APL for the Nursing Profession

This seminar was designed for Admissions tutors, field leaders and course leaders for Pre-registration Nursing degrees.

It provided a forum to discuss the use of APL in pre-registration nursing curricula following the changes to the NMC regulations for APL. There was set of case studies of real life examples of potential claims for APL against pre-registration courses to stimulate discussion and provide potential strategies for those colleagues preparing for validation and implementation.

Participants were able to:

• Update on the new regulations, standards and allowances for APL from NMC
• Share expertise on advice to claimants about prior learning
• Apply strategies and principles of the processes of APL to real life case studies 

Facilitators:

Debbie Hatfield, Senior Lecturer, School of Nursing & Midwifery, University of Brighton, is the APL co-ordinator at the school and currently deputy chair of the SEEC APL network.  She has been advising APL candidates since 1993 in both the health and social care sectors and on undergraduate post registration nursing courses.   More recently she has been working with the course and admissions team on APL arrangements for the newly validated pre-registration Nursing degree to commence in Sept 2011.

Susan Heatley, Principal Lecturer, Kingston University, has been an AP(E)L advisor since 1996 for the post qualifying programmes.  She co-ordinates APL across all schools in the Faculty.  More recently she prepared for the NMC validation of the new graduate curriculum that commences in Sept 2011 with consideration to the new APL allowances.

Nicola Rowlands, Education Adviser, The Nursing and Midwifery Council, was able to provide the perspective of the national professional body.