Education and Learning
Why not register interest for our Level 6 Diploma?
The Faculty of Emergency Nursing (FEN) provide provides Emergency Nurses with a career development framework, education and qualifications, which deliver the Knowledge, Skills, Competence and Capabilities they require to work effectively.
We have been delivering and recording webinars for Emergency Nurses since June 2020.
FEN offer two distinct packages:
- Our Education Bundle
- Our Regulated Qualifications
Our Education Bundle provides:
1. Three Education Programmes which can be used as Continuing Professional Development (CPD) sessions: Clinical, Leader and Fellow Programmes. All sessions are recorded and are available as part of the Education Bundle.
2. Assessor Programme and support that has open access as we recognise the role that assessors have in Emergency Departments.
3. Four live sessions every month, one for each of our programmes. We do not deliver live sessions in the first two weeks of January, whole of August or the two weeks over Christmas/New Year.
4. Our webinars are delivered by Expert Emergency Nurses working on the front line of Emergency Care across UK and Ireland, as well as renown speakers.
5. CPD Certificate on completion of an evaluation form which details their hours of study, their learning from watching the webinar, how the learning will influence their practice and which part of the Nursing Register the webinar correlates with. Some individuals submit these to their managers as part of their appraisal, and some receive varying amounts of Time Owing in Lieu (TOIL).
6. CPDme electronic portfolio (worth £24.99 per year) that allows storage and collation of evidence for personal portfolio, for NMC revalidation or for FEN regulated qualifications.
7. Resources to support the development of a clinical portfolio.
8. An opportunity to network with other Emergency Nurses from across the UK and Ireland.
9. Standardised Assessment Proformas to use in their own workplaces even if they don’t undertake our qualifications.
10. Opportunity to see the Learning Outcomes and Assessment Criteria for our qualifications.
11. Facilitates Emergency Nurses working with their line managers or educators to develop individual practice development plans for the coming year(s) i.e. detailing the required webinars, as part of an appraisal process or career progression process
12. Evaluations have now been completed by well over 1000 Emergency nurses, (60% staff nurses and 40% band 6, CNM 1 or above) and show that our webinars are relevant to the individuals and their workplace and are good quality with all webinars scoring an average of ≥ 4.7/5, with their modes and medians both at 5/5.
Our Clinical Programme (formerly AFEN) provides bespoke training on ED presentations across the age ranges for both complaints and injuries. The programme is aimed at staff nurses, sisters, charge nurses and CRNs 1&2. The programme supports our 120 credit Level 6 Diploma in Emergency Nursing qualification. Over 90 2-hr recorded webinars are available in this programme. We hold a monthly live webinar – 1st Tuesday of the month 19.00 to 21.00 – with the exception of January and August.
Our Leader Programme is aimed at aspiring sister, charge nurses or CNM 1 & 11, as well as those wishing to consolidate their experience as a sister/charge nurses or CNM1 or CNM11. Together, with our Clinical Programme and Assessor Programme, it provides the underpinning knowledge required for taking charge of an ED, leading and managing the workforce as well as mentoring and assessing them. These programmes support our Level 7 Diploma in Emergency Nursing Qualification that will be available soon. Over 90 2-hr recorded webinars are available in the Clinical Programme, 15 in the Assessor Programme and 32 in the Leader programme. We hold a monthly live webinar – 2nd Thursday of the month 19.00 to 21.00 – with the exception of January and August.
Our Fellow Programme is aimed at aspiring Emergency Nurse experts, as well as those wishing to consolidate or update. Emergency Nurses attending could be consultant nurses, Emergency Nurse Educators (any title) ED-ACPs, Advanced Nurse Practitioners, ENPs, Specialist Nurse Practitioners, Sister/Charge Nurses, CNM1 or CNM11, Matrons, senior nurses or CNM111 (list not exhaustive). The programme commended in October 2023. Live webinars are held on the 4th Thursday of the month 19:00 to 21:00 with the exception of August and December.
Our Assessors Programme is aimed at any Emergency Nurse who assesses others in the emergency care setting. It covers the curriculum of the Level 3 Certificate in Assessing Vocational Achievement (CAVA) and so much more as the content is bespoke to Emergency Care. The programme covers how to assess practical skills and how to mark written work such as case reviews. Also included is guidance on how to make the most of working with a learner. 15 recorded webinars are available with others being delivered to support how to assess using specific proformas as they come on line. Assessor sessions are held on the 3rd Thursday of the month 19:00 to 21:00 and are either taught webinars or discussion sessions where assessors can network with each other are encouraged to bring their claims, concerns or issues.
Our Regulated Qualification(s):
Our qualifications are being developed from our competencies which have gone through several revisions since we started some 25 years ago. The latest versions of these are being developed into three levels (EQF Equivalent) of vocational (work-based learning) qualifications:
1. Level 6 Diploma in Emergency Nursing – already available
2. Level 7 Diploma in Emergency Nursing – anticipated availability in Spring 2024
3. Level 8 Diploma in Emergency Nursing – to be developed
This means that Emergency Nurses can gain regulated qualifications with recognised credits for their clinical skills, underpinning knowledge, competence and capabilities.
The FEN Qualification Agored Cymru Level 6 Diploma in Emergency Nursing’s Learning Outcomes are open access to non-members, however our full qualification units with the Assessment Criteria are only available for members.
Our repository of Assessment Tools and guides are freely available to help Emergency Nurse demonstrate their competence and provide robust evidence for portfolio development.
Information about Awarding Body and Regulation for our Qualifications.
We accredit our qualifications through Agored Cymru, which is an awarding body recognised within the Credit and Qualifications Framework for Wales (CQFW)[1] and is regulated by Qualifications Wales and Ofqual (Office of Qualifications and Examination Regulation for England).
The CQFW can be mapped to the European Qualifications Framework (EQF) which provides a common framework of reference allowing comparisons of national qualification systems across Europe[2].
England, Northern Ireland and Wales use the same level six to eight as the EQF whilst Ireland and Scotland have extra levels within their frameworks – see Qualifications Can Cross Boundaries (QAA 2019)2.
In the qualification frameworks, the title of the qualification informs of the size and level of the units/qualification [1] i.e. the level indicates the degree of difficulty from entry level to level 8 (Ireland Level 10 and Scotland level 12); and the size is identified by a term: Award for 1 to 12 credits, Certificate for 13 to 36 credits and a Diploma for 37 or more credits. Each credit represents 10h of learning.
Our first qualification available is the Agored Cymru Level 6 Diploma in Emergency Nursing (Faculty of Emergency Nursing) (equivalent Ireland Level 7 to 8 and Scotland Level 9 to 10). It provides 120 credits so represents 1200 hours of learning. The Learning Outcomes and Assessment Criteria for each of the units are freely available in the members area of our website. We support the qualification by providing the Clinical Programme (formerly AFEN). The aim of the programme, underpinned by the qualification, is to develop rounded, competent emergency nurses. The virtual programme of webinars runs weekly on Tuesday evenings, 7 to 9pm & is available on catch-up thereafter. The qualifications for Member and Fellow levels are under development with the Member qualification being written at CQFW level 7 (Ireland level 9 and Scotland level 10) and the Fellow qualification being written at CQFW level 8 (Ireland level 10 and Scotland level 12). Assessment is by submission of a clinical portfolio and virtual, invigilated Confirmatory Assessment; please note that there are no failures in relation to the clinical portfolio, instead we ask for more evidence to successfully sign off. The confirmatory assessment does have to be successfully completed before accreditation can be awarded.
We are working on our second qualification Agored Cymru Level 7 Diploma in Emergency Nursing. We anticipate that this will be available in Spring 2024. The Educational Programmes to support this qualification are already available and are; Clinical Programme, Leader Programme (formerly MFEN) and Assessor Programme.
[2] Qualifications can cross Boundaries: Qualifications can cross boundaries: Guide to comparing qualifications in the UK and Ireland (qaa.ac.uk)
updated 5/12/2023