Project Duration
March 2015 - March 2019
Funder
Department of Health (DoH)
Project Staff
- Prof Jo Lymn (PI) 1
- Sarah Field-Richards 1
- Prof Patrick Callaghan 1
- Prof Helen Spiby 1
- Prof Sarah Redsell 2
- Dr Anabel Simpson2
- Prof Sharon Andrew 2
- Prof Philip Keeley 3
- Dr Gemma Stacey 1
- Debbie Butler - PPI service user involovement lead1
Staff Institutions
- The University of Nottingham
- Anglia Ruskin University
- University of Huddersfield
About the study
In response to the 2013 Francis Report, the Department of Health (DH) recommended that individuals complete up to a year of care experience before commencing nurse training, as a potential means of fostering values conducive to compassionate care.
The DH subsequently introduced a pilot programme providing individuals with NHS care experience prior to commencing nurse training. There is however little evidence regarding the impact of prior care experience (PCE) (pilot-derived or otherwise), on the subsequent development of students’ caring and compassionate values and behaviours. The appropriateness and effectiveness of the Government’s response, as a means of addressing concerns raised by the Francis Report is therefore unknown.
Aims
To evaluate the impact of care experience prior to undertaking NHS funded education and training, on pre-registration nursing students' skills, values and behaviours, and service users' experiences of care.
Methods
Longitudinal study incorporating convergent parallel mixed-methods design. Methods include a systematic search and critical review of published evidence surrounding the impact of prior care experience.
The caring and compassionate skills, values and behaviours of students who participated in the DH pilot project will be compared with three other cohorts of students (who did not participate in the pilot), at various intervals over a four year period. Participants will complete questionnaires designed as proxy measures of the 6C’s, participate in focus groups and their University academic records will be analysed.
The influence of educational attainment and empowerment upon the development of caring skills, values and behaviours, and the influence of a compassion-focussed clinical supervision model, will be explored. Finally, patients’ experiences of care received from participants and student-patient interactions will be analysed.
Stage of Development
Students participating in this study have now entered the second year of their training, having completed phase one of the prior healthcare experience research project.
Project Outputs
RCN International Nursing Research Conference and Exhibition 2016, Wednesday 6-Friday 8 April 2016, Edinburgh International Conference Centre, Edinburgh. View a copy of the presentation slides.