The responsibilities
of stakeholders
Practice placements are a vital component of the
student experience. It is important that they reflect both
the nature of the provision of care to meet health care
needs and the demands of professional registration.
The support required by you, as students, to gain the
best from your learning experiences cannot be over
emphasised.As students you have a right to expect
input and support from key individuals to enable you to
identify learning opportunities within the placement.
With support, as students you are able to make sense of
their practice though the application of theory,
constructive feedback and reflection on their clinical
practice experiences.
In its Fitness for Practice report (1999), the then United
Kingdom Central Council for Nursing, Midwifery and
Health Visiting (UKCC) acknowledged that preregistration
programmes must meet a number of
principal stakeholders’ needs and expectations. The
UKCC provided a clear, on-going set of outcomes for
commissioning bodies, higher education institutions,
trusts,mentors and students themselves.All major
players have a responsibility for ensuring that, at the
point of initial registration, nurses and midwives are fit:
✦ for purpose - can function competently in clinical
practice
✦ for practice - can fulfil the needs of registration
✦ for award - have the breadth and depth of learning
to be awarded a diploma or a degree.
As pre-registration nursing students, you must achieve
the competencies specified by the UKCC by the end of
the first year of the common foundation programme
and by the end of the branch programme.