Placement information

Our Biomedical Science and Nursing programmes include specialist placements throughout, find out more about them below. From professional placements and site visits to continuing professional development (CPD) sessions, our students benefit from a well-rounded and immersive learning experience.

Biomedical Science placements

In your second year you'll spend five weeks taking part in a Biomedical Science Employer-Led Challenge or on an external work placement, designed with support from our academic team, so you'll gain degree-relevant experience, sector knowledge, and valuable references and contacts to help guide your career decisions.

Our unique, on-campus Biomedical Science Employer-Led Challenge aims to enhance your employability skills by taking part in a real-life challenge provided by local employers from the Biomedical Science sector. As well as developing your problem-solving skills, the challenge will see you experience full-time working conditions, so you'll also develop professional skills in areas such as time management, working to achieve aims and objectives and professional ethics.

Please note that our BSc (Hons) Biomedical Science degree does not include a work placement year, and any professional work placement experience accumulated during your studies will not count towards completion of the IBMS portfolio.

Female Biomedical Scientist using a microscope

Digital Nursing placements

Our Nursing students undertake a four-week digital placement, where they learn all about how digital healthcare supports the NHS and clinical practice. This placement is a great experience to start finding your feet with your electronic portfolio, understand the connections between how care can be delivered in our modern world, and start to work with our Experts by Experience.

Our Experts by Experience are a group of people who have their own personal experiences of healthcare and accessing health support. They work with the teaching team, to develop the programme, offer advice and share their experiences in some of the modules.

A female and male nurse walking in a corridor, with another female nurse in the foreground.

Bringing Nursing Practice to Life: How simulation is transforming student learning

What does it really feel like to be responsible for a group of patients on a busy hospital ward? During March, our Year 2 nursing students didn’t just talk about it, they lived it.

As part of their programme, students took part in an immersive simulation week designed to recreate the realities of clinical practice. Working in teams, they managed a simulated ward environment, caring for multiple patients whose conditions evolved over time.

From recognising early signs of deterioration to escalating concerns, documenting care, and planning for discharge, students experienced the full journey of patient care safely, but realistically.

Simulation offers something unique: the opportunity to practise complex clinical decision-making without risk to patients. Students consistently highlighted how valuable this was:

“It’s been really good… being put into situations to assess how we would deal with it in terms of critical thinking.”

Simulation Weeks

Our Experts by Experience also get involved in our Simulated Practice Learning weeks. These happen every year, each year group will have a week spent in our simulation suite, which is made up of a clinical hospital ward setting, a skills lab, a high-dependency room, and a simulated flat environment. So, we can focus on hospital and community situations.

These weeks are great experiences for staff and students and this time adds to the number of hours you need to clock up in placement. You will get to interact with our patient manikins and simulators, start to learn and practice your clinical skills, and work as a team.