An innovatory honours degree programme for nurse teacher preparation: development and evaluation

The implementation of the Project 2000 recommendations in the UK is bringing about change in the role and functions of the nurse teacher in terms of relationships with associated institutions of higher education, with colleagues in both teaching and clinical settings and in terms of the teaching and facilitating strategies employed. As a consequence there has been a reappraisal of nurse teacher preparation. This paper provides a description and an evaluation of an innovatory full-time degree programme that provides advanced study of nursing, behavioural, life and social sciences combined with the study of education and leading to a teaching qualification recordable with the United Kingdom Central Council (UKCC). The development of the BA (Hons) Nursing with Education degree programme at Portsmouth Polytechnic is briefly described and placed in context. The course has been subject to formative and summative evaluation using a range of techniques which are reported in this paper. There is a brief discussion of the action taken on the outcomes of the evaluation. The paper concludes with the identification of issues arising from the evaluation.