The Return to Professional Practice course, available for nurses who are no longer registered with the Nursing and Midwifery Council, has been shortlisted in the category which recognises an ‘outstanding educational institution offering a return to practice nursing course’.

As a significant proportion of nurses and midwives approach retirement age the UK is facing a nursing shortage. Return to Practice courses are an essential way of bolstering numbers in the workforce, but adult learners or those who have been out of the profession and practice for a while need support to refresh and update their knowledge and skills.

Judges will be looking for a course that will help smooth nurses’ or midwives’ route back into their profession and help them quickly and easily get up to speed with modern practice, however long they have been away.

Ann Hedges, a Senior Lecturer at the University who manages the Return to Professional Practice Course, said: "It is a tremendous honour to have been shortlisted for this award. The Return to Professional Practice is a course which I feel passionately about. I believe that there are many former nurses who are no longer in the work force but have a wide range and diversity of skills.

"These nurses, I believe should be facilitated to be back in the workforce, making a valuable contribution, particularly at a time when numbers of nurses may be on the decline."

The winners of the Student Nursing Times Awards 2015 will be announced on 7 May at the London Hilton on Park Lane.