The image of nursing and nursing education

Published: 26 March 2013

Education Forum steering committee member and senior lecturer at Bournemouth University Rick Fisher explores the issue of nursing education's image

No doubt you will have by now seen the report of the Francis Inquiry, or at least have heard many of the discussions it has generated in the media. Like many others, I have not been surprised, only saddened by the evidence shown to the inquiry. Francis hasn’t crept up on us; this has been in the making for a while and I can honestly say I know of very few people, either professionals or from the general public, who do not have a tale to tell that includes an example of health care going wrong. More happily, I also hear many say that the care they have received from the majority of nurses has been first-rate.

However, it is clear from listening to a number of commentators that nursing is in the firing line. What is more saddening is the way in which those of us in nurse education are under the spotlight, especially at a time when the last round of approvals is underway for all degree pre-registration nursing programmes. In part this may be because we are an easy target. Blaming education has a number of flaws that we in the profession recognise, but clearly the general public, and I include many politicians in this, are unaware of the way in which nurses are educated in the 21st century. This means there is an illusion that nurse education only takes place in university; the fact that that 50 per cent of this education is practice-based goes largely unnoticed.

Secondly, there appears to be a lack of insight into the complexity of nursing care and its delivery that is greater now than ever before. It does seen that for some media representatives, nursing is still in the 19th - let alone 20th - century, as if the advances in care, and indeed the successes of the nursing profession have passed them by.

Fortunately for us, Lord Willis has demonstrated in his excellent report that nurse education, although far from perfect, is not the primary “villain” in what we have to admit is a sorry saga. So, there is a major challenge for nurse educators. We have to continue to ensure that the there is greater understanding of nurse education firstly among our politicians and secondly by the public at large.

We, the steering committee of the RCN Education Forum, are committed to promoting the image of nurse education and continuing to improve the knowledge base of our students in order to improve patient care for all. You can contribute by engaging in dialogue with the steering committee via the “contact the editor” option within this newsletter, or in person when we attend RCN Congress. All are welcome and we look forward to seeing you in Liverpool.