Embracing external scrutiny to build bridges and genuine partnerships between education and clinical practice

Despite having made significant changes and improvements since 2007, publication of The Mid-Staffordshire National Health Service Foundation Trust Public Inquiry (2013) refocused attention on the poor care standards that had taken place. Recommendations include far reaching national transformational changes not only for the National Health Service but also for professional regulatory bodies and other agencies linked to health and social care. This paper describes how external scrutiny was embraced to move staff from initial loss of confidence, feelings of anger and defensiveness to embracing opportunities to increase transparency, build bridges and genuine partnerships between universities and healthcare providers. Following an Extraordinary Review by the Nursing and Midwifery Council an action plan was collaboratively formulated between Staffordshire University and Mid-Staffordshire National Health Service Foundation Trust. This resulted in the implementation of a Practice Learning Improvement Project which monitored the action plan, ensured sharing of all learning and production of evidence for external scrutiny. Key lessons learnt included the need to: move beyond mere compliance with regulatory performance indicators; engage senior staff in all aspects of student learning; develop candid sharing of soft and hard intelligence, clearly delineate placement support roles and ensure engagement of academics in practice has transparent outcomes for the student, practice and education.