In January 2025, our Council approved five key lines of enquiry for the next phase of the pre-registration practice learning review. These key lines of inquiry were developed using evidence from the Nuffield Trust’s independent research, alongside findings from our evaluation of simulated practice learning for pre-registration nursing programmes, and evidence from our recent work to quality assure nursing and midwifery education programmes which includes insights and themes around practice learning.
We will explore nursing and midwifery students’ practice learning in more detail by:
- further examining the practice learning experiences of students with protected characteristics (including those who require reasonable adjustments) to understand how these are taken into account as part of students’ learning, and whether they impact student retention
- exploring if we should expand the type of support we offer to students, practice supervisors and practice assessors, including strengthening requirements for protected learning time for nursing associate students
- developing indicators and metrics to measure the quality of students’ practice learning as part of our education quality assurance function. This will help us to understand where we can better support students to achieve the proficiencies they need to deliver the best care for people
- evaluating key aspects of the midwifery curricula to understand midwifery students’ practice learning experiences, including what works well and what could be improved. This will help us to understand how they can be best supported to achieve their midwifery specific proficiencies, for example, number of births
- evaluating key aspects of nursing curricula including what works well and what could be improved. This will help us to understand nursing students’ relationships with our education standards, and how they can be best supported to achieve the proficiencies within their intended field of nursing.
Clear timelines and milestones for delivery of the key lines of enquiry will be presented by the end of March 2025. We will also continue to work closely in partnership with key stakeholders and subject matter experts from across the UK, many of whom form part of our independent steering group and student and public advisory groups.
Further work
We are also developing three new policies as part of our education quality assurance work. They will focus on the use of simulated practice learning within pre-registration nursing programmes, the use of reflection time within pre-registration nursing and midwifery programmes, and the classification of breaks within practice learning hours.
We know that there can be inconsistencies in how our requirements are interpreted. That’s why we’re working to ensure clearer communication around specific standards, so that we can support and ensure consistency among education institutions and their practice learning partners, professionals, students, and stakeholders.
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