NMC announces new standards for nursing education
Published: 10 September 2008
The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) have announced that a new framework for pre-registration nursing education is to be developed.
The framework was developed following a three-month consultation which asked key questions such as whether nurses should be generalists or specialists, if they should be graduates, and how much of their training should be conducted in the community. It also looked at how new nurses should be supported after they first qualify.
The RCN has welcomed the inclusion of five principles to be included in the programme. These include a degree being the minimum academic award for pre-registration nursing programmes; the introduction of strengthened points of progression at pre-determined stages of a pre-registration course and a period of preceptorship to support all newly qualified nurses.
The principles will be used to develop new standards of proficiency for pre-registration nursing education and new standards for preceptorship, and further consultation will now follow.
Further information
Read Review of pre-registration nursing education: summary following NMC Council meeting 4 September 2008 on the Nursing and Midwifery Council website.
Nursing: towards 2015, commissioned by the NMC to inform the debate on the future of pre-registration nurse education, provided the background to this review which is part of the Department of Health’s initiative on Modernising Nursing Careers.