Our nursing degrees are among the best in the South West – noted for their high graduate employment rates and our strong links with local and national healthcare providers.

When you study with us, you’ll spend up to 50% of your time on placements, gaining real-world experience while supported by qualified nurses acting as your mentor. Combined with outstanding course content and state-of-the-art learning facilities and simulation labs, our practical approach means BU nursing graduates leave us as confident and proficient practitioners.

Nurses work in many different environments – from acute care in hospitals, primary care in the patient’s own home and GP surgeries, in the private/voluntary sector (private hospitals and nursing homes) and giving care to with people of all ages and backgrounds. Because of this, we offer a variety of degrees leading to professional registration. 

The courses available at BU are accredited by the Nursing & Midwifery Council (NMC) and cover three fields of nursing:

  • Adult Nursing: this involves working with adults with a variety of different health needs and conditions in a range of settings. You’ll improve people’s lives by learning how to care for patients providing person centred and evidence based care taking part in the full 24/7 cycle of care. You can opt to study this field of nursing at either our Bournemouth or Yeovil campuses.
  • Children’s & Young People’s Nursing: this field of nursing involves working with children as young as newborn babies through to teenagers. This could involve both clinical and child protection issues. You will also support the families and carers of these children using a family centred approach to care, so you need to be able to build rapport and care for people of all ages. 
  • Mental Health Nursing: one in three people has a mental health problem at some point in their life; this may include depression, schizophrenia or personality and psychological disorders. Mental Health Nurses work with other health care professionals such as GPs, psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers to support people with mental ill health through a recovery model focus.

The nursing courses available at BU span undergraduate, postgraduate and advanced standing courses, as well as Master’s and Continuing Professional Development (CPD) courses once you’ve qualified. 

Take a look through our summaries to find the right choice for you. You can also check out our clinical simulation facilities to see where you would be studying and practising your clinical skills.

All nursing students on eligible full-time courses may be eligible for a non-repayable government training grant of at least £5,000. Mental health nursing students may also receive an additional £1,000 specialist subject payment as it has been confirmed as a shortage specialism.


Undergraduate options

If you haven’t studied at university before you’ll need to complete one of our undergraduate courses:

Apprenticeships 

We also have two nursing degree apprenticeship routes which allow you to be employed and receiving a full wage while studying. On successful completion of an apprenticeship course you will be awarded a BSc (Hons) degree qualification and be able to apply for professional registration with the NMC. Applications must be made via an employer – therefore prospective apprentices should either be employed in a healthcare role and have the support of their employer, or have made an application to a healthcare provider’s apprenticeship vacancy. 

Three nursing students answering the question, 'Nursing degrees at BU – what are they really like?'

Postgraduate options

If you already have a degree, you can study one of our two-year postgraduate degree courses in either:

If you’re interested in studying a masters course you’ll need to provide evidence of a portfolio of work, including 720 hours of paid healthcare experience. Further information about this can be found on the individual course pages.

Coral, nursing student on placement

“During my third year of Adult Nursing, I had the opportunity to travel to Vietnam to work in a hospital for four weeks!”

Read more in nursing student Coral's blog

Advanced Standing courses

For nurses who are looking to transfer from one field of nursing to another, we offer Advanced Standing courses. These courses last 12–18 months and will be dependent on your previous qualifications and experience. We offer this route in:

Marie Miller, BU graduate

“BU has given me the skills and knowledge to be a better person and make a hospital a better place for everyone else.”

Read more from Marie Miller, a BU nursing graduate who became a Cancer Care Matron

CPD and Master’s options

Once you’ve qualified as a nurse we offer an extensive range of part-time CPD courses, which you can combine to top up to an MA Advanced Practice, or you may want to consider the MSc Advanced Clinical Practice (Advanced Nurse Practitioner) course. We also have a Return to Nursing Practice course, for those who no longer have a live nursing registration, but are now looking to return to the profession. 

Further information