Nursing and midwifery education : University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

UCLH is committed to delivering excellent patient care through the provision of high-quality education. Valuing and developing staff is important to us and is key to positive patient outcomes. Education at all career stages is pivotal to producing a nursing workforce that has the right knowledge and skills and remain as valued members of the UCLH nursing community.

The sections below outline how UCLH supports undergraduate, apprenticeship and postgraduate education for nurses and midwives.

Undergraduate nursing and midwifery education

UCLH works in partnership with a number of universities to support student nurses and midwives in practice. Adult, mental health and child branch nursing students and midwifery students have the opportunity to learn and develop in a variety of clinical environments across our hospital sites within both inpatient and outpatient settings.

We continually strive to increase the variety of placements and improve the experience for students. We offer the ‘expansive learning placement model’ for all students to enrich their clinical experiences as well as a vast amount of teaching, supervision, pastoral care and wellbeing support for students. A dedicated team of Practice Educators provide support in practice alongside experienced Practice Assessors, Practice Supervisors and Student Link Leads.

As a student at UCLH you can expect a warm welcome, a structured induction and orientation, excellent learning opportunities and individual support to allow you to thrive on your path to registration. As a student you may wish to become a learning ambassador which ensures the student voice is heard at senior meetings such as the Nursing and Midwifery Board to inform trust wide developments.

We support the CapitalNurse Graduate Guarantee which allows our 3^rd year student nurses a seamless process to apply for and gain a newly qualified post with UCLH.

UCLH works in partnership with CapitalNurse and City University of London to provide opportunities for nurses to undertake the Return to Practice programme. We can offer both voluntary and paid routes. For more information please contact uclh.practiceeducation@nhs.net

Healthcare Assistants (HCAs) and Midwifery Support Workers (MSWs) at UCLH are fundamental to delivering excellent nursing and midwifery care and are highly valued members of the team. We have clinical educators who are responsible for supporting HCAs and MSWs with their professional development and career progression. This involves development days and working with our education partners to provide access to work-based health care qualifications. All HCAs at UCLH complete the Care Certificate and are supported in practice to achieve this nationally recognised qualification.

We also offer apprenticeship programmes to staff who want to gain a work-related health qualification. Staff complete this programme whilst working to further develop their skills and knowledge in their area of practice and widen their access to career opportunities. We also offer HCAs the opportunity to access Nursing Associate or Registered Nurse apprenticeships.

UCLH is committed to widening participation and supporting staff to progress their career. Apprenticeships offer a fantastic pathway into nursing and midwifery roles for those who have not been able to access this via traditional routes. We work closely with vast number of apprenticeship education providers and have significantly grown our apprenticeship offer.

Most of our apprenticeships are available internally but some are advertised on NHS Jobs.

UCLH offers nurses and midwives a vast array of postgraduate continuing professional development. Career pathways exist within various specialties and allow nurses the opportunity to progress their career at UCLH. The corporate nursing education team and a dedicated team of Clinical Practice Facilitators are responsible for leading and driving professional development for staff and practice development. Our aim is to enable nurses and midwives to maximise their potential and ability through continuous professional development to deliver a patient centred service.

UCLH recognises preceptorship as pivotal to supporting nurses and midwives in their first 12 months and is designed to build confidence in role and provide tailored learning opportunities. Our Preceptorship programme is mapped to the CapitalNurse and CapitalMidwife Frameworks and has received the CapitalNurse quality kite mark which recognises this as a high quality programme.

You will supported in practice by a dedicated Preceptorship Lead and on formal study days, including action learning, to allow you to excel and progress your career at UCLH.