Patricia Houghton

This critical commentary sets out the background to, and implementation of “The Bolton Model.” The model was developed by the researcher. The future health service will be constantly challenged, requiring a workforce built around the actual needs of the population (Willis, 2015).The ability of the NHS to deliver world class compassionate care is dependent on the quality of training and education of the healthcare workforce (DH, 2015a). ‘The Bolton Model’ of nurse education was designed, developed and implemented, so that NHS Partner Trusts could ensure the future supply of nurses to care for their service users. This innovative nursing degree programme is the first nurse education programme that is not funded by NHS commissioning bodies and has been approved by the Nursing and Midwifery Council, and the University of Bolton.
“The Bolton Model” features in Willis’s 2015 report ‘Raising the bar ’as good practice, and has led, influenced, trail-blazed the national debate on non-commissioned nursing programmes in England changing the face of nurse education. In addition, it has influenced other Higher Education Institutes to also develop similar programmes.
In this critical commentary the author sets out the policy and practice context for a new model of undergraduate nursing education, demonstrating that there have been decades of professional and government policies that have brought about the drive and change of nurse education which has led to ongoing challenges. A critical overview of the process used to design, develop and implement ‘The Bolton Model’ of nurse education is offered. The development of the programme utilised the principles of participatory action research, appreciative inquiry, Kotter’s (1996) 8 step change management model and theories of collaboration. A key influence in the design of ‘The Bolton Model’ was based around a number of principles from the Transition Pedagogy Handbook (Nelson et al, 2014).
A personal critical reflection of the main aspects encountered throughout the journey of the innovation from initial ideas through to the current stage of the programme is presented. This includes the personal learning in relation to the project itself, reflections on the innovations of the curriculum at this point in United Kingdom nursing history, along with reflections on the responses from within the community of nurse educations providers and practitioners. The implementation of ‘The Bolton Model’ required confidence, enthusiasm, motivation, self-belief and willingness to take the risk of developing a completely new module of nurse education. In addition, it was necessary to research all aspects thoroughly, to challenge, defend and share the vision explicitly ensuring it was clearly communicated to all key stakeholders to enable the project to come to fruition and create the desired impact.
Finally it is recommended that HEIs and healthcare providers need to establish effective partnerships and work in true collaboration ensuring that they are more flexible and responsive to meet local workforce needs. In addition, HEIs and healthcare providers need to have a number of innovative provisions of nurse education programmes that will enable differing entry routes into nurse education.