Setting The Direction For Nursing & Midwifery Education in Scotland

Strategic Aim 6

Develop an infrastructure to deliver efficient, responsive and sustainable education

A strategic approach to the commissioning of education and shaping support for post-registration investment will require joint decision making by the Scottish Government and all partners. The Chief Nursing Officer's Education Review identified a complex picture in which commissioned and non-commissioned education is interwoven with service led post-registration delivery and institutional-based research. In the current context, greater collaboration between education, research and practice with decisions based upon robust evidence, genuine partnership and clear timelines and outcomes is needed. The aim is to develop an infrastructure, supported by strong leadership and governance arrangements, that will enable greater efficiency and effectiveness, change and innovation.

How we are doing this now

Commissioning

The target number of commissioned pre-registration nursing and midwifery places is set annually by the Scottish Government based on workforce projections. The last three decades have seen recurring peaks and troughs in education commissioning. The Chief Nursing Officer has addressed this through a transitional funding scheme but with a projected increased demand for nurses and midwives in coming years, better strategic planning is required to ensure Scotland is able to attract, recruit and retain the right number and mix of nurses and midwives to meet service needs.

There is currently no coherent national approach to planning, funding and coordinating post-registration and postgraduate education and continuing professional development to match changing service priorities and as a result there are gaps and duplication in provision.

Service users and carers

In the context of person-centredness, co-production, assets and enablement, some Scottish universities have already received commendation for service user engagement and many excellent resources are available to engage students and staff with the service user experience. Nonetheless, while increasing involvement is evident in teaching, there has been less involvement with curriculum design and development. The National Person-Centred Health and Care Programme provides new opportunities to engage service-users not only in education but also in evaluating person-centred approaches to care in practice.

Current structures

National educational initiatives also aim to facilitate local infrastructure to support local implementation. For example, NHS Education for Scotland has supported the Practice Education Facilitator (PEF) posts in all NHS Boards to enhance the quality of practice learning nationally. However, a closer relationship between national and local infrastructure would reduce undue pressure on education and service providers and further support implementation in practice.

Improving what we do

6.1 Establish a Delivery Group as the decision-making and governance body, involving all stakeholders and reporting to the Chief Nursing Officer, to develop and implement the Setting the Direction delivery plan

6.2 Develop an effective model for centrally coordinated and funded post-registration and postgraduate education to support nursing and midwifery education/capacity, as one strand of Workforce 2020 implementation

6.3 Review and revise the pre-registration intake modeling process based on robust workforce data, improvements in planning and education and practice quality indicators

6.4 Implement consistent approaches for service users to be part of all aspects of education processes

6.5 Identify and share best practice in developing effective infrastructure that will support consistent and high quality education locally and nationally

6.6 Strengthen relationships between national and local infrastructure to deliver effective and sustainable national initiatives

Collaborating for the future

6.7 Develop e-enabled education and research approaches to provide greater opportunity for collaboration and sustainability

6.8 Establish collaboration between all stakeholders to look strategically at the education infrastructure for the future

6.9 Explore methods to predict educational requirements for new clinical roles and enable providers to respond effectively

6.10 Develop infrastructures that support practice learning beyond the NHS in Scotland and care homes

6.11 Scope and develop practice across other professions such as social care and deliver the most effective person-centred approaches while maintaining professional integrity

6.12 Explore models for determining requirements in the education workforce to secure a cadre of high quality nursing and midwifery educationalists with the subject expertise that reflects the 2020 Vision for health and social care