The Faculty of Emergency Nursing (FEN) concept was initiated around 1997 with the intention of developing an emergency nursing course at a basic and advanced level (Jones 2021:166). Since this time, a FEN framework has been developed by hundreds of Emergency Nurses, has gone through a few revisions and identifies practice at three levels, these were originally referred to as: associate (AFEN), member (MFEN) and fellow (FFEN) Levels and have now changed to Enhanced Level (formerly AFEN); Advanced Level (formerly MFEN) and Expert or Fellow Level.

In August 2018, we had completed our latest revision of the competencies and started a journey of developing the competencies into a qualification at all three levels so that emergency nurses could gain academic credits for their clinical work, knowledge, skills and capabilities.

FEN recognised that there are robust programmes available to develop our Emergency Nurse into autonomous practitioners but limited programmes to develop emergency nurses into rounded competent Emergency Nurses, Sister/Charge Nurse / Clinical Nurse Managers and Expert/Fellow Emergency Nurses (FFEN); so, this has been our focus. We have fully delivered two bespoke programmes to support the development of Emergency Nurses:

• Clinical Programme (formerly AFEN programme) which supports all Emergency Nurses. Webinars are available to watch on catch up. Plus, we deliver one live session a month (10 per year)
• Leader Programme (formerly MFEN programme) which supports our Sisters, Charge Nurse and Clinical Nurse Managers or those aspiring to be. Webinars are available to watch on catch up. Plus, we deliver one live session a month (10 per year)
• Fellow Programme supporting Expert Emergency Nurses or those aspiring to be. Commenced Oct 2023, Webinars are available to watch on catch up. Plus, we deliver one live session a month.

Please note that to be a FEN member, one must be a Registered Nurse; we may be in a position to consider membership for other members of the nursing workforce at some point in the future. 

 Enhanced Level:

The AFEN competencies framework has been used to underpin the development of nine units, which can be completed as single discreet units or as the qualification:  Agored Cymru Level 6 Diploma in Emergency Nursing (Faculty of Emergency Nursing) Qualification which provides 120 academic credits on completion of four units with nine combination options. Please note that there is an extra cost for accrediting for the qualification. 

The Clinical Education Programme supports this qualification. The programme can be started at any time. It is included in our Education Bundle. All webinars, live and recorded, are some 2 hours long. The recordings are accessible on the passworded area of our website.  Completing an evaluation of a webinar generates a CPD (Continual Professional Development) Certificate.

Advanced Level:

The MFEN competencies framework is being used to develop our Level 7 qualification, Level 7 Diploma in Emergency Nursing (Faculty of Emergency Nursing) which should be available by Spring 2024.

The Leader Education Programme will support this qualification. The programme can be started at any time. It is included in our Education Bundle. All webinars, live and recorded, are some 2 hours long. The recordings are accessible on the passworded area of our website.  Completing an evaluation of a webinar generates a CPD (Continual Professional Development) Certificate.

Expert/Fellow Level:

The Fellow (FFEN) competencies framework is to be used to develop the FFEN qualification, which should be available by Spring 2025.

The Fellow Education Programme will support this qualification. The programme can be started at any time. It is included in our Education Bundle. All webinars, live and recorded, are some 2 hours long. The recordings are accessible on the passworded area of our website.  Completing an evaluation of a webinar generates a CPD (Continual Professional Development) Certificate.

Updated 24/11/2023