Service user involvement in the assessment of student nurses: A note of caution

Abstract

In the UK, the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC, 2010) have called for service user involvement in nurse education including the assessment of student nurses. As researchers and educationalists we have supported service user involvement in nurse education at the University of Nottingham, Division of Nursing for over a decade (Hanson and Mitchell, 2001; Collier and Stickley, 2010; Repper et al 2001; Rush and Barker 2006; Rush 2008; Stickley et al 2009; Stickley et al., 2010; Stickley et al., 2011) and so we are keen to explore to further development in this area. However, what is noticeable in the NMC's requirement for involvement is the lack of acknowledgement that meaningful involvement may be problematic. In this commentary, we focus on one aspect of service user involvement in order to raise some debate about this very important topic. We have chosen to specifically focus upon service user involvement in the assessment of student nurses as this is an area that we have researched at our institution. What has become evident in our research is that this laudable initiative should be carefully contemplated before being implemented; in fact we question whether it should implemented at all without the required evidence-base.