Fit for practice: Project 2000 student nurses' views on how well the curriculum prepares them for clinical practice

This paper presents the findings from a small study, which compared student nurses' views on how well they felt the Project 2000 curriculum had prepared them for their first clinical placements. The views of two student nurse cohorts were obtained using a questionnaire developed for the purpose. The curriculum for the 'old' cohort allowed very little clinical time during the first 18 months and focused on academic classroom-based learning. The curriculum was subsequently restructured so that students on the 'new' curriculum experienced greater emphasis on practice and theory to practice links, and undertook their first clinical placement much earlier on in their course. Although statistical analysis of difference between the two cohorts suggests that students from the 'new' cohort felt they were better prepared, the actual differences in scores was small. The findings of this study provide only modest evidence of improvement in 'new' student nurses' views of how well they felt they had been prepared for their first placement.