The experiences of student nurses on placements with practice nurses: A pilot study

Abstract

To prepare the registered nurse of tomorrow in the United Kingdom (UK) to care for patients in general practice (GP)-led services, today's student nurses need to have the opportunity to experience placements with practice nurses to enable them to make positive career choices to become practice nurses in the future. The role of the practice nurse is described in the article.As a pilot project, seventeen students undertook placements with practice nurses in one of seven GP practices selected by the London GP Deanery and the university as having fulfilled the criteria to support student nurses in placements. A mentorship preparation programme was provided to prepare practice nurses for mentoring these students. An evaluation study was undertaken of this pilot project. Findings showed that students were highly positive about the experience; the majority rated this placement as being as good as or better than previous placement experiences. The evaluation also explored the impact on student learning and the value that the placement had. There was a positive impact on students' knowledge and skills in certain clinical areas especially related to health promotion. Students also indicated that they would like to have additional placements with practice nurses and would consider a career as a practice nurse in the future.

Influencing nursing students’ perceptions of community care with curriculum-redesign; a quasi-experimental cohort study

“…In the overall number of 647 participating students, about half provides or did provide care in the community in different situations and roles; some of them in the role of a nurse with a diploma in secondary nursing before study, others during study in a placement or student job. In general, experience in caregiving predicts the choice for a nursing career [43] and there is an established body of knowledge about the impact of placement experiences on career choice [12, 13, 16, 19, 44]. If these experiences are acquired in community nursing, they are helpful in clarifying the role and content of this practice, and thus counterbalance widespread misconceptions [17, 35, 41].…”

Changing hearts and minds: examining student nurses’ experiences and perceptions of a general practice placement through a ‘community of practice’ lens

“…Given that GPNs contribute a significant amount of income to the practice through meeting Quality Outcomes Framework (QOF) targets [ 8 , 9 ], GPs prefer to recruit already experienced nurses, largely from secondary care, rather than invest in newly qualified graduate nurses and the extra costs involved in providing them with the education and training required for the GPN role [ 14 ]. When a GPN post has become vacant, there is also evidence of a GPN recruitment ‘merry go round’ in which new GPNs are often appointed by being poached from other GP practices locally [ 13 , 14 ]. The continued recruitment of experienced nurses from either GP practices or other clinical environments has also meant that there has been no established career structure or pathway for neophyte GPNs to follow.…”

“…This situation has given rise to a number of ‘urban myths’. For example, graduating student nurses are often under the (mis)impression that they ‘need’ to have secondary care experience before applying for a GPN post [ 1 , 13 , 14 ]. These myths which were prevalent within the students’ narratives have had the effect of both dissuading graduate nurses from considering a career in general practice, and continuing to excuse GPs from employing them.…”

“…In recent times, there have been a number of proposed solutions to the dearth of student nurse placements in general practice, and to positively influence the developing GPN recruitment crisis [ 1 , 5 , 13 , 14 ]. In a number of areas within the UK, GPs have been specifically commissioned to provide placements for student nurses.…”

“…The published literature on the subject indicates varying degrees of success for the other models, and it also shows that many of the NTHI schemes throughout the UK have been small-scale ‘pilots’ (e.g. [ 13 ]), and many appear to have ended once ‘the money ran out’. It is evident that the lack of a truly sustainable model which will ensure continuing ‘buy in’ from GPs, Commissioners and partner HEIs has been one of the factors in this perceived lack of success [ 5 , 13 , 14 ].…”