Nursing and Midwifery placement information

Our Nursing and Midwifery courses include unpaid clinical placements hosted with the awarded NHS trust and wider community, which account for around 50% of the course. Find out more about what you can expect on placement.

What will I do on placement?

Our Nursing and Midwifery placements are a great opportunity for you to develop your skills and gain key insight into your chosen future profession as a nurse or midwife. Placements help you to transition into a professional working environment, supplementing the taught elements of your academic programme. At all levels of your chosen Nursing or Midwifery course, you'll undertake unpaid clinical placements in both hospitals and the wider community.

Our placements are varied and aim to ensure you experience a range of healthcare areas such as community, acute, surgical, medical and specialist, such as cardiology or respiratory. Your placements can be taken in hospitals, schools, prisons, hospices and more. While on placement, you're encouraged to be proactive in engaging with your placement team, undertaking the roles assigned to you with diligence and a commitment to always do your best.

How long will my placement be?

For all our undergraduate courses, your first Nursing or Midwifery placement will take place in the first term after ten weeks of teaching. The placements occur in blocks of varying duration.

Placements for BSc (Hons) Adult Nursing Practice, BSc (Hons) Mental Health Nursing Practice, BSc (Hons) Children’s and Young People’s Nursing and BSc (Hons) Midwifery Practice consist of the following:

In year one, there are two placement blocks that are nine weeks long (18 weeks in total)
In year two, there are three placement blocks that are seven weeks long (21 weeks in total)
In year three, there are two placement blocks. The first block is nine weeks long, and the second block is 16 weeks long (25 weeks in total).

For BSc (Hons) Adult Nursing (Blended), during placement, you will work 25 hours per week and study seven and a half hours of theory. Each academic year varies in placement length:

In year one, there are two placement blocks of eight weeks (16 weeks in total)
In year two, there are three placement blocks of eight weeks (24 weeks in total)
In year three, there are also three placement blocks, two of which are eight weeks and one of 16 weeks for the management placement (32 weeks total)

For the postgraduate MNurse (Adult) course, during placement, you will work 37.5 hours per week. Each academic year varies in placement length:

In year one, there are three placement blocks of seven weeks (21 weeks in total)
In year two, there are three placement blocks. The first block is nine weeks, the second block is five weeks and the management placement block is 12 weeks (26 weeks in total).

How am I assigned a placement?

For most of our Nursing and Midwifery courses, we'll ask you during your interview to identify your preferred host trust as well as two alternative choices based on the ones available through the NHS Trust. While we cannot guarantee a host provider, we try our best to match you with your preferred choice, but it does depend on trust capacity.

You will be allocated a ‘home’ trust where most of your placement will occur, but you may be required to work at other trusts.

Placements are allocated at least four weeks prior to the beginning of the placement but are often allocated sooner. All placements are managed through a Placement Electronic Platform, known as ARC. This platform contains all the information about placements, feedback forms, information about the placement area, and profiles and contact details for the area staff and management. You can also access your timesheets via ARC, which can be done either from a desktop or laptop computer.

Where will my placement be?

We work with several host trusts, including South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust, The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust, North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust, and Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.

Your placement will occur at your appointed host trust. It's important to note that your placement may include a range of shift patterns, including night duty (first year students are not allocated night duty). During placement, you'll follow the usual shift patterns of the placement provider, and this is non-negotiable.

Some placements will require the ability to travel, and some host trusts cover large geographical areas which must be considered as we cannot promise placements close to home. Some community placements are restricted to car drivers and business insurance is required.

Frequently Asked Questions

Further information about what to expect while you are on placement.

How long are the placement shifts?

Your standard working week will be around 37.5 hours on a shift pattern which can include nights, early starts, evenings, weekends and bank holidays. Shifts can be anywhere between 7-12 hours and the pattern can vary between trusts. Your shifts will be confirmed four weeks prior to starting your placement. It's not possible to fit placements around school hours and holidays.

You'll be expected to undertake shift work in which you will be assigned a Practice Assessor and Practice Supervisor, who will directly supervise you and act as a means of support and guidance. A Clinical Link Tutor from the University will also support you during your practice placements.

How far will I have to travel for my placements?

As part of the interview process, you'll be asked to rank your three preferred trusts, and your trust will be confirmed once you start the course. Please note, it isn't possible to guarantee your first choice. We would recommend that prior to your interview, you consider your preferred trust. During the three years of study, all your placements will then take place in various locations within that trust, so the travel distance will vary.

Travel to placement providers may take up to a maximum of 90 minutes, as calculated by an online travel route planner, depending on your mode of transport. It's your responsibility to ensure attendance at a placement provider by making the necessary plans to travel in advance of your placement commencing. A travel and accommodation bursary is available via the NHS Learning Support Fund for students who find themselves financially disadvantaged. If you feel you may need additional financial support you should, in the first instance, seek free advice from the University’s Student Financial Guidance team.

How many weeks' holiday are there each year?

You will have seven weeks of holiday per year, with two weeks off at Christmas. The remaining five weeks is spread across the rest of the academic year. The timings of the holidays will vary over the three years and we do try, where possible, to align some of these to the school holidays. You are unable to take holiday outside of these set times, but you'll be provided with a three year plan on enrolment.

How am I supported on placement?

While you're on placement, we want to make sure you feel supported. In all placements, students are supernumerary to ensure a positive learning environment. You'll be encouraged to participate in all activities and follow journeys to offer additional learning and understanding. You will also have a Practice Assessor who is responsible for your wellbeing and learning, as well as an extensive number of Practice Supervisors to support you.

During your first year of placement, you will always be supervised, and supervision is managed as per student development and bespoke to your personal learning as the course progresses. By your third year of placement, you will manage responsibilities such as small patient groups, a ward area, or a community case load independently, but will still have support from the area staff.

At the end of every placement, we request student feedback which is available for all to see. We also audit all placements annually for quality.

Contact us

The Placements team are here to support students on their placement journeys and will always endeavour to provide the necessary support to ensure that it is a smooth, enjoyable and rewarding experience.

Where students experience personal issues that are likely to impact their study, and in turn their placements, they should speak to their Personal Tutor or Programme Leader as soon as possible. Where contact cannot be made with them, they should then contact the Placements team who will provide whatever reasonable support they can.

For further information, please contact the Placements team on: fhsw.placements@sunderland.ac.uk

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