Governor development : the journey from appointed governor to non-executive director

Dr Jacqueline Leigh shares her journey from moving from an appointed governor role at Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust to working as is a non-executive director at Healthwatch Salford

Implications for operationalising the new education standards for nursing

Registrants and higher education institutions (HEIs) were recently invited to take part in the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) consultation regarding its potential new standards for pre-registration nursing education. The consultation set out fresh standards for pre-registration nursing, together with an education framework that underpins the associated theory and practice. While these documents do not contain the final standards (NMC Council is set to approve them in spring 2018), they offer a glimpse of what the newly registered nurse should know and be able to do at the point of registration in order to practise safely and effectively and continue to develop their expertise. The draft proficiency standards are referred to in the document as being ‘ambitious in setting out the enhanced knowledge and skills that people can expect from nurses in the future’.It is interesting to look at the document in terms of practice learning, particularly in relation to by whom and how student nurses will be supervised and assessed in clinical practice and what the educational requirement should be. In this column, we offer some personal perspectives about the potential impact of these new standards in practice

Critical exploration of the new NMC future nurse : standards of proficiency for registered nurses

Introduction Following a two year process that included consulting and working alongside key stakeholder groups such as students, educators, healthcare professionals, charities and patient groups from across the UK, The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) launched their Future nurse: Standards of proficiency for registered nurses (NMC 2018a). These new and compulsory standards are available for use in curricula by Approved Education Institutions (AEI’s) from the 28th January 2019. Only students who are part way through their pre-registration programme having commenced at an AEI prior to January 2019 will continue on the existing curriculum with the current NMC standards. The NMC refer to the standards as: “Ambitious new standards that set out the skills and knowledge the next generation of nurses will learn to enable them to deliver world class care” (NMC 2018b). The standards are set out in three parts: Part 1: Standards framework for nursing and midwifery education- this document provides a framework of five headings that underpin nurse education and training: Learning culture Educational governance and quality Student learning and empowerment Educators and assessors Curricula and assessment Part 2: Standards for student supervision and assessment- this document sets out the expectations for the learning, support, supervision and assessment (of theory and practice) of students in the practice environment. Part 3: Programme standards, which are the standards specific for each pre-registration or post-registration programme- this document set out the legal requirements for all pre-registration nursing education programmes. Collectively the three documents contain proficiencies that specify the knowledge and skills that registered nurses must demonstrate when caring for people of all ages and across all care settings, reflecting what the public can expect nurses to know and be able to do in order to deliver safe, compassionate and effective nursing care. A key message and something which remains consistent with the current pre-registration standards is the fundamental requirement for partnerships between Approved Education Institutions (AEIs) and healthcare organizations to provide the practice based learning for the student nurses: “(AEIs) are responsible for working with practice learning partners to manage the quality of their educational programmes. Overall responsibility for the day-to-day management of the quality of any educational programme lies with an AEI in partnership with practice learning partners who provide opportunities for practice experience to nursing and midwifery students” (NMC 2018a:4). This paper focuses on Part 2: standards for student support and assessment, exploring the key differences between the new and old sets of standards. We offer some personal perspectives about the potential impact of these new standards, particularly around the personnel responsible for supervising and assessing students in clinical practice and the potential preparation for the role. Partnership between AEIs and its practice partners are also explored

Providing the right environment to develop new clinical nurse leaders

Leigh and Littlewood evaluate the changes in the delivery of nurse education as a result of the devolution of health and social care decision-making from Westminster to Greater Manchester

Promoting transition resilience through personal development planning : an evaluation of the perspectives of preparation for transition of final year undergraduate nursing students

The experience of transition is of concern to newly registered nurses entering the world of work, and to those seeking to prepare, recruit and retain such nurses. This paper evaluates a final year preparation for role transition module from the perspectives of final year student nurses. Focus groups and one to one interviews were carried out at three distinct points in time, after the module assessments and after each of the three clinical placements in the final year. Braun and Clarke’s inductive thematic analysis was used to analyse the data with four themes emerging: impact/relevance of the personal development plan; development of self; role of the mentor; and transition resilience/taking control. These four themes were then applied to Kirkpatrick’s model of evaluation, providing a deductive or theoretical framework for analysing and evaluating the outcomes of the module. Preparation for transition and the development of resilience have been identified as a potential solution associated with the negative experiences and challenges of transition. Resilience is an essential attribute that enables nurses to make sense of their experiences of transition and manage the stress of the work place. Creating transition focused personal development plans to guide learning in the final year enabled the participants to take responsibility for their own learning and with the support from a good mentor, participants were able to understand that feeling nervous about transition was normal. This in turn enhanced their confidence, promoting ‘transition resilience’ as opposed to feelings and experiences associated with the more traditional concept of transition or reality shock. Key Words: role transition, transition resilience, transition module, reality shock, transition focused personal development pla