Overview
While undertaking this programme, you will learn the skills to provide nursing care in a variety of settings. It emphasises the importance of working with other professions and planning individualised nursing care in partnership with patients. As with all nurse education programmes, our focus is on caring, communication and understanding the patient’s experience of health and illness.
Over the four years you will learn about professional/ethical practice; holistic approaches to care and the integration of knowledge; interpersonal relationships; organisation and management of care; and personal and professional development.
Nursing offers exciting opportunities to develop valuable specialist knowledge, and skills that are in demand both nationally and internationally.
This course consists of 76 weeks of classroom-based theory and practical learning, interspersed with 81 weeks of clinical placements. Nursing students complete their programme with a 36-week continuous internship rostered placement. Clinical practice can take place locally including counties Kerry and Cork, as well as internationally and encompasses a very broad range of clinical settings, including general medical and surgical nursing, accident and emergency, outpatients, operating theatre, and nursing children – among others. Erasmus opportunities are available in year three.
Our nursing programmes are taught in the purpose-built Sólás building at the MTU Kerry North Campus. This state-of-the-art facility has technology enhanced classrooms, lecture halls, practical skills laboratories, and computer suites. Our partnership with the HSE and Bon Secours Hospital in Tralee offers students a wide range of exciting clinical placement facilities. Throughout this programme, you will get great support from the University and from clinical staff, both in the classroom and on placement.
What will I study?
First year at a glance
- Professionalism in Nursing Practice: introduces fundamental interpersonal, legal, ethical and regulatory dimensions of professional nursing practice
- Health and Wellbeing: provides a broad understanding of nursing and healthcare for both the individual and population groups
- Skills for Safe Practice: introduces fundamental knowledge and skills of nursing within the parameters of a safety culture in both general and mental healthcare settings
- Developing Competency in General Nursing Practice: encourages active engagement in evidence-based nursing practice
- Principles of General Nursing Care: introduces human anatomy, physiology and pathophysiology in conjunction with the evidence-based theory underpinning the nursing care and management of a person, from admission to discharge
- Caring in Context: introduces caring in the context of: primary, secondary and tertiary health care settings, maternity care, infant, child and adolescent care, safeguarding the vulnerable adult at risk of abuse, disability awareness and intellectual disability, mental health, perioperative care, critical care/emergency care, and end-of-life care
There are many nursing opportunities after completing the BSc (Hons) in General Nursing.
General nurses work in a wide variety of settings such as hospitals, people’s homes, GP practices, residential care, nursing homes, nursing agencies, prison services, community health centres and hubs, and the pharmaceutical industry. Some of the more contemporary workplaces where general nursing roles are offered include homeless shelters, refugee centres, professional sports clubs, theme parks and cruise ships (NMBI, 2024).
New Graduates can work in a variety of acute medical or surgical care settings at home or abroad.
You can travel and work all over the world. General nurses can also work for voluntary organisations and international charities in areas of poverty and conflict - working to bring change and better health conditions for local people (NMBI, 2024)
Once qualified, nurses can diversify and progress their career path through continued study at graduate level. For example, opportunities to specialise in a particular line of nursing, such as Nurse manager, Prescriber and Nurse Tutor are available. This can lead to a career in management, clinical specialist practice, advanced practice, clinical research or teaching at clinical or university level. There are many opportunities for further study and to enhance your career at Postgraduate Diploma, Master’s and Doctoral Degree level.
Further Studies
Suitably qualified Level 8 Honours graduates are eligible to progress to
- MSc in Nursing
- MSc in Professional Nursing
- MSc in Advanced Practice Nursing
at MTU Kerry Campus or to research at either master or PhD level.
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