The Nursing and Midwifery Council has developed new standards for the content of programmes that will prepare students to become registered nurses.
A three month public consultation on the new draft standards took place between 29 January and 23 April 2010.
Summary of NHS Employers response to the NMC consultation
NHS Employers has collated and analysed the responses received from NHS organisations and have included the information in our response to the NMC.
A summary of the response is set out below.
The Overall Framework
Overall, there was support for the framework. The framework as a set of standards for competence and education provides scope for both the education provider and the provider of the placement to fully maximise the opportunity to develop and deliver a different type of education programme.
Employers felt that the framework is permissive and allowed for flexibility at a local level. In particular, employers were pleased to see the introduction of two progression points within the programme which have the need for clearly defined competencies to be demonstrated before students can progress to the next stage.
Employers fully recognise that the framework alone will not deliver all the changes required to achieve the desired outcome but it is a strong foundation to build local programmes. Employers need to start to redesign and think creatively about clinical placements and practice learning opportunities and to follow up with a strong preceptorship period after a successful graduation.
The Standards of Competence
There was general agreement that on the whole the generic standard for competence statements and the field specific competencies are suitable and should ensure that graduates possess the competencies required for nurses to deliver high quality services and care in the future.
The following general and specific points were raised for consideration.
- Employers strongly supported a change to the language in the Standards of Competence to be aligned to that used in the NHS Knowledge and Skills Framework (KSF).
- On safeguarding, employers felt that the statement be developed to make it clearer and stronger and apply in all fields of nursing and that it covers both public and patient safety.
- Employers suggested that the statements under Professional Values would fit more comfortably under a governance framework and be linked to NMC Code of Practice.
The Standards for Education
Employers were generally agreed that the format of the standards worked well, however there were some concerns expressed that there could be a stronger statutory content so the danger of local interpretation could be minimised, particularly around safeguarding.
There was also strong opinion that the standards continued to support the need for all nurses to have the basic skills and competencies ability to function in acute and critical care settings.
Supporting employers through the changes
To ensure that employers views on the changes to pre-registration education are represented, NHS Employers held two workshops in February 2010 for HR Directors and senior nurses.
The workshops were used to discuss the content of the consultation so that NHS Employers can reflect the views of employers in our response.
Details of the outcomes of the events can be found on our nursing workshops page.
Background
The work is linked to Modernising Nursing Careers: setting the direction which was published by the Department of Health in 2006. The proposals focus on how nursing programmes across the UK must change so that nurses can continue to practise safely and effectively in the future within new healthcare environments.
The new programmes will start from September 2011, with the first of the new graduates entering the workforce three years later.
The new competencies have been developed by the Nursing and Midwifery Council and cover the knowledge, skills and atitudes that nurses will need to have as well as the requirements for teaching, learning and assessment.