The School of Nursing is the largest school within the faculty of health, social care
and education and it is across two sites. It's based at St George's and it's also based
on the Kingston Hill site.
Kingston and St George's joint faculty is consistently rated at the top of the Guardian
League Tables. We offer a range of workforce development and education that makes our provision unique.
We offer four fields of nursing, that is adult nursing, children's nursing, mental health
nursing and learning disability nursing.
We're really proud of our programmes and the quality of that provision. We're proud because
our students leave the programme as registered nurses where employers want to employ you.
97 per cent of our students gain employment six months after registering. Our facilities offer you
a number of opportunities to learn basic nursing skills, to even advance skills, and you will
progressively build on those skills as you move from your first year to your third year.
We also offer children’s nursing, where student nurses are out in the field and are either
in a hospital setting or in the community. You will learn to work with very sick children
but also young children in community settings.
Kingston and St George's have for me one specific distinctive feature, i.e. I've recently taken
over managing and leading the children’s nursing team at Kingston and I've been really
really impressed. We are quite a small team but we're a team of very experienced children's nurses.
We're a team of very experienced educators and we are a team who contribute widely to
children's nursing, not just within this area of London or within Kingston and St George's
University, but contribute to children's nursing on a more national and international platform.
We contribute to publications, to core text books, that are not just used within this
country but are used across the world really.
I chose children's nursing because I've always had a passion to work with children and the
idea of nursing them and caring for them. I just can’t see myself doing anything else really.
A lot of the children you work with are too young to have their own voice, so through doing
your nursing care you can give them a voice, work with the families and reach a goal for them.
We use a variety of different teaching and learning strategies within that programme.
We also have an excellent skills lab at Kingston and we invite children and their families
to act as role players in simulations and students really value that.
The simulations that are set up are really good because it allows you to reflect on your work
and it is also so real to a ward.
We're very fortunate that we can send the students to a variety of different trusts
so they can see children and young people actually in the hospital situation with acute
illnesses and also in the community.
It's a very innovative programme. We use very diverse multi-modal teaching strategies.
It's respected I think, it has a good reputation children's nursing at Kingston and I think
that clinical people tell us that they love to employ our students.
St George's is an amazing teaching hospital. Kingston's course plan is very very specific
so you get your placement hours, you get your theory hours and it's all about how you develop
as a person at Kingston and St George's not just your academic.
Sometimes life springs challenges and we're there to support them in a variety of situations.
I like how there's such a wide range you can work with, so one minute you're working with
a baby, the next a toddler, the next with teenagers and also with their families as well.
I like that one-to-one contact and care with them.
I'd say to students thinking of studying children’s nursing here: do it, get as much experience as you can.
I've really enjoyed my degree so far and I definitely think it is a worthwhile career
and I've thoroughly enjoyed my training here.