FdSc Nursing Associate

• Please note that this course is only available to Home students.
• A level 2 or level 3 qualification in health and social care is desirable, but not essential.
• You must have GCSEs at grade C or above or grade 4 to 9 (or equivalent) including English Language and Mathematics and demonstrate the academic aptitude to undertake this programme. Functional Skills Level 2 in Literacy and Numeracy are accepted as equivalent to GCSEs. Please contact the University for other GCSE equivalent qualifications that would be accepted for entry onto this course.
• Each candidate will be considered and selected on an individual basis by both the partner NHS trust and academic staff.
• Qualifications gained outside England and Wales will be assessed on an individual basis according to guidance by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC).
• If your application is successfully short-listed, then you'll be asked to attend an interview. The interview process will involve face-to-face interviews with academic staff, practice staff and service users. You'll also be assessed on your values, behaviours, communication and problem-solving skills, and undertake a numeracy and literacy assessment. We're seeking students who can demonstrate commitment to a career as a nursing associate, who have excellent communication skills and who are caring, compassionate and courageous.
• If you're successful at the interview stage, you'll be asked to undergo occupational health screening and a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check.
• You'll be required to satisfactorily pass occupational health screening.
• You'll need to demonstrate that you're of good health and good character prior to enrolment and on an on-going basis throughout your studies and career.
• This course involves working unsupervised with children and/or vulnerable young people and adults and applicants must gain an Enhanced Disclosure certificate from the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) before starting their studies. Charges are payable to cover the cost of the DBS Enhanced Disclosure application and annual registration with the online Update Service.
• If English isn’t your first language, you’ll also need IELTS 6.0 with no less than 5.5 in any band (or equivalent). We also accept a range of other English language qualifications – please visit our English Language Requirements web page for more details.
• The University of Bolton recognises prior learning, whether gained through academic credit and qualifications or through your professional and employment experience. Previous learning may be used towards meeting the entry requirements for this programme or for exemption from part of this programme. It is your responsibility to make a claim for recognition of prior learning, and each claim will be considered in accordance with the University’s policy and regulations for the recognition of prior learning.
• You'll need to ascertain if you're eligible for a student loan via Student Finance England or will need to be able to self-fund.
• Please note that this course is subject to the University of Bolton's Fitness to Practise procedure.

Where changes are made to material information contained in this course description or a decision is taken to suspend a course between the offer of admissions and enrolment, we will inform applicants at the earliest possible opportunity and will outline the various options available to the applicant.

The nursing associate role is a support role that sits alongside existing healthcare support workers and fully qualified registered nurses to deliver hands-on care for patients. After successfully completing the foundation degree, you'll possess a range of transferable skills, such as study skills, communication and interpersonal skills, self-awareness and teamwork. During your studies, you'll also become familiar with ideas such as reflective practice, managing stress and change management and their application to healthcare contexts, ready for your future employment as a nursing associate.

Once qualified and registered, you'll be well-prepared to gain employment as a nursing associate and give care to people of all ages in a range of settings across health and social care. Like nurses and other health professionals, you may expand your scope of practice through further education and experience.

What can I do with this qualification?

Alternative career options

Graduates can also use the qualification as a stepping-stone into a range of other careers. Some of these roles may require relevant experience and/or postgraduate study. Some of these careers include:

• Counselling
• Dietetics
• Writing and journalism
• Occupational therapy
• Mental health
• Social work
• Teaching and education
• Health promotion
• Mentoring
• Armed forces
• Community support
• Youth work
• Care home management
• Health services management
• Child protection
• Early years

The course is approved by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC).

On successful completion of the foundation degree, you'll be eligible to apply for professional registration with the NMC.

Home/EU Fees

No fee information is currently available, please contact the University of Bolton’s Academic Fees team by emailing AcademicFees@bolton.ac.uk for more information.

International Fees

International applications are not possible for this course

As an international student you are not allowed to study this course because of the restrictions on your visa.

We offer a wide range of full-time courses in lots of different subjects, many of our courses start in September and January. If you would like to see what courses are available please visit our Course Search.

Bursaries

Click here for more information about the scholarships and bursaries available to University of Bolton students.

Important note regarding tuition fees for the 2025-26 academic year: EU nationals who meet residency requirements (have settled or pre-settled status) may be eligible for 'Home' fee status. If you do not meet these residency requirements, overseas fees will apply. Irish citizens living in the UK or Ireland will be eligible for 'Home' fee status under the Common Travel Area arrangement. Please read the student finance for EU students web page on www.gov.uk for information.

The fees for a student's course of study will be set for the normal duration of that course subject only to inflationary increases – measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) recorded in March each year to take effect for subsequent start dates.

The nursing associate role is diverse and multi-faceted, so we use a wide range of teaching and learning methods. These are designed to help you develop the skills, knowledge, self-awareness, values and behaviours essential to becoming a nursing associate. Learning focuses on the workplace environment so that you build the competencies demanded by the role and learn to apply this expertise across a wide range of care settings.

Our tutors are research-active, and rigorous research underpins our teaching. Teaching methods will include lectures, presentations, simulations, and skills practice in our simulation suite, seminar discussions, small group workshops, small group tutorials and one-to-one tutorials.

In addition to attending timetabled sessions, we'll expect you to allocate significant time to independent and self-directed studies. For example, background reading, preparing for seminars, working on assignments and revising for exams will support your timetabled learning and help you develop the skills required for lifelong learning. Our friendly and supportive tutors will be here to guide you and will gladly help you devise an independent study regime focused on your individual development needs. The University's virtual learning environment, Moodle, will also support learning.

The assessment strategy for the programme is designed to ensure that you can demonstrate your achievement of the programme's overall aims and learning outcomes, as well as the learning outcomes for individual modules. The assessment of practice and theory contributes to the final award. All assessments in practice (practice assessment documentation (PAD) and portfolio) must be passed.

We'll employ a range of assessment methods, including essays, reports, presentations, objective structured clinical examinations (OSCE), traditional examinations and assessment of practice within the practice setting. Some assessments will contribute to your final module marks, while others aim to help you identify your strengths and weaknesses, and where you need to seek extra support from course tutors.

Modules

The modules listed below may be a mixture of compulsory and optional. You may not have the opportunity to study all the modules shown as part of the course.

• Mandatory Training and Preparation for HE4 Placement
• Principles of Nursing Associate Practice
• Anatomy and Physiology and the Foundations of Medicines Management
• Wider Approaches to Promoting Health and Preventing Ill Health
• Recognising Acute Physical and Mental Health and Illness for Nursing Associate Practice
• Mandatory Training and Preparation for HE5 Placement
• Contributing to Integrated Care for People With Complex Needs and Associated Medicines Management
• Enhancing Skills: Developing Leadership Knowledge and Evidence Based Practice for the Nursing Associate

Assessment methods

Learning Activities

The university will use all reasonable endeavours to deliver your course as described in its published material and the programme specification for the academic year in which you begin your course. The university considers changes to courses very carefully and the university will minimise any changes. Please be aware that our courses are subject to review on an ongoing basis and changes may be necessary due to legitimate staffing, financial, regulatory and academic reasons. The content of course modules and mode of associated assessments may be updated on an annual basis. This is to ensure that all modules are up-to-date and responsive to employment and sector needs. The published course material and the programme specification contain indicative ‘optional modules’ that may be subject to change due to circumstances outside of our control. For this reason, we cannot guarantee to run any specific optional module.