The role of service-user feedback in undergraduate nursing courses.

There is an increasing expectation that service users should contribute in a meaningful way to student nurse education courses. This article describes how service-user feedback on undergraduate student nurses' performance during practice learning opportunities (PLOs) gives an insight into the qualities service users value in student nurses. At Cardiff University, the new Bachelor of Nursing course, launched in September 2012, took into account the Nursing and Midwifery (NMC) standards for preregistration, implementing a mechanism for service users to feed back on students' clinical performance. To facilitate this service, user/carer feedback pages were inserted into the students' bound clinical practice portfolio. A large sample of the clinical portfolios (n=100) from one cohort across adult, child and mental health nursing fields were examined at the end of year 1, year 2 and again at the end of year 3, and service users' comments collated. In considering the words used by service users, the authors propose that they reflected the six fundamental values-or 6Cs-of care, compassion, competence, communication, courage and commitment that underpin the delivery of excellent care. Conclusions drawn from the feedback were that students exhibited the caring and professional qualities that service users value, and indeed showed the dignity and respect for patients and people that the profession demands.

Provision of training and support for newly qualified nurses.

AIM: To evaluate nurses' and ward managers' experience of the Nurse Foundation Programme (NFP), with a view to improving future programmes. The NFP was introduced in 2008 to provide newly qualified nurses with standardised training and support during their first year post-training in Cardiff and Vale University Health Board. METHOD: Anonymous evaluation forms were analysed and interviews with nurses and ward managers were undertaken. Evaluation form data were descriptively analysed, and interviews and free text comments were thematically analysed. FINDINGS: The NFP was highly valued by attendees, offering timely knowledge and support for newly qualified nurses. Ward managers reported that the NFP made it easier to release time for newly qualified nurses to participate in training, while helping with skill mix decisions on the ward. CONCLUSION: The centrally planned and coordinated NFP was positively evaluated and led to a standardised approach to training and support for newly qualified nurses.