Preparing students to deliver integrated care.

Abstract

British Journal of Nursing, 2015, Vol 24, No 19 977 © 2 01 5 M A H ea lth ca re L td A cross the UK, Freshers’ weeks have recently concluded. Another group of enthusiastic, excited students have begun their journey towards nurse registration. Inevitably, despite good preparation, for some the nature of nursing will hold many unexpected surprises, not least about where nursing happens. Influenced by the media and television soaps, as well as family member experiences of nursing in the 1980s and 1990s, many adult-field students still expect that most of their placements will be in acute general hospitals and may initially feel a little cheated when that turns out not to be the case. The Nursing and Midwifery Council (2010) dictates that nursing students must gain experience where nursing happens, therefore in a variety of care environments: 50% of the programme takes place in placements and at least 50% of this will be located in primary care. Further, with the drive towards integrated care (NHS England, 2014), we need to prepare nursing students to work flexibly across professional and agency boundaries. Students increasingly encounter people with multiple and complex morbidities and care needs. These service users will meet numerous professionals and carers from different health and social care sectors. In a report by the National Collaboration for Integrated Care and Support (NCICS) (2013) it is argued that frequently care is not seamless; far from feeling person-centred, service users feel disempowered, their care needs inadequately addressed because they ‘fall through the cracks’ between service providers. Integrated care is proposed as the answer to ensure that services revolve around the service user and their carers, not the other way around. Service users have defined integrated care as: