A positive picture of student life

Published: 02 October 2012

Students are highly satisfied with training courses and placements, according to survey results

The results from the RCN/Nursing Standard survey are in and show that the majority of nursing students and newly qualified nurses are positive about their experience of education.

The survey –carried out to establish an overall picture of nursing student life – was completed by almost 1,700 nursing students and newly qualified nurses.

Key findings

Training courses were rated highly with 81 per cent of respondents regarding their training course(s) as good or excellent. In terms of teaching theory, 75 per cent rated their course as good or excellent.
The majority of respondents (86 per cent) rated the quality of practice placements within their training as either good or excellent.
The respondents were asked to rate their experience of certain factors while on practice placements. The factors which generated the most positive responses were: “Dealing with drug calculations” and “Time with mentor”. In both of these cases 83 per cent of the respondents rated them completely positive or mostly positive.
The most popular response when asked what was most enjoyable or valuable about training was “patients or clients”. The second most common response was “the feeling that I am doing something worthwhile”.
The majority of respondents (60 per cent) said they chose nursing as a career because they wanted to care for people, while 28 per cent said they have “always wanted to be a nurse”.
They survey revealed that on their last practice placement, 83 per cent of students spent at least 40 per cent of their time working alongside their mentor, so the Nursing and Midwifery Council target of 40 per cent was not achieved for 17 per cent of the students.