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Self-funded nursing student places offered with promise of guaranteed job

Birmingham City University, in collaboration with Birmingham Children's Hospital, launches bid to fill skills gap

Birmingham City University is introducing up to 30 self-funded places for its children’s nursing programme that come with a guaranteed job at the end in a bid to address the shortfall in registered nurses in the area.

Last year Birmingham Children’s Hospital (BCH) commissioned the university to train a limited number of children’s nursing students on the three-year NMC-accredited course to graduate as affiliates of BCH.

The hospital can no longer afford to fund these places because of budget cuts, but has pledged to guarantee full-time employment to successful graduates who start in September 2016 and January 2017, said a university spokesperson.

‘We have opened up the courses to more students to self-fund to help try to meet the demands of the region but each of the students who choose to take up this option will benefit from the guarantee of a job at the end of the course,’ he said.

Students on the children’s nursing programme will have access to the university’s state-of-the-art virtual patient simulation centre and skills suite, while working in the hospital across all specialist areas.

Self-funded nursing student places are not widespread, said a spokesperson at the Council of Deans for Health. It is anticipated that more universities will look at the model as the government pushes ahead with proposals to scrap NHS bursaries from August 2017, he added.

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