New partnership in the North for health care education

The Royal College of Nursing and the Open University teamed up today to offer flexible training courses in the North which could help stop students running up debts while studying.

The partnership recognises that part-time and distance learning offer several key benefits, including much greater flexibility for nursing staff from remote areas who may previously have had no option but to leave their communities – and health care jobs – in order to study.

The range of courses on offer would be attractive to staff at all levels who wanted to develop their careers, from health care support workers to senior practitioners, said the two bodies.

The part-time study also had the potential to enable more students to stay with their studies and avoid student debt by earning as they learn.

Rosemary Hamilton, director of the Open University in Ireland, said the new partnership would improve both accessibility and quality in health care education.

“This partnership will bring together the excellent learning programmes offered by the RCN with the OU’s high quality open learning courses to create a ladder of learning for health and social care service staff that extends from access and return to learning courses, through pre-registration nursing right up to postgraduate degrees,” she said.

Ms Hamilton added: “The alliance can enhance the potential for us to reach out and draw in new learners whose circumstances may prevent them from engaging in more traditional forms of learning and we can do this in every corner of Northern Ireland.”

The courses were particularly designed for people already working in the services, she said, and were very firmly work-based, thereby providing accessible lifelong learning opportunities at all stages in the development of a career.

Mary Hinds, director of RCN Northern Ireland, said aligning their learning programmes with existing OU programmes created a new approach to flexible and responsive learning opportunities and the health and social care workforce.

“This partnership will make a real difference to nurses and health care support workers across Northern Ireland who would sometimes be unable to access higher education courses to support their career.

“The alliance offers staff access to courses that are flexible, allowing them to develop their careers, but at the same time fulfil their work and family commitments. This development will support nurses in an effective way which ultimately will benefit patient care.”