The way we supervise and assess some students is changing. In September new Nursing and Midwifery Councill education standards are being introduced in our Trust.

Here is a brief overview of the changes, which will be followed by more communications over the coming months. 

What do the NMC do?

The NMC review and maintain standards for nursing and midwifery education and practice at both pre and post-registration levels. These standards are required to be met by all nursing and midwifery students on NMC approved programmes prior to entry to the register. This ensures they are fit to practise at the point of registration.

What's happening? For more information see the Clinical Educaton intranet pages.

These new NMC standards represent a major overhaul and are much less prescriptive to offer greater flexibility, creativity and innovation. Additionally, universities are required to have had all pre-registration programmes validated against the new standards by September 2020. 

Here at CHFT we've committed to implementing the new standards in September (2019).

So who will it impact and what are the key changes?

It will impact on all qualified healthcare professionals across all professions - we're focusing on Nurses and Trainee Nurse associates initially, with our midwives transitioning in 2021.

The key changes affect the role of the mentor. They include the removal of:

  • The term mentor and sign-off mentors. This will change to assessors (the roles will be different in how we support students in the future)
  • Triennial reviews are no longer a requirement - this will be NMC revalidation
  • There will no longer be a requirement for the student to spend 40% of the time with their mentor/assessor

The Senior Clinical Education Team have been working to ensure CHFT colleagues are suitably prepared for the transition in SEPT 2019. 

Senior Clinical Educator, Lisa Roper, said: "This major overall of the standards has improved joint working with 33 universities and practice partners. Through extensive collaboration we have an agreement to develop a pan Midlands, Yorkshire, East & Humber approach to the development of the new roles outlined in the Standards for Student Supervision & assessment (SSSA). This will allow for a consistent approach to enhanced learning and assessment processes in practice."

Further information & resources can be found here:

Further communications will follow, including drop-in dates and road shows. There is also a Ward Managers workshop on the 21st August, HRI, Discussion room 1, 2pm-5pm.