Surviving and thriving in practice placements: A qualitative exploration of student nurses’ practice placement learning experiences

There are currently numerous concerns about the quality of pre-registration nurse training in the United Kingdom, particularly regarding the fifty per cent of that training spent in practice placement settings. If pre-registration nurse training is to be as effective as possible, it is essential to create practice placement learning environments where all student nurses are empowered to be caring, confident, competent and resilient, where students feel able to survive and thrive and, hence, where they can maximise their learning experiences. When undertaking nurse training in the United Kingdom every applicant has to decide which field of nursing they wish to enter – adult, mental health, child, or learning disability – the majority choosing adult nursing. The aim of this study was to gain a deeper understanding of the practice placement learning experiences’ of those students who had chosen the adult nursing field, with a view to improving those experiences. This qualitative study drew on interpretive description, narrative inquiry and used Framework as the basis for the data analysis and interpretation. The findings of this study suggest that in order to ensure that student nurses have the best possible practice placement learning experiences attention needs to be paid to the following areas: • The preparation of individual student nurses for their practice placements. • The selection and preparation of individual mentors for their mentorship role. • The design and development of humanistic and transformative pre-registration nursing and mentorship preparation curricula. • The development of effective practice placement learning environments, including consideration of how both students and mentors are supported and valued in those practice placement settings. This study proposes that if the practice placement learning experiences of student nurses are to be improved, changes are required at the professional and regulatory levels within nursing, at the practice placement-university level of nurse training and at the individual student nurse-mentor level. Such changes, however, must be underpinned by evidence and not based solely on expert opinion, political ideology, or economic expediency, as has so often been the case in the past.