Nursing Regulator To Develop New Standards For Nursing Education

Main Category: Nursing / Midwifery
Article Date: 06 Sep 2008 - 4:00 PDT

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A new framework for pre-registration nursing education is to be developed with a view to ensuring that the new nurse of tomorrow is able to work safely and effectively to meet the needs of the people in their care as the delivery of healthcare services continues to change.

At today's Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) meeting, Council members agreed to a set of principles (Annex 1 [PDF]) that will form a new framework for pre-registration nursing education; a piece of work that feeds into the Department of Health lead work on Modernising Nursing Careers.

The principles were developed following a three-month consultation in which over 3000 nurses, members of the public and stakeholder organisations took part. The consultation asked what nursing education should look like in the future, explored whether nurses should be generalists or specialists, if they should be graduates, and how much of their training should be conducted in the community. It also looked at how new nurses should be supported after they first qualify.

Feedback from major stakeholders, including professional bodies and unions, as well as recent developments in UK health policy and other inter-related work within the NMC was also considered when developing the principles that will shape the new framework.

Council also agreed that the project is now ready to move to the next phase which is to use the principles to develop new Standards of proficiency for pre-registration nursing education and new Standards for preceptorship¹, aimed to be in place for academic year 2010/11. This will involve further consultation so we will be seeking the views of our stakeholders once again as this work continues to progress.

Refers to a period of support and supervision following initial registration.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) is the UK regulator for two professions, nursing and midwifery. The primary purpose of the NMC is protection of the public. It does this through maintaining a register of all nurses, midwives and specialist community public health nurses eligible to practice within the UK and by setting standards for their education, training and conduct. Currently the number of registrants exceeds 674,000. The Nursing and Midwifery Order 2001 (The Order), sets out the NMC's role and responsibilities.

Nursing and Midwifery Council