Nursing (Learning Disabilities)
Qualify as a nurse and specialise in working alongside children and adults with learning disabilities on a course shaped by those with lived experience.
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Key Course Details
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UCAS Code
B703
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Start Date
September
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Location
Pontypridd
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Campus Code
A
Fees
Home students
£9,535*
International students
£16,200*
- Full-time fees are per year. Part-time fees are per 20 credits.
Study full or part-time to become a qualified nurse specialising in supporting children and adults with learning disabilities on this accredited course. Our Teaching and Research team is made up of adults with learning disabilities who advise on what’s important to them.
DESIGNED FOR
This degree is for people committed to supporting people with learning disabilities, whether you’re a school leaver or have more life experience. Students are often (but not only) carers, supporters, or family members of people with learning disabilities, looking for a fulfilling career.
Accredited By
- Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC)
Career paths
- Nurse consultant
- Researcher
- Community nursing
- Lead nursing
- Forensic nursing
- School nursing
- Lecturer
- Further study
Skills taught
- Safe and effective person-centred care
- Positive behaviour support skills
- Communication and rapport-building
- Working in partnership with individuals and carers
Course Highlights
Module Overview
You’ll start by learning the theory, then putting it into practice with alternating blocks of classes and placements, lasting at least 52 weeks. You’ll graduate with the skills and confidence to start your career as a specialist supporting people with learning disabilities.
Theory modules are the same for all nursing students, regardless of the specialism you’ve chosen, and your placements will enable you to apply what you’ve learned in a range of settings. You’ll discuss how theory applies in your specialist area in dedicated adult learning disability workshops.
The Essentials of Nursing Practice
Your introduction to nursing essentials, including professional approaches, physiology, social science and the interaction between mental and physical health.
Promoting Health and Wellbeing*
Learn to identify, define and measure health needs across a lifespan. Understand relevant legislation and how vulnerability and safeguarding issues need handling.
*This module can be studied 100% through the medium of Welsh
Assessing Needs and Creating Therapeutic Opportunities
Understand the processes and techniques of person-centred assessment, develop your clinical skills and be introduced to key principles.
Developing Confidence in Practice: Practice 1
Prepare for placements by exploring necessary documentation, reflective practice, safe administration of medicines and nursing procedural skills.
Build on your skills and knowledge with more theory and specialist-supervised placements as you develop your nursing abilities. What you learn in lectures will be discussed in core lectures and field-specific tutorials to add context to the theory.
Enhancing Assessment & Evidence-Based Interventions
Build your abilities in assessment, diagnosis and therapeutic interventions. Learn about collaborating across specialisms and person-centred care.
Professional, Legal & Ethical Issues in Nursing
Explore professional, legal and ethical concepts and principles and the right to health care. Become politically aware and build influencing skills.
Informed Decision Making in the Practice Environment
Develop assertiveness and professional courage. Understand ethical approaches and decision-making principles like mental capacity.
Evidence Based Practice: Evaluating Care within the Context of Practice
Deepen understanding of evidence, quality and continuous improvement. Explore research methodologies and evaluation approaches.
Your final year will help you develop into a confident nurse ready to work independently with children or adults with learning disabilities. The same blend of theory, practice and personal support will have you qualify feeling ready for your new career.
Advancing Knowledge, Skills & Therapeutic Interventions
Advance your skills in caring for people with complex conditions, pathophysiology,- preparing for prescribing and communication strategies.
Leading and Managing Quality Care Across Settings
Develop leadership skills. Consider policy change impacts on care delivery. Study resource management, shared decision-making and accountability.
The Nurse as an Educator
Expand your influencing and feedback skills. Practice presentation skills and develop accessible approaches to teaching and learning.
Becoming a Proficient Practitioner
Become ready for registration by understanding the principles of lifelong learning. Consolidate communication, supervising and nursing skills.
Course Highlights
How you’ll learn
With alternating blocks of theory and practical placements caring for adults with learning disabilities, you will graduate ready to become a registered nurse. You’ll have the option to undertake a BTEC Positive Behaviour Support qual alongside your degree. Dedicated tutorials with fellow learning disabilities students will help you apply what you’ve learned in lectures to your specialism. Your learning will also be supported by guest lectures and simulations involving people with learning disabilities.
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Teaching staff
Our teaching staff are all learning disabilities nurses, and active researchers. We secure specialist input from a range of other professionals as well as adults with learning disabilities to help you understand people’s lived experiences.
We are highly specialist in the area of learning disabilities. USW is home to the Unit for Development in Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (UDIDD), at the forefront of research into enhancing the quality of life and service provision for people with learning disabilities, their families and carers.
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Placements and work experience
Practical experience is critical to building your nursing skills so you will do three placements in each year of your degree. You’ll be carefully supported with a practice assessor and practice supervisor during your placements, to help you make the most of your time and answer any queries.
We work closely with local health boards – Swansea Bay, Powys and Aneurin Bevan – to provide a range of clinical placements to make sure you feel confident working with children and adults with learning disabilities and as part of multi-disciplinary teams.
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Facilities
Our Clinical Simulation Suite is the perfect practice environment, with a replica flat, ambulance, GP consultation room and intensive therapy unit (ITU). It includes a range of bays to simulate a hospital setting, including dedicated paediatric and intensive care environments.
The centre is used for healthcare education and nurse training, dealing with everything from essential clinical skills to complex, multidisciplinary clinical scenarios. You’ll use the same equipment you will find in healthcare settings, and work on patient simulators that mimic the body’s reactions to illness, care and treatment.
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Top 20 in the UK for General Nursing (Guardian League Table 2023)
94% of students are in work or further study fifteen months after graduating from USW.
90%
of our BSc (Hons) Nursing (Learning Disabilities) students were satisfied with their course.
National Student Survey 2024Top 20 in the UK for General Nursing (Guardian League Table 2023)
94% of students are in work or further study fifteen months after graduating from USW.
ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
Typical qualification requirements:
- A Level: BBB to exclude General Studies
- Welsh BACC: Grade B and BB at A Level to exclude General Studies
- BTEC: BTEC Extended Diploma Distinction Distinction Merit
- Access to HE: Must complete 60 credits overall with at least 45 at level 3 and 15 at Level 2. Of the 45 credits at level 3, you will need a minimum of 24 Distinctions, 18 Merits and 3 passes.
Application advice:
We strongly advise applicants to take advantage of the advice available online, from demonstrating you have the relevant qualifications or experience, tips on writing your personal statement to advice on preparing for interview, we have a wealth of support and guidance available to applicants to ensure you are able to demonstrate that you have what it takes and make your application the best it can be. Please read our application advice.
Additional requirements include:
- All applicants are required to attend an interview. For further support on preparing for interview and what to expect at interview, please read our application advice.
- One satisfactory reference from someone who is able to comment on your attitude and approach to learning in a professional or academic sense.
- An Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check on the Child & Adult Workforce and Child & Adult Barring List and subscription to the DBS Update Service is required. (Overseas equivalent required for non-uk applicants).
- A satisfactory medical will be required once an offer has been made. We will contact you closer to your start date with details of how to obtain these.
- The University normally requires a minimum 5 GCSEs including Mathematics/Numeracy and English at Grade C or Grade 4 or above, or their equivalent, but consideration is given to individual circumstances.
- Equivalent qualifications considered are Essential Skills Level Two in Communication and Application of Number, or Functional Skills Level Two in English and Mathematics. (Must have been achieved since 2016).
Closed for International applicants
Unfortunately, this course is not currently open to international applicants, please visit our course pages where you can find an alternative course choice.
Contextual offers
We may make you a lower offer based on a range of factors, including your background (where you live and the school or college that you attended, for example), your experiences and individual circumstances (as a care leaver, for example). This is referred to as a contextual offer, and we receive data from UCAS to support us in making these decisions.
USW prides itself on its student experience and we support our students to achieve their goals and become a successful graduate. This approach helps us to support students who have the potential to succeed and who may have faced barriers that make it more difficult to access university.
We're here to help
Whether you a have a question about your course, fees and funding, the application process or anything else, there are plenty of ways you can get in touch, and we'd love to talk to you. You can contact our friendly admissions team by phone, email or chat to us online.
Fees and Funding
£9,535
per year*£9,535
per year*£16,200
per year*£16,200
per year*Additional Costs
As a student of USW, you’ll have access to lots of free resources to support your study and learning, such as textbooks, publications, online journals, laptops, and plenty of remote-access resources. Whilst in most cases these resources are more than sufficient in supporting you with completing your course, additional costs, both obligatory and optional, may be required or requested for the likes of travel, memberships, experience days, stationery, printing, or equipment.
*Obligatory
An enhanced DBS is required. The update service is recommended.
Cost: £64.74 annually for enhanced DBS and £16 for the update service.
University Quality Assurance
At USW, we regularly review our courses in response to changing patterns of employment and skills demand to ensure we offer learning designed to reflect today’s student needs and tomorrow’s employer demands.
If during a review process course content is significantly changed, we’ll write to inform you and talk you through the changes for the coming year. But whatever the outcome, we aim to equip our students with the skillset and the mindset to succeed whatever tomorrow may bring. Your future, future-proofed.
Life at USW
Halls are a big part of your student experience and there’s accommodation at all three of our locations. If you don’t want to live near the campus, there are great transport links to keep you connected.
How to apply
All applications for full-time undergraduate courses or foundation degrees should be made via UCAS. Take the next step: Apply through UCAS. You can apply to us directly for all part-time undergraduate courses, if you’re seeking advanced entry or you’re an international student. To apply directly, please choose the application form below for your preferred start date and mode of study (full-time or part-time.)
Advanced entry
If you already have a relevant qualification or experience related to the course you're applying for, you may be eligible to start at a later stage of the course. For example, students from partner colleges can ‘top up’ their qualifications to a degree by joining us in Year Two or Year Three of a course. This process is known as ‘advanced entry’, you can apply directly to the University for 'advanced entry' using the application forms provided above.
International admissions
International applicants can apply to us directly. If the University has an in-country team in your region, your application will be assigned to them for assistance.