Clinical Practice is one of the integral components of healthcare education. For example, Student nurses must successfully complete a Nursing and Midwifery Council approved pre-registration programme to meet the Standards of Proficiency for Registered Nurses and to be eligible to apply, and be entered onto, the NMC register. The research group in clinical healthcare practice consist of several studies which aim to assess and improve the practice.

Selected Current and Recent Projects

The evaluation of the new Standard for Student Supervision and Assessment (SSSA) regulation for the nursing students, practice supervisors and assessors

Gulen Addis, Natasha Loughrey and Helen Ayo-Ajayi

Clinical placement is an integral component of nursing education as students acquire the essential knowledge and skills through learning in a supervised clinical environment. The new Standards for Student Supervision and Assessment (SSSA) were published in May 2018 (NMC 2018b). They bring a shift from the previous mentorship approach, with mentors and sign-off mentors, to a coaching model of supervision and assessment, and introduce new roles of practice supervisor (PS), practice assessor (AP) and academic assessor (AA). The new standards come into force at the end of January, and during 2019 the roles of mentor and sign-off mentor ceased. However, during the COVID pandemic the SSSA implication interrupted. As of September 2021, all HEIs reverted to the SSSA standard. 

The literature search showed that there was only one study that evaluated new practice assessment processes in midwifery placements (Fisher et at 2022) which showed that SSSA model has potential to increase reliability but this depended on understanding and application. Considering the lack of research in the subject our aim is to find out about the experience of the nursing students, practice assessors and practice supervisors using the standards for student supervision and assessment.  The aims of the study is to evaluate the students’, practice assessors and supervisors’ experience of the new SSSA regulations

Current PhDs / MPhils

• ‘What are the perceived challenges of first-year adult nursing students in their first clinical placement and what best working practices would overcome these challenges?’ Amsale Wamburu
• ‘Impact of embedding self-care in the midwifery curriculum’ Carla Avery
• ‘Retention of emergency nurses’ Earlroy Edwards
• 'Supporting the interrupted Undergraduate Nursing students when they resume their studies' Geeta Lamichhane

Past PhDs / MPhils

• ‘Pedagogic strategies to support practice learning in specialised clinical learning environments: A Grounded Theory Approach.’ Allan Seraj (2019)

Selected Outputs

Khine, Ricardo and Stewart-Lord, A. (2021) An examination of Advanced Clinical Practice: Qualitative insights from therapeutic radiography advanced and consultant practitioners based in England. Technical Innovations & Patient Support in Radiation Oncology, 17. pp. 97-101. ISSN 24056324

Khine, Ricardo, Steward-Lord, Adele, Clements, Helen and Goodman, Spencer (2020) An Exploration of Advanced Clinical Practice (ACP) in Therapeutic Radiography: A Qualitative Inquiry. Imaging and Oncology The Society of Radiographers. pp. 20-27

McAllister, Nicole, Tavener-Smith, Taryn and Williams, Julia (2022) Decoding medical terminology: Implementing digital teaching innovations to support nursing students’ academic and clinical practice. Teaching and Learning in Nursing. ISSN 1557-3087

Steward-Lord, Adele, Beanlands, Claire, Khine, Ricardo, Shamah, Shani, Sinclair, Noreen, Woods, Sandie, Woznitza, Nick and Baillie, Lesley (2020) The Role and Development of Advanced Clinical Practice Within Allied Health Professions: A Mixed Method Study. Journal of Multidisciplinary Heathcare, 13 (1). pp. 1705-1715. ISSN 1178-2390

Wareing, M., England, J. A., Mathew, D., Ball, C., Willetts, A., Kemp, J., Clifford, K., Thompson, A., Dove, I., & Adams, L. (2020). Capturing Debriefing and Enhancing Reflection within Simulated Clinical Learning Environments. International Journal of Practice-Based Learning in Health and Social Care, 8(1), 47-59. https://doi.org/10.18552/ijpblhsc.v8i1.565

Contact Information

For more information about the Drug and Alcohol Research Group or any of its projects, please contact group lead Dr Gulen Addis (gulen.addis@bnu.ac.uk).