Children's Nursing (Distance Learning) BN (Hons) Undergraduate - September 2025/26* Entry

Please note: this course starts in September 2025.

Children and young people’s (CYP) nurses care for all ages, from new born to adolescent, with a range of physical, emotional and mental health needs. CYP nurses  work closely with family members and carers to reduce the impact of being ill or in hospital. This exciting Children's Nursing BN (Distance Learning) programme will provide you with the knowledge and skills to successfully graduate as a registered children’s nurse, and you will undertake practice placements in community and hospital settings with our partner organisations within Wales, with experiences in a range of CYP health care related areas. You will access placements across all the three parts of your course and experience a range of areas across Wales such as hospitals, special care baby units, hospices, mental health services, community children’s nursing teams and specialised paediatric intensive care units.

Registered nurses’ learning is supported throughout their careers through, initially preceptorship that offers the structured support needed to successfully transition your knowledge into everyday practice, and through continuous professional development. 

As a children’s nurse you will care for children across the age spectrum and with a wide variety of needs. You will work in partnership with family members and carers to reduce the impact of being ill or in hospital and providing comfort and reassurances to patients and their parents or careers in difficult or stressful circumstances. The role is highly rewarding and can also be challenging in today’s fast changing health care environment. Working in collaboration with other healthcare professionals, children’s nurses work in a variety of settings that follow a patient’s journey away from home, close to home or in the home giving you real variety in your career.

The role of the children’s nurse is varied and includes health promotion and preventative health programmes, investigations, diagnosis and treatment (medical and surgical), emotional and mental health support and many other interventions and therapies. Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), practice nurses, health visitors and school nurses are some of the healthcare personnel who work with children, young people and their families in the primary care setting.

The Children's Nursing BN (Distance Learning) degree will prepare you to become a CYP nurse who is able to demonstrate critical thinking skills in relation to complex healthcare issues and the health and wellbeing of children, young people and their families. It will allow your compassion to thrive within an evidence-based approach and it will enable you to make a genuine impact on the health and wellbeing of babies, children, young people and their families. 

As you progress through your career, there are plenty of options available and you may wish to specialise in an area such as: 

• neonatal intensive care 
• paediatric oncology 
• burns and plastics 
• child protection/safeguarding 
• ambulatory care 
• asthma 
• orthopaedics 
• diabetes 
• continuing care for children with special needs 

You may choose to work in management, teaching or clinical research. 

Bangor accepts applications for nursing courses throughout the year, while places are still available. As this pathway is highly competitive, we recommend applications are submitted as soon as possible.

Elements of the course can be available through the medium of Welsh and you’ll be supported to access the Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol incentives. For more information on the School's bilingual provision click here. 

Why choose Bangor University for this course?

• NHS funding currently available to cover fees and a contribution to living costs. 

Distance Learning 

This full-time distance learning Nursing degree is a first for Wales, offering a full time distance learning route enabling you to continue to live at home whilst following the nursing degree online. Bangor University’s longstanding excellent track record of delivering nursing degrees ensures that teaching and support is provided by knowledgeable and experienced nursing academic staff. The taught elements of this course will be delivered via our interactive virtual learning environment which will allow you to access lectures, seminars and skills training to help you fit the programme around your learning needs. You will also be able to use the comprehensive range of facilities for all students at our campuses at both Bangor and Wrexham, and regional learning hubs are being established giving you real flexibility in how and where you learn. This distance learning nursing degree incorporates and provides continued personalised support throughout the programme, which we feel is central to our ethos.

As a distance learning course this full-time degree is available to applicants from across the UK with learning consisting of 50% theory and 50% in practice placements. However, placements can only be taken within a Welsh NHS Health Board. Placements will be organised as close to a student’s home or agreed placement address as possible, however travel to placements and hubs may be required to access the range of learning experiences required to complete the course. During your practice learning you will attend your placement for 37.5 hours per week. On your placements, you will have the opportunity to develop and apply your theoretical knowledge and skills in a practical environment, learning about best practice and excellence in patient care from practitioners, patients, carers and relatives, and students from other professions such as radiography, midwifery, physiotherapy, social work.

Tuition Fees Covered 

If you are considered a home UK student for tuition fees who can commit to working in Wales for two years after graduating, you could get your tuition fees covered in full through the NHS Wales Bursary Scheme and claim for a £1,000 bursary contribution towards living costs. You can also apply for the means tested bursary that is dependent on household income and other funding that has eligibility criteria for child care support, dependents allowance and parental learner allowance.  You can also apply for the income based maintenance funding and a reduced rate loan from Student Finance. As this course is funded by NHS Wales, we are unable to accept applications from international students. 

Full details are available on our NHS funding page.

Student IT Bursary

Bangor University in partnership with HEIW will ensure that access to technology is not a barrier for suitably qualified applicants wanting to pursue a career in healthcare. Under this scheme applicants to this course are eligible for a £400 bursary (terms and conditions apply) to support the purchase of a computer if they are resident in one of the lowest 20% (areas 1-382) of the Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation. You can see if your postcode qualifies you on this Welsh Government page.  

Technical requirements for studying this Distance Learning course

• A PC or Mac computer, web cam and headset. Most computers under 5 years old will have sufficient specification.
• Access to the Internet a min speed of 2Mbit/sec – note that if others in your household are using your internet connection at the same time you will need faster speeds or sole us of the connection during sessions.
• Access to the Chrome web browser (this is free for download for Mac and Windows users).
• You will also need a copy of Microsoft Office 365 – Bangor students are entitled to a free copy to use during their studies. This can be downloaded once students have completed registration for their course and have their Bangor IT credentials.
• Please note that Chromebooks are not considered suitable for use by students studying on distance/dispersed courses.    

For this Children's Nursing (Distance Learning) degree, it is essential that you have internet access and a dedicated place to study and use the resources at your pace within the 3-year programme.

You’ll have compulsory theoretical study and clinical placements in hospitals, community and/or residential settings within Wales. Placement provides excellent practice-based learning experiences across Wales for learning programme students. These supervised placements enable you to observe professionals at work,  observe high quality team working, and enable participation in the delivery of nursing care in a supported way, while developing your confidence and skills in many areas of nursing practice.

You will receive excellent support from a personal tutor who is a registered nurse and an academic member of staff. For this programme you will have regular meetings via technological platforms allowing multiple aspects of theoretical and clinical learning to be discussed and supported.

During placements you will be supervised and assessed by practicing, experienced registered nurses and other professionals. Theoretical and practical work is assessed through assignments, examinations, presentations, and the All-Wales Assessment of Clinical Practice portfolio.

Where will I study? 

The taught elements of this course are delivered at a distance using a range of online and virtual platforms.  Practice placements will be allocated to each student on an individual basis and as close to home as possible.

What will you study on this course?

The ability to study at your own pace utilising specially developed materials and resources delivered through multiple media is a key component to learning in this programme. It is essential you have a place to study with internet access.

Bangor University’s underpinning philosophy is of promoting intelligent kindness and compassionate leadership, and these are woven throughout the curriculum. Interprofessional modules promoting a student-centred approach and recognising the value of learning from past and current experiences as well as that of service users and the introduction of new knowledge. The learning, teaching and assessment strategies are designed to support students towards being an independent learner and that progresses towards becoming a registered practitioner. 

The assessment strategy is designed across the programme to be progressive and will encourage you to develop critical thinking and analysis. The modules foster reflective learning; reflective learners can engage in independent reflection in order to achieve personal learning and in order to pursue practice excellence. Being a research-led University, we have embedded research principles and skills in research and enquiry into these modules in a progressive manner enabling the student to move from locating evidence (year one) to appraising evidence (year two) and finally to applying evidence (year three). 

Within the distance learning nursing programme, inter-professional education (IPE) will be a key component in health care practice teaching; its aim is to prepare students with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary for collaborative patient centred practice. This programme will include IPE which is interactive focussed learning that encourages active collaboration between professions.

Using this methodology within the programme, you will be equipped to develop the knowledge, skills, and competence in relation to values, ethics, roles, responsibilities, and inter-professional communication. Inter-professional education affords you the opportunity to experience how other disciplines apply differing emphases to areas such as professional ethics and work collaboratively to deliver comprehensive patient care.

In practice, you will have opportunities to collaborate with professionals such as physiotherapists, radiographers, midwives, and social workers. Bangor University is developing models for virtual placement opportunities within NMC standards and developing use of virtual reality within its current programmes in order to equip the student with the skills and knowledge to becoming the proficient practitioner within an interprofessional workforce, within best practice guidance, and for the benefit of future patient care.

By fully engaging with this programme you will develop skills in family centred-patient care, effective health promotion, learn about the effects and management of acute and long-term childhood illnesses, assess pain and psychological responses to ill health and learn play and distraction techniques as well as many other techniques. This will enable you to deliver high quality child nursing care in a rapidly changing environment.  

For 2022 entry the Children's Nursing BN (Distance Learning) is mapped to the 2018 Nursing and Midwifery Council Standards of proficiency for registered nurses and the Future Nurse: Standards of proficiency. The new programme ensures nurses have greater understanding of patient/client needs across all four fields of nursing practice, but remaining field focused.  

The programme prepares future registrants with team working and leadership skills and enhanced knowledge in public health which is needed to deliver care in different settings to support health and well-being for people you care for.

Modules for the current academic year

Module listings are for guide purposes only and are subject to change. Find out what our students are currently studying on the Children's Nursing (Distance Learning) BN (Hons) Modules page.

Course content is for guidance purposes only and may be subject to change.

• Blackboard, the University’s online learning environment, allows you to access module content, pre-recorded course material, seminars, discussion boards and the ability to access live lectures if needed. The content can be accessed at any time that suits you, and you can interact with other students in the form of a virtual common room.
• Our approach to learning puts you at the centre, we utilise many different software platforms – such as Teams, OneDrive, Microsoft SWAY etc.
• Clinical skills will be delivered in a dynamic and interactive virtual environment to simulate the practice learning experience enabling the development of clinical skills. We use Laerdal vSim software which is a web-based Virtual Simulation system that will help build confidence and competence in delivering patient care as it allows students to interact with patients in a safe, realistic online environment and provides personalised feedback. We also use an online clinical skills platform to support our clinical skills teaching and for students to put best practice into practice. 
• On placement you will have the support of a link tutor from the University and we also have Practice Education Facilitators / Community Hospital Education Facilitators who also support students throughout placement.

Health boards across Wales are the primary employment destination for many of our graduates. Throughout the NHS and other health and care settings, there is a clear career structure supporting nurses in their development from staff nurse working on a ward, for example, to autonomous consultants managing a caseload of patients in the community.  In addition to this there will be opportunities to utilise your qualifications abroad.

Nursing is an ever growing and innovative profession and nurses are working in multi professional teams across health and care settings. Nurses are in a unique position to deliver care in partnership with people and carers, wherever care is needed. Across the health and care system there is an increased focus on preventing ill health, enabling people to self-care, to be partners in their care and to have a better quality of life. The rapid pace of advances in medical and nursing care, treatment and technology is creating new career opportunities for nursing with rapid developments in different service provision and ways of working.  Career opportunities can range from front line staff, working in leadership or management, a specialised nurse or consultant nurse role and many other exciting and unique options. 

A graduate career as a children's nurse involves working with children who have relatively minor conditions right through to those who have serious, chronic and/or life-threatening conditions. Career progression can also involve managing people and resources, plus researching and developing new and current services. 

The work is as much about providing reassurance to the child’s family as it is about providing care for the child. In most cases a great deal of the care is provided by the family and the nurse’s role is to work with the family to teach, build confidence, empower and support them in looking after their child. 

Your nursing degree will specialise in children’s nursing. There are several specialist children’s hospitals in the country and general acute trusts will also have at least one children’s ward. Children’s nurses also work in the emergency department and in child and adolescent mental health services. A newly qualified nurse would initially be expected to consolidate their learning by taking responsibility for the care of a group of patients and then take on more complex roles as they professionally develop. 

Children’s nurses are highly observant and flexible problem solvers who have the ability to recognise and act upon a child becoming unwell very quickly. They act as the child’s advocate whenever and wherever necessary. Good communication and interpersonal skills are essential, but children’s nurses also need to show emotional awareness, intelligence and resilience.

This degree enables you to register as a qualified children’s nurse with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), having developed the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed to help plan, coordinate and deliver care in a safe, compassionate and effective way.

Opportunities at Bangor

The University’s Careers and Employability Service provides a wide range of resources to help you achieve your graduate ambitions. 

Internships

Bangor University runs a paid internship scheme within the university’s academic and service departments.

Student Volunteering

Volunteering widens your experience and improves your employability. Find out more about volunteering on the Students’ Union’s website.