Foreword

 

We are delighted to introduce Health Education England's Guide to Good Practice in Patient and Public Involvement in nurse education. The benefits of patient, service user and carer engagement in nurse education have profound and long lasting impacts for the nursing profession. Our education partners (Further Education colleges and universities) are often the first point of contact in nurse education for applicants for a nursing degree programme. Having patients, service users and carers as part of that process provides a clear message to our future nurses: patients and service users are at the heart of all we do and there should be no decisions made without them.

This is also true for the professional practice and revalidation of nurses. The Nursing & Midwifery Council accepts learning from third-party feedback on practice, including patients and carers, for evidence towards revalidation (NMC 2015). Educators also recognise the value of engagement and are invited to fully embrace this concept along the whole education pathway; from curriculum design and delivery to assessing students in the classroom and care environment.

This guide has been developed and co-produced with patients, service users and carers, who have worked with partners from professional bodies, unions, employers, and our regulator, The Nursing & Midwifery Council, to bring together in one place a guide that will support and disseminate good practice.

We have looked for exemplars of practice and research internationally and locally to bring you a resource to use, whatever your involvement with nurse education. There are examples embedded in the Guide that have been shared and made freely available; if you are just starting out on this journey or looking to improve your practice, this will enable you to build your own model of patient, service user and carer engagement.

This work does not stand still and, as our education standards evolve, so too will this guide need updating. We will work with partners to keep this refreshed and there is an opportunity for you to contribute to our work and submit examples that can be added to the guide.

The partners involved in developing this work debated the phrase we should use to reflect the 'people' we wish to engage in on nurse education. After numerous discussions we have decided on the term 'service users and carers'.

Various organisations and policy makers use different phrases; for the sake of clarity, under the umbrella term of 'service users and carers' we are including:

• Patients
• Citizens
• Customers
• Lay partners
• People's Champions
• Storytellers
• Academic Governance Representatives
• Patients as Coaches Team (PaCT)
• Families
• Next of kin

We hope you will find this guide a useful and practical support in sustaining your work in patient and public involvement.

 

 

 

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