BSc(Hons) Nursing (Learning Disabilities)

Professional accreditation

Our BSc(Hons) Nursing (Learning Disabilities) is accredited by The Nursing and Midwifery Council.

Placements

During your Learning Disabilities Nursing degree, you'll experience placements across a range of practice areas including hospitals, community, prisons, Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services and nursing homes.

You'll be supervised, supported and assessed to achieve the course proficiencies and complete the 2300 hours of practice learning required by the Nursing and Midwifery Council.

You'll also experience simulated learning experiences, enhancing your practice learning, providing exposure to hard-to-reach areas of practice, and developing your advanced skills.

With two practice placements a year, you'll spend half the course applying your knowledge and building your professional skills working with people, their families and healthcare professionals in a range of settings.

We have excellent links with our local employers, and placements are normally split between NHS roles and positions in private or voluntary sector organisations.

You'll gain diverse practice experiences, preparing you well for future jobs in community or hospital settings.

Study facilities

All learning disabilities nursing students are based at Glenside, our dedicated healthcare campus.

Our Skills Simulation Centre is a replica hospital ward where you'll build your confidence before going out into practice.

There are consultation rooms, adapted living spaces, a maternity unit, and a children's unit, as well as a range of manikins to develop your clinical expertise. All the apparatus you'll use is genuine equipment found in NHS hospitals, preparing you for your placements.

Take a personalised virtual tour of the Nursing and Midwifery facilities and experience what a typical day could look like here for you.

Careers / Further study

Registered learning disability nurses are in demand across the UK, so as a BSc(Hons) Nursing (Learning Disabilities) graduate, you'll be highly employable.

Graduates from our Learning Disabilities Nursing degree enter careers in a variety of roles for the NHS, private and voluntary sector employers, in community and hospital settings.

Due to the needs of our service users, graduates often branch out into other specialisms. These include acquired brain injury, neurology, nurse prescribing, dementia, primary and secondary care and mental health care, adult or children's services, and specialist teams. With so many new doors opening, this is an exciting time for the learning disability nurse.

Once qualified you can also combine clinical work with study on a post-qualifying course. By specialising further in a specific area, you can progress to more senior positions such as consultant nurse, nurse specialist, researcher, or local or regional services manager.

Find out more about careers in learning disability nursing.

Take the NHS Nursing careers quiz.

Get inspired

Our award-winning careers service will develop your employment potential through career coaching and find you graduate jobs, placements and global opportunities.

We can also help find local volunteering and community opportunities, provide support for entrepreneurial activity and get you access to employer events.

Visit our employability pages to learn more about careers, employers and what our students are doing six months after graduating.

Supplementary fee information

Additional costs are for items you could need during your studies that aren't covered by the standard tuition fee. These could be materials, textbooks, travel, clothing, software or printing.

Learn more about costs.

A £5,000 per year training grant is available for home students along with an additional £1,000 per year grant because learning disabilities nurses are in demand in the UK and worldwide. Further information is available on the NHS Business Services website.

If you undertake the international opportunity available on this course, you'll need to self-finance but Home students can apply for a means-tested bursary fund for support during that time.