Council to decide on next steps for practice learning review

This forms part of our ongoing review of practice learning requirements to understand how we can best support student learning across the UK. It will help us to ensure that the professionals of tomorrow are continually equipped with the knowledge and skills they need to provide safe and effective care for people.

Our recommendation

We’re recommending that our Council approve five key lines of enquiry. We propose to:

• further examine the practice learning experiences of students with protected characteristics (including those who require reasonable adjustments) to understand whether these are taken into account as part of students’ learning, and whether they impact student retention
• 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
• develop 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
• evaluate 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
• evaluate 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.

This follows months of careful research and engagement including an independent report by the Nuffield Trust in partnership with the Florence Nightingale Foundation, which we commissioned to understand what contributes to effective practice learning across the UK and in other countries. We also considered 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’ve worked closely in partnership with key stakeholders and subject matter experts from across the UK, many of whom form part of our independent steering group. Our student and public advisory groups have also played a key role in helping us to shape this work.

If Council approves our recommendation, we will provide more details and timelines in the coming months.

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 also 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.

Anne Trotter, NMC Assistant Director of Education and Standards, said:

“With the demand for care rising and people’s needs becoming increasingly complex, it’s essential that students are equipped with the knowledge and skills they need to deliver the safest possible care when they qualify. Practice learning is a vital part of this, and we have a responsibility to help ensure students have access to the inclusive environments and positive learning cultures they need to thrive.

“We’re grateful to everyone across the four nations of the UK, including the members of our independent steering group and public and student advisory groups, who have worked so closely with us to reach this stage. Their insight and guidance have been invaluable, and we will keep them updated as this work progresses.”

If you’d like to be kept up to date with our progress, and be notified of any opportunities to get involved, please sign up to our community of interest. 

Further information:

• More information about our practice learning review can be found here.
• Every month we run informal drop-in sessions for academics and practice learning partners. It's an opportunity to speak to the NMC about any questions relating to NMC standards implementation or other education queries. More information and details on how to sign up are available here.

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