Patricia Houghton

Background
Service user involvement in educating healthcare professionals in higher education can help student nurses develop a compassionate approach to care practice. This article explains one university’s initiative, the Patient as Coach Team (PaCT), and presents evaluation results from phase 1. The PaCT strategy involved a service user-led session with student nurses, in small groups, sharing experiences of care from a service user perspective.
Aim Our aim was to evaluate nursing students’ views of the PaCT session, involving service users in their teaching and learning.
Design Survey.
Method Structured questionnaires with a free-text box were completed by student nurses (n = 321). Structured question responses were analysed manually and free-text data thematically. Data collection took place from June 2016 to June 2017.
Results There were very positive responses to the survey questions, with students perceiving a positive impact on their learning. Five themes emerged from the students’ free-text responses: ‘Usefulness of the session’, ‘Seeing patients’ perspectives’, ‘Inspiring and motivating session’, ‘Good discussions with patient coach’ and ‘Overall views about the PaCT session’.
Conclusion The PaCT session provides a valid learning strategy, utilising coaching as a technique to enable student nurses to learn from service users’ experiences and perspectives of care. In addition, it contributes to students’ reflective practice about their individual professional practice in care settings

Health professionals' attitudes towards self-harming behaviour are predominantly negative. Research examining educational interventions to change negative attitudes is limited. This study aimed to provide an educational intervention for student nurses to change negative attitudes around self-harm. attitudes around self-harm and mental health in general were assessed through the Self-Harm Antipathy Scale and the Mental Health Attitude Scale. Fifty-five adult nursing students took part in the 45-minute intervention. This included facts and figures, celebrity stories and personal stories regarding self-harm, all intended to increase understanding. After the intervention, attitudes measured by the Self-Harm Antipathy Scale had improved significantly. patients who self-harm will without doubt continue to experience negative attitudes from health professionals. This study shows an educational intervention can change attitudes towards those who self-harm.

Responsibility and accountability are essential concepts that mentors and practice teachers need to explore as part of their role in supporting learning and assessment of students in practice. Mentors and practice teachers within the United Kingdom (UK) are required by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC 2008a) to demonstrate that they have met NMC (2008a) Standards to Support Learning and Assessment in Practice (SSLAP). This article is part of a series of eleven which relates to these standards of which this is part 8 and the final part that considers assessment in practice. It will provide a brief recap on the history of the development of the SSLAP followed by exploration of the responsibility, accountability and ethical issues of the mentor and practice teacher in relation to the assessment process along with application of the ethical principles. The sign off mentor role as well as ‘due regard’ will be discussed. The meaning of competence and partnership working when making assessment decisions will finally be explored. Much like the other two articles on assessment the issues discussed directly relate to the third domain and outcomes of the NMC (2008a) SSLAP named ‘Assessment and Accountability’.

Evidence-based Practice (EBP) is a feature of contemporary healthcare practice and subsequently is well embedded within preparation programmes for nursing, midwifery and Specialist Community Public Health Nursing (SCPHN) students. This article, the ninth in a series of eleven, seeks to delineate evidence-based practice, whilst discussing the importance and implementation of this approach within the context of the developmental role of mentors and practice teachers, in the preparation of nurses, midwives and SCPHNs. Furthermore, the aim is to provide guidance for both new and established mentors and practice teachers in relation to the domain ‘Evidence-based Practice’ specifically the outcomes for stage 2 Mentor and stage 3 Practice Teacher highlighted within the Nursing and Midwifery Council (2008) ‘Standards to Support Learning and Assessment in Practice’ (SSLAP). The text will be interspersed with these outcomes for mentors and practice teachers where they apply. In addition the activities indicated within this article will provide the opportunity for mentors and practice teachers to develop within their role, but also to generate evidence in order to map this on-going development against the NMC (2008) SSLAP

Assessment in clinical practice is a complex role undertaken by mentors and practice teachers. This article is the second of three articles about assessment in practice. Part one examined the importance of assessment and identified various assessment methods used in clinical practice. This article considers two main themes in the assessment of practice. First, it outlines the importance of providing feedback, and explores preparation for regular feedback and the documentation used to help mentors and practice teachers undertake this activity. Second, it discusses management of failing students, and reviews the literature relating to the ‘failure to fail’ phenomenon. This article relates to the third domain and outcomes of the Nursing and Midwifery Council’s Standards to Support Learning and Assessment in Practice on assessment and accountability.

Assessment in clinical practice is a complex role undertaken by mentors and practice teachers. Therefore, this and the following two articles in this series will explore student assessment in clinical practice and the theoretical concepts that relate to assessment of learning and development. This article examines the importance of assessment and the role of mentors and practice teachers in this activity. Definitions and the purpose of assessment are analysed, in addition to various assessment methods used in clinical practice that relate to the third domain and outcomes of the Nursing and Midwifery Council’s Standards to Support Learning and Assessment in Practice on assessment and accountability.

This article is the fourth in an eleven part series.
The previous article in this series of 11, Facilitation of learning: part 1, reviewed learning theories and how they relate to clinical practice. Developing an understanding of these theories is essential for mentors and practice teachers to enable them to deliver evidence-based learning support. This is important given that effective learning support is dependent on an educator who possesses knowledge of their specialist area as well as the relevent tools and methods to support learning. The second domain of the Nursing and Midwifery Council’s Standards to Support Learning and Assessment in Practice relates to the facilitation of learning. To fulfil this domain, mentors and practice teachers are required to demonstrate their ability to recognise the needs of learners and provide appropriate support to meet those needs. This article expands on some of the discussions from part 1 of this article and considers these from a practical perspective, in addition to introducing some of the tools that can be used to support learning.

This article, the fourth in a series of 11, discusses the context for the facilitation of learning. It outlines the main principles and theories for understanding the process of learning, including examples which link these concepts to practice. The practical aspects of using these theories in a practice setting will be discussed in the fifth article of this series. Together, these two articles will provide mentors and practice teachers with knowledge of the learning process, which will enable them to meet Domain 2: facilitation of learning of the Nursing and Midwifery Council’s Standards to Support Learning and Assessment in Practice.

This article, the third of an eleven part series, will offer advice and practical tips to new and existing mentors / practice teachers to enable them to develop within their role as a mentor and aid them in developing a portfolio of evidence that meets the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC 2008a) Standards to Support Learning and Assessment in Practice (SSLAP). It will stress the importance of creating a good quality practice placement, furthermore it will examine the essential components that make an effective good quality practice placement all of which directly relate to the fifth domain and outcomes of the Nursing and Midwifery Councils (2008a) SSLAP named ‘Creating an Environment for Learning’. The article essentially presents a number of suggested ways in which this domain can be achieved and how mentors can utilise these methods in order to demonstrate and gather evidence to show they have met NMC (2008a) domain and outcomes for ‘Creating an Environment for Learning’. More importantly a number of learning activities and useful tips will be incorporated to aid prospective and existing mentors / practice teachers to undertake various self assessments in achieving this domain. This will hopefully assist mentors / practice teachers in gathering relevant evidence in order to demonstrate how they have met the aforementioned domain and outcomes as part of the requirement to become or maintain the NMC (2008a) mentor / practice teacher requirements. For more in-depth information on the NMC (2008a) SSLAP and requirements refer to part 1 of the series ‘Developing mentors to support students in practice, Part 1: Standards to Support Learning and Assessment in Practice.

This article, the second in a series of 11, provides support and offers advice to new and existing mentors and practice teachers to enable them to progress in their role and develop a portfolio of evidence. In particular, the article discusses how to establish effective working relationships and emphasises the importance of the student-mentor or student-practice teacher relationship. It examines the essential qualities, attributes and characteristics of an effective mentor or practice teacher. The article provides learning activities and suggests ways in which mentors and practice teachers can undertake various self-assessments, enabling them to gather relevant evidence to demonstrate how they can meet and maintain the requirements for these roles as stipulated by the Nursing and Midwifery Council.