Nursing (Adult)

As a registered nurse you’ll have a choice of job roles. You may choose to become a community professional and work in patients’ homes, clinics, GP surgeries or nursing homes. Or you may want to work as a nursing specialist or consultant in a hospital.

Alternatively, you could take your education further with a post-registration course, with some graduates moving into district nursing, health visiting or school nursing roles. There's also the option to conduct research or go into healthcare management.

Previous graduates are working in areas including:

• acute hospital settings: ICU, A&E, oncology, cardiology, neurology, surgical specialities, medical specialities
• community settings: general practice, primary care eg health centres, community nursing, walk-in-centres
• nursing homes
• prisons
• hospices
• occupational health
• armed services/police
• advanced practice and specialist practitioner roles (with further study)
• research
• education.

Our adult nursing degree places equal value on clinical practice and theory – and you’ll spend 50% of your learning time on placement.

Placements are a great chance to get hands-on experience in assessing, treating and communicating with patients. You may find yourself working at a GP surgery; in a variety of hospital settings, from A&E through to acute care and oncology; or attending health visits.

Each placement lasts around seven to 12 weeks and includes both acute and community settings. There are opportunities in older person care, dementia care, district nursing, surgical setting and more. There’s also the option of a self-funded overseas placement at the end of Year 2.

While on placement, you’ll be working shifts. This can mean early, late and night shifts, as well as weekends and bank holidays. You’ll be supported by practice supervisors and assessors as well as staff from ARU.

Each year, you’ll get allocated annual leave at set points to support you in balancing your course and relaxation time.

When you’re in university, teaching usually takes place between 9am-5pm, Monday-Friday. Campus-based sessions are supplemented by online learning and virtual lectures. We want to make sure you experience a variety of placements and that you graduate as an effective practitioner. Our placement maps will help you plan your travel before you start on the course.

Find out more about nursing placements.

You’ll be linked to one of our NHS healthcare trust partners for your placements:

• if you study in Cambridge or Peterborough, you’ll do your placements in or around Cambridge, Huntingdon or Peterborough
• if you study in Chelmsford, you’ll do your placements in or around Chelmsford, Southend, Basildon, Harlow or Colchester.

There’s also the option of a self-funded overseas placement at the end of Year 2.

To make sure you’re developing the skills and knowledge needed for professional practice, we use a range of assessment methods. These include essays, presentations, exams, case studies, project work and assessment of practice competencies in the clinical setting. We know feedback is essential for your progress and our lecturers take pride in giving you clear guidance on how to improve your expertise.

• Books
• An electronic tablet to access course content and undertake assessment in the practice setting
• Sensible shoes (as per uniform policy)
• Fob watch