It’s broken, let’s fix it—The future of UK nurse undergraduate education

What is the purpose of nurse education (and what should it be)?

“…Statements such as, ‘nursing education is the basic education that a person must complete before becoming an RN [registered nurse]’ (Flanders & Baker, 2020, p. 1036) and ‘the function of nurse education is to produce a competent practitioner’ (Helen Chapman, 1999, p. 131) convey, explicitly, an unequivocal and settled purpose for nurse education. On the other hand, statements like, ‘it is time to boldly re‐examine how we educate our future nurses’ (Tuckwood et al, 2022, p. 20) infer purpose implicitly by assuming the causal link between nurse education and the production of nurse‐registrants. Moreover, the terms ‘preregistration’ and ‘prelicensure’ function to hide the purpose of nurse education in plain sight.…”

“…Further, it argues that the binary framing that typifies approaches to the question of what should be only serves to constrain our thinking. The paper contributes to discussions about nurse education that have surfaced intermittently since nurse education moved into the university, with some calling for a bold re‐examination of the current system (Jones et al, 2019; Leyshon, 2002; Rolfe, 2012; Tuckwood et al, 2022). Lipscomb's (2022a) assertion that we should forge and test arguments through dialogue and debate guides our approach.…”