Background
In Australia, nursing and midwifery students are required to complete clinical placements as part of the educative process. Whilst each program is different, all are accredited by the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Accreditation Council to meet, for example, the Registered Nurse Standards for Practice (NMBA, 2016) which includes, “a minimum of 800 hours of quality professional experience placements completed by all students in a variety of settings, relevant to the curriculum”. However, what constitutes quality is unknown. Internationally, hours vary from the 800 in Australia, to 1,100-1,500 in New Zealand, 2,300 in the UK, and 2,800 in South Africa (Miller & Cooper, 2016). There appears to be no foundation or evidence for the number of hours allocated and it is clear that students are often exposed to negative (Jarvelainen, Cooper & Jones 2018) as well as positive experiences (Paliadelis & Wood, 2016). Further, whilst such ‘real world’ exposures are essential, concerns have been raised as to new nursing graduates’ clinical competence (Missen, McKenna, Beauchamp, 2016). As such, it is imperative to improve the quality of clinical placements in Australia, especially bearing in mind reducing placement hours and increasing costs to education institutions.
With these considerations in mind it is imperative that rigorous evaluation instruments and a centralised data repository are available that measure the quality of clinical placement experiences. This national benchmarking process enables improvements at placement sites and preparation of students for clinical placement thus enhancing clinical educational opportunities.
Centre Aim
To monitor and inform the enhancement of the educational quality of degree-level nursing and midwifery student clinical placements across Australia.