Enhancing Neonatal Practice

You’ll be a senior nurse or midwife working within neonatal practice. You’ll be keen to develop advanced knowledge and skills to help you enhance the care of neonates and families within your care.

As part of this course, you’ll critically appraise your existing knowledge. You’ll reflect on the role of the neonatal nurse within the multidisciplinary team, and evaluate – in the light of current evidence – the way holistic care is delivered to infants and families.

The practice element of this course is significant, so you must currently be working in (or able to access) a level 2 or 3 neonatal setting. You should also have the agreed support of your manager before starting the course.

How you’ll learn
You’ll experience a blend of focused clinical practice and classroom teaching (which might consist of lectures, debates and work-based discussions and simulations), all supported by sessions in our online Virtual Learning Environment.

Mentoring
You’ll need to secure the support of a mentor before you start this course, who will assess you in practice. Ideally, your mentor should be an enhanced or advanced neonatal nurse practitioner, but they should certainly practise in this area regularly and competently.

Assessment
You will submit a practice portfolio, including demonstrating advanced skills, as well as a 4,000-word critically reflective paper on the role of the enhanced nurse practitioner. You’ll also sit a 2-hour unseen exam based around a clinical case study of an acutely unwell neonate.