IGNOU BNSL 115 Practical for CNIN: Workbook, Activities and Exam

IGNOU BNSL 115 Practical in the CNIN programme

The IGNOU BNSL 115 Practical is Nursing Practices and Procedures in Care of Newborn and Infant, the 10-credit practical course of the Certificate in Newborn and Infant Nursing (CNIN). It sits beside one theory course, BNS-115 Nursing Care of New Born and Infant (6 credits), so the practical holds most of the programme’s 16 credits.

CNIN is a six-month continuing nursing education programme of the School of Health Sciences for in-service nurses registered as RNRM, with a Diploma in General Nursing and Midwifery or B.Sc. (N) or above, taught in English. The July 2026 Common Prospectus prints a minimum duration of 6 months and a maximum of 2 years, a fee of Rs 6,600 for the full programme, and January and July sessions.

Across practical courses, the hands-on component worries learners much more than any theory paper, and learners who pass written exams with ease often stall at this stage. In CNIN the practical is also the larger course: BNSL-115 carries ten credits against six for BNS-115.

Many learners tell us they discovered the practical component only late in their session. For BNSL-115 the CNIN Programme Guide states that completion of the workbook is mandatory for the practical examination, and the workbook lists among its objectives helping you plan your activities in advance so that you complete them within the time frame.

Writing IGNOU BNSL 115 Practical entries from newborns you nursed

Each IGNOU BNSL 115 Practical activity in the workbook ends with a proforma or guideline grid, and the workbook asks you to record your day-to-day self and supervised activities in it. Where no proforma is printed, you write the problem and the action taken on a blank sheet, and you may attach additional sheets in a few cases.

The resuscitation grid shows the detail expected: name of the newborn, date and time of birth, birth weight, type of delivery, the method adopted to keep a patent airway and the steps of initial resuscitation, then routine care, initial steps, the newborn’s status after 30 seconds, positive pressure ventilation, chest compression, and medication given under a physician’s prescription and supervision. The IMNCI proforma for the young infant is filled each time you follow the IMNCI algorithm, and the workbook asks for at least two cases from each of three areas: assess and classify, treat, and counsel the mother and follow up.

Before: “Attended delivery, gave newborn care”, written the same way day after day. After: the birth weight, the airway method used and the baby’s response 30 seconds into each step, as the BNSL-115 resuscitation grid asks, which ties the entry to Practical 1 of Block 1.

Practical write-ups usually expect a fixed sequence, and a missing part costs marks. The BNSL-115 resuscitation grid sets its own order: routine care, initial steps, status after 30 seconds, PPV, chest compression, then medication.

14 activities, listed twice: what the workbook counts

The IGNOU BNSL 115 Practical workbook prints the same 14 activities in two lists. The self list is done at your own workplace, which the workbook names as a sub-centre, primary health centre, community health centre, hospital, nursery, well baby clinic, paediatric ward or postnatal ward. The supervised list is done at the Programme Study Centre, where the Programme In-charge posts you to clinical areas and academic counsellors or clinical supervisors demonstrate each skill and guide your practice.

Two printed details change how you plan. The self list carries a footnote that its hours include reading and performing the activity, so the 20 self hours for activity 14 include reading for it (the workbook points activity 14 to Practicals 1, 2 and 3 of Block 2) as well as performing it on two sick young infants. And activity 14 carries the largest weightage in both lists, level with the six neonatal procedures taken together.

Nurses who already work on a ward often ask us whether that ward can count. For the self half of BNSL-115 the workbook settles it: you perform the self activities at your own workplace and fill in the proforma or blank pages there.

In practical courses the written record is where marks leak away most, yet it is the easiest area to repair. In BNSL-115 both workbook lists sit inside continuous evaluation, half of the course total.

Four blocks behind the practical, and how they connect

The IGNOU BNSL 115 Practical comes as four blocks. Block 1, Techniques in Newborn and Infant Care (January 2016), has ten practicals: resuscitation of newborn, care of normal newborn, assessment of newborn, feeding of newborn and infants, administration of medication and intravenous fluids, oxygen therapy, monitoring of sick neonate, neonatal procedures, neonatal equipments, and disinfection and housekeeping. Block 2, Techniques in Integrated Management of Neonatal and Childhood Illness (March 2016), has three: assessment techniques, treatment techniques, and feeding and counselling for the sick young infant. Block 3 is the IMNCI Chart Book and Block 4 is the Workbook.

Each workbook activity names the practical it draws on in a margin note (activity 14 points to Practicals 1, 2 and 3 of Block 2), and Block 2 tells you to use the chart book while performing the procedures. The chart book has four columns, Assess, Signs, Classify As and Identify Treatment, and three colours: red for severe illness that needs referral, yellow for treatment with medicines at home, and green for home treatment without medicines. It also carries the recording form for the sick young infant up to 2 months, a weight for age chart and a mother’s card. Some study-material sites list BNSL-115 under an IMNCI title; its IGNOU title is Nursing Practices and Procedures in Care of Newborn and Infant, and IMNCI is Block 2 and Block 3 of it.

Learners often hold one format from the manual, another from a counsellor and yet another from a senior’s file, unsure which one counts. For BNSL-115 the Workbook’s own proforma is the record, activity 14 is recorded on the recording forms given in the Workbook, and the Workbook says academic counsellors or clinical supervisors will clear your doubts during practical activities.

In assessment-based practicals the slips we see are a sign read against the wrong table and a conclusion that does not match the findings. For BNSL-115 that means matching the infant’s signs to the correct chart book row before writing the classification.

BNS-115 theory reading for CNIN nurses

Get the BNS-115 guess paper on WhatsApp

Hospital posting or your own ward? Two official versions

For the IGNOU BNSL 115 Practical, the CNIN Programme Guide and the newer IGNOU programme page describe the supervised part differently. The guide places learners in a district hospital, secondary level care hospital, community health centre or community for 120 hours of practical training, in sessions of 4 hours each. It has the workbook evaluated by the counsellor at the Programme Study Centre and signed by the Programme In-charge, and it asks for 90% attendance in practical contact sessions to become eligible for the practical examination.

The programme page says CNIN is implemented through a nodal centre, RC Bijapur, by an alternate strategy, and that the total hours of practical sessions are completed on the job under an approved nursing officer acting as mentor, who certifies them. The July 2026 Common Prospectus also says students carry out theory and practical contact sessions at their own workplace with web support. Ask your Programme In-charge which arrangement your batch follows before you start counting hours.

Advice from a friend at another centre often fails the person who follows it, because attendance, supervision and submission can vary between centres. With BNSL-115 even the official papers differ, so take your rule from your own nodal or study centre.

Most learners we serve are working, raising a family or both, and practical sessions are generally compulsory where theory counselling is usually optional. The CNIN guide links BNSL-115 practical attendance to eligibility for the practical examination, so keep count of your sessions from the first one.

Practical dates are fixed, and learners who skip their centre’s notices lose their slot and sit out until a later batch. For BNSL-115 the guide says the Programme In-charge informs the scheduled date and time, and important circulars are displayed on the Programme Study Centre notice board.

How do IGNOU BNSL 115 Practical marks add up to 100?

The IGNOU BNSL 115 Practical is marked out of 100, half from the workbook and half from the practical examination, as Table 4 of the CNIN Programme Guide sets out.

Workbook halves and exam day, side by side

The guide asks for 50% marks separately in continuous evaluation and the term-end examination, in both the theory and the practical component, so a strong exam day does not make up for a weak workbook. The programme page adds that the case studies or workbook are evaluated by an expert from the respective specialty for you to become eligible for the practical examination.

Inside the workbook, any activity you perform at the Programme Study Centre must be countersigned by the counsellor under whom you carried it out, and the activity grids carry a signature line.

Among the gaps learners describe to us is a counsellor’s signature line left empty. In the BNSL-115 Workbook the countersignature is printed as an instruction for activities done at the Programme Study Centre, so collect it the day you do the activity.

Certificates for completed hours are another item learners find missing at the end. Where your BNSL-115 batch follows the programme page’s on-the-job route, the page says the mentor certifies the hours, so ask for that certification as the hours are completed.

A learner without proof of what was handed in has no answer ready if the marks later fail to appear. When your BNSL-115 workbook goes for evaluation, keep a copy and whatever acknowledgement your centre gives.

Status, result and assignment questions

One day, two examiners: the CNIN practical exam and its viva

The IGNOU BNSL 115 Practical ends with a one-day term-end practical examination at the centre where you had your practical contact sessions, before or after the theory examination (Appendix 5 says at least one month before or after). A panel of an external examiner (a subject expert) and an internal examiner conducts it, and the Programme In-charge of the Programme Study Centre compiles the marks of self and supervised activities and the term-end practical and sends them to the Student Evaluation Division.

Appendix 5 of the guide gives the working detail of the CNIN practical exam: the internal examiner is the counsellor or clinical supervisor who conducted your practical contact programme, the external examiner is from the same or another institution in the same city and was not involved in that programme, students are informed in writing at least 15 days before, and the examination runs for one day of 8 hours. The examiner eligibility it prints for BNSL-115 is an M.Sc. in Nursing (Paediatric Nursing) with two years of teaching experience in a college or school of nursing.

The supervised list in the workbook ends with item 15, Practical Examination / Viva Voce, against 8 hours. The prospectus asks for a valid IGNOU student identity card at the examination centre.

Plenty of learners walk into a viva expecting a formality, and a neat file then scores poorly when its owner cannot explain the method or findings. For BNSL-115 the internal examiner is the counsellor or clinical supervisor who conducted your practical contact programme.

A frequent question at our counter is whether a practical carries a viva. For BNSL-115 the supervised list answers it: item 15 is the practical examination and viva voce.

Your newborns, your entries: originality in the IGNOU BNSL 115 Practical

The IGNOU BNSL 115 Practical record is a record of care you gave. The workbook states its own objectives: to give counsellors first hand information about the activities you performed and to document your practical experience towards completing the practical component of CNIN. A borrowed or generated entry does neither. We do not offer a filled BNSL-115 workbook or a ready-made practical record.

Ready-made practical files circulate online, and some learners hand one in after changing just their name and enrolment details; matching entries from one centre stand out, and the viva catches a learner who cannot explain them. The BNSL-115 resuscitation grid asks for a newborn’s birth weight, type of delivery and status after each step, details taken from a newborn you attended.

Some learners hand in text an AI tool wrote, unchanged, and that is one more cause of identical wording across a centre. A generated BNSL-115 entry describes no real newborn, and the workbook exists to show your counsellor what you did.

Some learners write findings from assumed data instead of their own work. In a newborn workbook that would mean describing a baby you did not nurse; each BNSL-115 entry should come from a case you handled at your workplace or under your counsellor.

Fee slab, exam form and the 30 November 2026 date

For the IGNOU BNSL 115 Practical, the July 2026 Common Prospectus sets the practical examination fee by credits: Rs 300 up to 4 credits and Rs 500 above 4 credits, paid with the term-end examination form. BNSL-115 has 10 credits, so the Rs 500 slab applies where the form charges a practical fee; the theory fee is Rs 200 per course, and an examination fee once paid is neither refundable nor adjustable. The exam-form appendix of the CNIN guide still prints older per-course figures, so go by the current form.

SED’s notice for the December 2026 TEE on IGNOU’s announcements page gives 30 November 2026 as the last date for the project, internship and practical course fee, paid only through the Samarth portal, and states that no fee will be accepted after the stipulated deadline. The examination form itself is filled online for each TEE, and hall tickets are uploaded on the IGNOU website 7 to 10 days before the examination.

Our records show 70 to 80 percent of learners acting only in the final month before a due date. For BNSL-115 the date SED’s notice calls the last date is 30 November 2026, for the practical course fee; the workbook carries no printed submission date, so ask your Programme In-charge when it is due.

Many learners wait in the belief that IGNOU will push each date by a month. For the BNSL-115 fee, SED’s December 2026 notice says none will be accepted after the deadline, and we cannot say whether any date will move.

Learners often confuse the Rs 300 and Rs 500 amounts. For BNSL-115 the credit count decides it: ten credits sits in the above-four-credit slab.

Ask us about BNS-115 exam reading

Whatever you read for BNS-115, the IGNOU BNSL 115 Practical is cleared on your own workbook entries and your own day in front of the examiners.

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