Ireland – Education and training services – An evaluation to determine new or revised practice support model(s) for undergraduate Nursing and Midwifery students and newly qualified staff, across acute and community settings.

The Health Service Executive (HSE) on behalf of all Publicly Funded Health Agencies invites suitably qualified and experienced parties to submit tenders for an independent evaluation of the current support in practice and to develop new or revised practice support model(s) for undergraduate nursing and midwifery students and newly qualified staff, across acute and community settings. Following the introduction of the Registration/Diploma in Nursing Studies programme in Ireland in 1994, the post of clinical placement coordinator (CPC) was created on an experimental basis to support student nurses, coordinate and assist nurse tutors, ward sisters and staff nurses in relation to the students’ clinical placements (Drennan, 2002). The degree programme was one of the recommendations of the Report of the Commission on Nursing – A Blueprint for the Future (1998). The four-year degree programme, launched on 1 November 2001, which commenced for the academic year 2002/2003 across 13 higher education institutions, taking into consideration the findings from the Nursing Education Forum: A Strategy for a Pre-Registration Nursing Education Degree Programme (Government of Ireland, 2000). Furthermore, an evaluation of the role of the CPC was undertaken in 2001 (Drennan, 2002) prior to the introduction of the four-year undergraduate degree programmes. Undergraduate students from the aforementioned programmes and newly qualified staff are supported by a range of funded supports in “clinical practice” and can avail of various funded education support modules; and it should be noted that there are variations in the support that should be considered. Undergraduate students are required to complete periods of “clinical or practice placement” throughout their education so their status as students is protected while undertaking practical learning, whereas newly qualified staff are direct employees in a “clinical practice, healthcare, or other related setting”. The commissioning of an evaluation of the support(s) and mentorship in practice for undergraduate nursing and midwifery students and newly qualified staff is embedded in policy recommendations in the Report of the Expert Review Body on Nursing and Midwifery (Department of Health, 2022).