Nursing and Midwifery Council, Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Becoming a nurse within the context of the future nurse curriculum - a longitudinal study
Nursing as a profession has for decades battled with global shortages. Within England it is reported that 10% of nursing posts remain vacant, a total of around 38,000 full-time equivalent posts (Kings Fund, 2021). Whilst government initiatives seek to solve the work force planning conundrum; the need for student nurses to successfully complete their pre-registration programme and remain registered with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) has never been greater.
This study explores the journey to becoming a graduate registered nurse in order to better understand how students can be supported to successfully complete the ‘future nurse’ pre-registration programme (NMC 2018a & 2018c). Through a series of semi-structured interviews and a focus groups the reality of being a student nurse is explored. Constructivist grounded theory is used to generate data from the ‘ground up’ and to take account of the relationship between the nurse educator as the researcher and the students as participants. The longitudinal nature of the study, interviewing participants annually for three years, allows for interaction with the participants at varying points within the programme, thus exploring the ‘journey’ from student to registered nurse.
