Nursing education--is it time to go back to the future?

This article attempts to project the future of nursing education by learning the lessons of the past. Since 1989, a constant discourse has evolved: pre-registration nurses are emerging from nursing education programmes without essential clinical skills. It is argued that, if the profession is to heed the lessons from the past, a focus on this constant discourse is inevitable. This is because, in the UK, nursing practice-based learning has long been valued and considered to be of equal importance to institution-based learning. The article thus draws on lessons that can be learnt from the evolution of models of nursing education over the past two decades. Having identified and outlined three models of nursing education, the article predicts the demise of pre-registration nursing and the development of practice-based assistant practitioner programmes and practice-based postgraduate nursing programmes owned and managed by primary care trusts and NHS foundation trusts.