurse in the community in which you live is a real privilege.”
Annette McIntosh Scott, Executive Dean for the Faculty of Health and Social Care at the University of Chester, said “The University of Chester is looking forward to delivering the pre-registration Nursing Degree Programme in partnership with HSSD in Jersey and training the nurses of the future.”
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