Innovation in nursing education: the Hull experience

Abstract

AT THE END of September, 1981, the first 11 students graduated with honours in nursing sciences from Hull University. This is a great personal triumph for them. Being the first group on any new course is far from easy, while reading for a degree in nursing is in itself extremely demanding. It is impossible to know how a lecture course or practical class will turn out in reality, however carefully it has been planned, so many 'teething problems' will be experienced by the 'guinea-pig' group. Furthermore, the individuals themselves realise they are setting the standard by which the course and subsequent groups will be judged. For students on a nursing degree course there is the added stress ofacting as ambassadors for the course and so laying the foundations for the acceptability of future degree students in the wards and community. There is no respite from this. As each new clinical experience arrives the student works with staff who have had no previous contact with degree course students. In some ways, the course at Hull has been a pioneering one. Jointly with Chelsea College it was the first course in a British university to lead to an honours degree in nursing. The University is situated within a rather isolated area of the country, and not only is there no teaching hospital for more than 50 miles but the local hospitals also had little experience of providing clinical practice for student nurses other than those following a conventional three-year course. However, a modular scheme of training has been in progress in the school of nursing based on Hull Royal Infirmary for many years. Uniquely, the Hull nursing degree course is associated with an Area Health Authority and not a District Authority. It says much for the goodwill and hard work of trained nurses within Humberside Area Health Authority that the course has been successful.