Critical exploration of the new NMC standards of proficiency for registered nurses.

Following its consultation with key stakeholder groups the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) has launched Future nurse: standards of proficiency for registered nurses ( NMC, 2018a ). These compulsory new standards will be available for use in curricula by approved education institutions (AEIs) from the end of January 2019. In this article, the authors provide their personal perspectives on the potential impact of the new standards, particularly focusing on those relating to supporting and assessing students from within the practice environment. The new roles of practice supervisor, practice assessor and academic assessor are explored, making comparisons to the current mentorship role. There is a clear need for effective partnerships between AEIs and healthcare organisations as they lead on the implementation of the standards. They must think creatively about practice placements and provide opportunities for interprofessional supervision, so that students can learn about the roles of other disciplines and how to collaborate in a multidisciplinary team.

The unique contribution of community clinical nurse specialists in rural Wales.

To date, quality indicators that have been developed for nursing tend to focus on acute, secondary care settings. It remains unclear whether such quality indicators are applicable to community settings, particularly in rural environments. This research aims to identify the consensus view among specialist nurses regarding their unique nursing contribution within their rural community. Identifying agreed aspects of the unique role within the rural community area will enable quality care metrics to be developed, allowing specialist nurses to measure their unique contribution to rural health care in the future. The research used the Delphi technique to identify a consensus view among a population of specialist community nurses working in a designated rural area in Wales. The strongest area of consensus related to clinical and teaching expertise, where participants perceive educational expertise as being at the forefront of their role. In terms of care for individuals, consensus was focused on four main areas: developing appropriate criteria for referral in to the service, collaborative working, education, and advocacy roles. The findings highlight similarities to models of care provision elsewhere. Specific quality indicators are required for clinical nurse specialists working in rural areas. Current quality indicators may not be applicable across all clinical settings. Further work is required to explore the nature of rural nursing practice.

Supporting student nurses learning in and through clinical practice: the role of the clinical guide.

Practice learning is an important part of the curriculum and accounts for approximately 50% of the pre-qualifying nursing programme in the United Kingdom. However, the nature of practice learning is very often ill defined, and mentors and nurse teachers apply a range of models to enhance learning in practice settings. Supporting students to learn is an important function for both educators and practitioners, yet there is little consensus in the literature as to what constitutes appropriate support and more importantly which methods promote deep learning. Mentorship is widely relied upon not just as a support mechanism for students but also as the main vehicle for the activities associated with learning, teaching and assessment of practice. Although in recent years nurse education in the UK has embraced mentorship alongside the development of the lecturer practitioner and more recently practice educator roles, other models may be worth further examination, especially those that more overtly enable students to learn through clinical practice encounters. The Clinical Guide is a concept developed by the University of Salford as part of a response to the Fitness for Practice report (UKCC 1999), which encourages Higher Education Institutions together with health care providers to develop partnerships to support students and deliver and monitor learning in practice. The following account outlines the role of the Clinical Guide in relation to pre-registration nursing students and highlights some general inadequacies of the mentor's role in developing deep learning in students in practice settings. It does acknowledge the part mentors have to play in the supporting students and relates to the research literature in this area.

Problem-based learning in nurse education: An unexpected problem for students with dyslexia.

This paper is a discussion that examines the difficulties caused by problem-based learning (PBL) in nurse education to students with dyslexia. The discussion is based on the authors' experience of implementing a curriculum based on PBL in one English University. It highlights a significant issue that might easily be overlooked as problem-based learning becomes common in nurse education. In short, this is that people with dyslexia may experience difficulties in understanding parts of the process of the method of learning as well as some of the more well known difficulties with written assessment. The paper suggests ways that PBL facilitators might be able to help reduce such difficulties for students with dyslexia.