Project 2000 students' survival kit: a return to the practical room (nursing skills laboratory)

The author's recent research study (Project 2000 assessment of clinical competence: an investigation) plus others (Jowett et al 1991, McEwen et al 1993, Davies et al 1994) have highlighted the Project 2000 students' need for a survival kit in the form of 'practical skills' before going to their allocated practice placements. Interviews at three colleges of nursing and midwifery with 70 students and 80 practitioners and data from 300 student questionnaires and 155 named practitioner questionnaires confirm that which has been echoed ever since Project 2000 began. Students have expressed anxieties and worry about their perceived lack of preparation by the college tutorial staff for practice placements. Their concerns fall into three main categories: (1) fear of doing the patients harm; (2) not belonging to the nursing/caring team; and (3) not being fully competent on registration. Students believe that if they are given the opportunities to practise nursing procedures and caring skills which they and nurse practitioners identify as 'basic nursing care' needed to care for patients without fear of endangering them and feel secure and provide a sense of belonging by being part of the caring team, irrespective of the length of the exposure to that client group and caring team, then their fears and insecurities will be alleviated.