11 Practice placements — can we find the time?
Matter for discussion submitted by the RCN Education Forum
That this meeting of RCN Congress discusses how we can sustain 2,300 hours of practice placement learning in the current NHS climate
- Work led by the Nursing Development Committee, with input from the Membership, Representation and Diversity Committee
- Lead RCN Council member: Naomi Baker
There are a number of issues related to this Congress item, all of which have been discussed by both RCN staff and members with the Nursing and Midwifery Council, resulting in a number of areas of progress. While the overall subject addresses the allocation of time and the quality of placements for students, there are underlying issues related to EU legislation on number of hours in practice, and what practice actually means since this is open to interpretation by higher education institutions and ultimately by students and mentors. All of the issues raised, including payment for mentors of nursing students in line with other professions, will be addressed in RCN feedback to the NMC on its current consultation regarding pre-registration education of nurses.
Dealing with situations that arise for mentors in practice can often be very difficult, and this has been assisted by the recently updated RCN Guidance for mentors of nursing and midwifery students, which is available at www.rcn.org.uk/publications In addition the NMC has been lobbied about the importance of giving mentors protected time to teach and train nursing students in clinical practice, with the aim of strengthening guidance relating to this issue in the NMC mentor standards.
Agreed in 1977, and reconfirmed at EU level in 2005, the EU Council Directive defines 2,300 hours clinical practice as a minimum requirement — it can increase to nearly 3,000 hours. The Directive also makes it clear training should take place in the clinical environment, under the supervision of nurses in a position to supervise the acquisition of such experience, and therefore excludes time spent learning clinical skills in labs and so forth. Most EU countries have now moved to a 50/50 split in theory and practice and away from the 1/3-2/3 split.
The requirement for 2,300 hours of placement learning has been explored by the NMC and the Council of Deans for Health in a recent simulation laboratory project. The project provided students with supervised practice in patient care skills and we are awaiting a formal report on this project.
A seminar for involved parties at the RCN joint education conference took place on 21-22 February 2008, in Blackpool. The NMC and Council of Deans for Health were invited and a report of the outcomes will be published in Edlines, the newsletter for the RCN’s Education Field of Practice. In addition, an article is in preparation for Nursing Standard by Penny Hilton of the RCN Education Forum to bring this issue to a wider audience.