The Nursing & Health Care School, University of Glasgow, (formerly the Division of Nursing and Health Care) is a speciality area within the School of Medicine, Dentistry and Nursing in Glasgow, Scotland. The School has offered a degree course in Nursing since 1977, introduced under the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the time, Professor Edward McGirr.
History
University of Glasgow students contributed to nursing long before the Nursing & Health Care School opened. In 1915, it was announced that student volunteers could help at the Military Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC). The Western and the Glasgow Royal Infirmary hospitals accepted volunteers as nurses though students could also volunteer at hospitals overseas. Many female students signed up and received training to work as nurses including both those who were undertaking medical training at Glasgow as well as those who were not pursuing a career in medicine. One such Glasgow alumna was Isabel MacPhail: when war broke in 1914, she and her sister Katherine went to Serbia to work in the Scottish Women’s Hospital. MacPhail was awarded a number of decorations for her service: the French Medaille d’Honneur, the Serbian Cross of Charity and the Serbian Red Cross Nursing Medal.
The Nursing & Health Care School, originally known as the Department of Nursing Studies, was established by Professor Edward McGirr in 1978. He was Professor of Medicine from 1961 to 1978 and Dean of the Faculty of Medicine from 1974 to 1981. The School offered a four year undergraduate pre-registration Bachelor of Nursing degree programme, which was to admit up to 25 students to the course which would lead to the award of the Bachelor of Nursing degree. The course would combine academic study and professional training. The choice of locating the Nursing degree programme within the Medical Faculty was deliberate with the intention to produce graduate nurses who would be thoroughly grounded in health-related scientific theory and be competent and safe practitioners.
In the first 30 years of the Nursing & Health Care School, 214 nurses had graduated from the programme. As of 2023, between 50 and 60 students start their Bachelor of Nursing (Hons) degree programme each year in Glasgow.
In 2011, the University of Glasgow proposed closing the Nursing & Health Care School as part of a University wide cost cutting exercise. A petition received over 900 signatories and the Royal College of Nursing spoke in favour of keeping the School open.
In 2016 the School of Nursing & Health Care and Singapore Institute of Technology developed a joint Bachelor of Science with Honours in Nursing. This two-year post-registration nursing degree programme was co-created and designed with inputs from practice partners and the Ministry of Health in Singapore, and accredited by the Singapore Nursing Board. This degree programme builds on the foundation that students have established during their nursing diploma studies. The aim of the programme is to develop critical, analytical and innovation skills, as well as leadership, research, teaching, and clinical competencies.
Programmes
The Nursing & Health Care School runs both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.
Undergraduate programmes
Bachelor of Nursing (Honours) – four-year undergraduate programme
Joint Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) and University of Glasgow Bachelor of Science with Honours in Nursing
Postgraduate programmes
Advanced Practice in Health Care MSc(MedSci)/PgDip/PgCert - with options to graduate with a specialised named award if appropriate credits are obtained. Named awards include Acute & critical care, Global health challenges, Health care chaplaincy, and Advanced lymphoedema management. Advanced Nursing Science MSc - with options to graduate with a specialised named award if appropriate credits are obtained. Named awards include Acute & critical care, and Global health challenges. Advanced Lymphoedema Management PgCert: Blended learning Healthcare Chaplaincy PgCert