Content + Structure
The bachelor’s degree programme in Nursing at BFH provides you with a sound theoretical foundation in science and extensive professional and practical experience. All content is designed to give you the tools you need for career success.
Portrait
By combining studies with work experience, the bachelor's degree programme in Nursing prepares you for various professional opportunities. In addition to the hands-on experience you will gain working with patients, you can explore the many options our wide-ranging programme has to offer, such as:
- Quality development
- Evidence-based development of new concepts in nursing
- Practical research projects
- Consulting
- Leadership roles in nursing
The spectrum of job opportunities extends far beyond the traditional areas of nursing to include the following professional fields:
- Insurance
- Management
- Applied research and development
Three questions to...
Learning outcomes
Upon graduating, you will obtain the title ‘Bachelor of Science BFH in Nursing’. This bachelor’s degree is federally recognised in Switzerland, compatible with other European systems and counts internationally as a university degree.
Upon completing the programme, you will have comprehensive, specialised nursing knowledge:
- You will possess a thorough understanding of topics relevant to the field of nursing. Such topics might include:
- Nursing diagnostics
- Theories of health and disease
- Aggression
- Pain
- Paediatrics
- Transculturalism
- Psychiatry
- Malnutrition
- You will have a solid grasp on the organisation and purpose of the Swiss healthcare system. You will feel confident debating the following topics:
- Health policy
- Health promotion
- Public Health
- Social security
- Health economics
- You will be skilled in training and advising diverse patient groups with an understanding of the systemic context of various social backgrounds.
- Drawing upon your own knowledge and orientation guides, you will be able to contribute to theoretical and ethical discussions, decisions and actions in all areas of nursing practice.
- Clinical assessment will allow you to systematically review each patient’s clinical situation and determine the urgency of any given intervention. Clinical assessment is one of the core competencies of a nursing professional with a bachelor’s degree.
- You will appreciate the significance of nursing science and understand the differences and similarities between quantitative and qualitative approaches to research. You will employ nursing research processes and different study designs as well as associated methods for data collection and analysis in your work.
- You will examine and deepen your own theoretical knowledge and apply it to your everyday work in nursing. You will design strategies on how to improve the quality of care based on research findings and evidence-based approaches. You will then implement these strategies in the appropriate areas of practice. For instance, this might pertain to topics of applied nursing diagnostics, developing new concepts in nursing as well as advising and educating patients.
- You will view nursing from an interprofessional, interdisciplinary perspective. You will ensure comprehensive quality management in the workplace by keeping informed of social changes, legal requirements and available resources.
- You will be equipped to lead or assist in leading initiatives for change in nursing, then evaluate these processes.
- You will be prepared to take on leadership duties in nursing.
- You will fulfil the expectations and demands of various roles, such as communicating with patients in critical health situations as well as with people from different cultural backgrounds. You will meet these challenges by conducting professional conversations and implementing any action items resulting from these discussions.
- You will consult scholarly literature to research, analyse and evaluate answers to nursing-related questions, then model everyday best practices in the workplace after your findings. Using evidence collected from your nursing practice, you will systematically assess the instruments derived from these research findings. This will allow you to make feasible suggestions for updating guidelines, standards or instruction manuals.
Bachelor's degree programme in Nursing at the BFH
Specialisations + Focus areas
In addition to gathering work experience during your studies, you will also begin planning for your future career as a nurse. You will develop strategies for finding a position commensurate with your level of specialised training, monitoring the improvement of your own skills and considering how best to implement these in your work.
Mode of study + Duration
Part-time study (8 semesters)
Curriculum + Modules
For students with their baccalaureate and training as either FaGe (healthcare assistants) or FaBe (social care workers), this bachelor's degree programme lasts four years, or eight semesters.
- During the first four semesters, you will continue to work (at least 40% of your time) as either a FaGe or FaBe (Recommendation: annual working time contract). The rest of the time you dedicate to your Bachelor's studies. You will attend classes at BFH two days a week (thursday, friday), except in the first semester during the week-long orientation (calendar week 38), with classes held every day. The programme focuses on deepening your existing knowledge.
- From the fifth semester onwards, you will increasingly utilise your knowledge in practice.
- In the fifth semester, you will spend 100% of your time gaining hands-on work experience in a new field as a nursing student.
- The following semester will be split 50/50: 50% is spent in practice and 50% at BFH.
- For six weeks of the seventh semester, you will spend 100% of your time at BFH; the rest of the semester will be spent entirely in practice.
- The eighth semester will be split 50/50: 50% is spent in practice and 50% at BFH.
From the fifth semester onward, we support and encourage you in your nursing practice with an educational framework in accordance with BFH specifications.
Our goal is to help you acquire the professional skills you need. You will receive additional support in achieving your own goals from both a practical instructor and a mentor.
The bachelor's degree programme in Nursing is modular. Every semester is structured around modules dedicated to specific topics.
The programme is designed as follows:
