The Department of Health and Nutrition has successfully secured new funding for registered nurses hoping to embark on our recently created nurse prescribing course.

Following the submission of a business case to the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA), the Department has been granted 10 bursaries, each worth £2000, for students enrolling on the V300 Independent and Supplementary Prescribing programme in February 2025.

The bursaries will present registered nurses working in a non-NHS social care setting, including care homes and nursing homes, with the opportunity to further their career prospects through the addition of a vital skill set in nurse prescribing.

The V300 is offered both as a standalone, 40-credit module to registered nurses, or as part of our new Postgraduate Specialist Practice Qualification programmes in Health and Social Care with pathways through Adult Social Care Nursing MSc and Homelessness and Inclusion Health Nursing MSc.

The V300 programme lasts for 26 weeks, with entry accepted through the standard application portal in either February or September. Once the direct application has been received, students will need to complete a separate application form to check eligibility for the programme and the bursary.

The V300 funding is available specifically to registered nurses working in a non-NHS health and social care setting, living within a West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) postcode and earning less than £32,000 per year.

This offer provides an excellent opportunity for professional advancement as students learn to prescribe safely, appropriately and cost-effectively in their role as NMC registered nurses, Community Specialist Practitioners or Specialist Community Public Health Nurses.

On completion of the programme, registered nurses are eligible to be recorded as an Independent/Supplementary Prescriber (V300) on the NMC register and prescribe within their field of practice.

Professor Kathryn Riley, Director of Nurse Education in the Department of Health and Nutrition, believes that securing this additional funding will help to ensure patients have quick and effective access to the right treatment in the community: "Currently, there is a shortage of nurses with prescribing qualifications working in non-NHS settings. This means there is a reliance on GP practices, community pharmacists or admission to hospital for patients requiring prescribed medicines," she said.

"The benefits of having prescribers in the community and across a range of health and social care non-NHS settings will be to support people in receiving these prescribed medicines, in a timely manner by a registered nurse, and keep people out of hospital and in either their own homes or nursing homes wherever possible."