NMC review of pre-registration nursing education: views of the children’s and young people’s nursing academic community

Abstract

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) for the UK commenced a consultation of the future configuration of pre-registration nursing in November 2007. The Association of Chief Children’s Nurses (ACCN) of the UK, in preparation for a joint symposium with higher education institute children’s nursing academics, undertook a SWOT analysis of the suggested changes to the existing register, with particular reference to one of the NMC’s review criteria: ‘marks relating to fields of practice (nature and number of branches versus no branches at all)’. The views of these senior children’s and young people’s nurses on the future configuration of the register were expressed earlier by Richardson et al (2007) who conclude that the existing configuration of the NMC register should remain. This analysis of the NMC consultation was later extended to some of the other criteria of the review and involved members of the children’s nursing academic community across the UK. The views reported in this paper include: Generic or common components, e.g. CFP Minimum academic level (Dip HE versus Degree) Time and content versus outcome-based approaches Use of simulation as practice learning EU specific practice learning requirements for general care. The UK academic children’s nursing departments were invited to participate by the chairperson of the ACCN by email. Data were elicited from 13 departments in academic institutions in England, Scotland and Wales who submitted electronic responses to a) the transcribed SWOT analysis conducted by the membership of the ACCN and b) the other criteria of the NMC review. An analysis of the data confirms that academics favour the retention of a direct entry children’s nursing field of practice.