The Bachelor of Nursing is a three-year degree programme, which provides students with the theoretical knowledge and practical skills appropriate for employment in a wide and growing number of nursing careers. The programme has as its core, theoretical and practical work in nursing – including principles relating to primary health, acute and chronic nursing care, mental health and mental illness throughout the lifespan. The programme also recognises the importance of the cultural dimensions of nursing. The programme has a strong applied component to allow students to enter the workforce proficient in a range of additional strengths including health promotion, illness prevention, evidence-based practice, the ability to provide nursing care in a medical and surgical context, as well as the provision of emergency nursing care.

Graduates will have the knowledge and skills to practise nursing and they will be eligible to sit the Nursing Council of New Zealand Examination for registration in the Registered Nurse scope of practice. Once formally registered with the Nursing Council of New Zealand, graduates will work as nurses in primary, secondary and tertiary health settings; they will be critically reflective practitioners of nursing and they will practise within a framework of cultural safety. A nursing career offers great opportunities for men and women from a variety of cultures and walks of life. Nursing is a partnership with people to improve their health. This includes assisting children, adults or older people recovering from physical or mental illness in hospital or their own homes. Health promotion in nursing may involve people in schools, the workplace, marae or health centres.