In response to the Government’s mandate to give aspirant student nurses front line care experience before commencing a programme of nurse education, the East-Midlands participated in a national pilot programme to recruit aspirant nurses into HCA roles. Here, we discuss research evaluating our programme of pre-nursing care experience and explore the findings relating to how this programme maintained participant’s interest and motivation in nursing. We then discuss these findings within the context of current policy drivers within the NHS today.This research was funded by Health Education England working across the East Midlands
