Chester nursing course wins Student Nursing Times Award for curriculum innovation
The University of Chester has won a national nursing education award for a simulated night shift programme that trains student nurses in public health and homelessness.
The university won the Teaching Innovation of the Year — Curriculum category at this year’s Student Nursing Times Awards.
The winning initiative is titled Preparing Student Nurses for the Realities of Practice: A Simulated Night Shift Approach to Public Health and Homelessness.
It was introduced in 2025 as part of a four-week simulation placement and is led by Jenny Stewart, Faculty Skills and Simulation Coordinator at the university.
The programme builds a full overnight shift into student nurse placement rotas, with students working through scenarios in a simulated clinical environment.
To give the night shift a public health focus, the university worked with the housing and homelessness charity Shelter on the scenarios used during the simulation.
The judges said the project was “an outstanding, innovative approach with built-in adaptability within the curriculum,” and praised the collaboration with external agencies and charities.
Following its first year, the simulated night shift has become a permanent part of the curriculum and is now offered to all first-year student nurses at the University of Chester, regardless of discipline.
Professor Angela Simpson, Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Executive Dean for the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Society at the University of Chester, said:
“By embedding authentic experiences such as simulated night shifts into the curriculum, and by working closely with partners like Shelter, we are ensuring our student nurses graduate with the skills, confidence and compassion needed to care for diverse communities and meet the realities of modern healthcare.”
The Student Nursing Times Awards are run by Nursing Times to recognise nursing and midwifery education across the UK.
The University of Chester is a realistic destination for school leavers from Flintshire and the wider Deeside patch.
Student nurses trained at Chester routinely undertake placements at the Countess of Chester Hospital, which treats patients referred from across north Wales by Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board.
The cross-border training pipeline means nurses educated at Chester often go on to work in hospitals serving Flintshire residents.
The university said the simulated night shift would continue as a permanent feature of its first-year curriculum.
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