Wednesday 21 February 2024 in the UK marked its 6th annual Mental Health Nurses’ Day. The day promotes and celebrates the unique and valuable role played by mental health nurses to health and wellbeing. There are approximately 300,000 mental health nurses worldwide and they represent the largest proportion of staff in the mental health care workforce with responsibility for patient care1. Mental health nurses work in a diverse range of settings and with increasing demands for mental health care and services worldwide there are urgent calls to grow the Mental Health Nursing workforce to respo ..read more

This weeks’ blog is by Emma Dillon – Senior Lecturer Mental Health Nursing University Northampton, Emma Swain – Aspire and Level 4 Certificate Programme Lead at St Andrew’s Healthcare, Nicky Peasnell – Senior Lecturer Nursing University Northampton, Rachel Garner -Preceptorship and Clinical Placement Lead (and APEL module Lead) at St Andrew’s Healthcare and Tim Alexander – Senior Lecturer Mental Health Nursing University Northampton The need to widen participation to BSc Nursing Mental Health and Learning Disabilities is nothing new, over ten years ago it was viewed as a necessity1 With nursi ..read more

By Shannon O’Rourke, 3rd year, BSc Nursing Studies (Mental Health) As a student mental health nurse, it is always good to meet other student nurses, and what better way than attending the Student Future Mental Health Nursing Conference in Sheffield (@FutureMHN_Conf). Fortunately, Glasgow Caledonian University funded for myself and another student nurse to attend. This annual event held on November 3rd 2023 brought together students who were studying mental health nursing from across the UK. The event is a student-led conference with speakers from different areas such as clinical practitioner ..read more

In this blog Dr Amelia Swift (University of Birmingham) and Bronwyn Tarrant (University of Melbourne) talk about creating podcasts for nurses. Please follow them on social media @nurseswift @AdvinRes   Podcasts are increasingly popular, which makes pedagogical podcasting tempting. It is relatively easy to make and publish a podcast, but just because you can do them, does not mean that you should. Here are some things to think about before you start.  Check that your amazing idea will add to what is already out there.   You may be an educator with a real flair for helping ..read more

In this weeks’ blog, Karen Patrick, Registered Children’s Nurse, Lecturer in Nursing (Child), MSc Health Studies, FHEA, reflects on her experiences talking to students about what is important to them about effective feedback. @karen_pattrick All feedback given within the practice environment should be positive and constructive  Nursing students need opportunities to seek clarity about areas for development in a learning environment that is supportive, and with trusting professional relationships between assessors, supervisors and student. The Nursing and Midwifery Council1 states nurses ..read more

Dr Lisa WhitingDr Julia PettySheila RobertsProf. Brian LittlechildDr Karen MillsSuzannah GoodchildDaniella Penny Our work started just prior to the COVID-19 pandemic; in 2019, we had received NHS England funding, via a local Clinical Commissioning Group, to assess the usage of infant simulation dolls with expectant parents. However, our original research plans (like so many others across the country) needed to be re-thought. Therefore, our initial work focussed on undertaking a pre-pilot study (Whiting et al., 2021) so that we could gain personal experience of using the simulation dolls. Thi ..read more

This blog comes from Alwin Puthenpurakal, an experienced senior lecturer and researcher working at The University of Greenwich. He led University apprenticeship programmes since its inception and highly values the impact it has on widening social mobility and addressing the national workforce challenges. With almost two decades worth of clinical experience, he is an experienced senior nurse with an intensive care background who has worked on workforce transformation projects and has implemented new models of care in various clinical settings across the country. The nursing apprenticeship pro ..read more

By Dr. Nicola Dunlop RGN PhD @NicolaDunlop13 Prior to Covid 19 researchers were not usually considered change leaders but that is exactly what I achieved with this study. As an expert practitioner in the fields of Benign Essential Blepharospasm (BEB) I felt compelled to respond to investigate and reorganise care and treatment. The condition BEB causes bilateral eyelid muscular contractions, intermittent blinking and or sustained closure of the eye that can be disabling (DeFazio, 2017) in the mainly older population that I see. It is progressive and subtypes can develop in the lower face and ..read more

By Dr Jane Wray, Senior Lecturer in Nursing, and Senior Clinical Nurse Advisor (National Preceptorship Programme) @livinginhope and Desiree Cox, Programme Lead, National Preceptorship Programme, @desireecox07 The launch of the National Preceptorship Framework for Nursing in England1 in October 2022 provides important information for students and nurses preparing the future nursing workforce. The new framework sets out standards for delivery of preceptorship within organisations employing nurses. It builds on the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) Principles for Preceptorship2 and offers a f ..read more

This week’s blog has been written by Dr Nicola Roberts (@DrNRoberts), Associate Professor at Edinburgh Napier University, who raises the question whether pre-registration nursing programmes are teaching the right skills for contemporary clinical respiratory practice. Our recent study examined what respiratory care content is being taught in UK pre-registration nursing programmes in approved education institutions. The study, which was a freedom of information (FOI) survey of 75 UK-based, Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) approved education institutions (AEIs), highlighted that there is ..read more