Promoting innovation in children's nurse education: the Welcome to Our World project

The availability of community practice placements for children's nursing students has come under pressure due to workforce constraints, such as staff shortages, and the ongoing effects of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, which has limited students' access to clinical environments. This service evaluation details a pilot project where the authors co-designed, with parent service users, and implemented a novel approach to practice placements for registered nurse degree apprenticeship (RNDA) in child nursing students. The Welcome to Our World project linked students with a family for an eight-week period to enable the students to learn about children's unique needs from parents who are 'experts by experience'. Evaluation of the project demonstrated numerous benefits for the students and the families involved, and expanded local practice placement capacity, thereby reducing the pressure on traditional practice placement settings.