Student Nursing Times Awards 2023

WELCOME LETTER FROM EDITOR OF NURSING TIMES, STEVE FORD

Welcome to the Student Nursing Times Awards 2023. This event recognises you, a group of outstanding students on your journey to entering the nursing profession, as well as all those who support you along the way, from individual educators to education institutions to placement providers.

As we all know, health and social care faces many pressures. Last August, in partnership with the Council of Deans of Health, Nursing Times surveyed nursing and healthcare educators about the state of student nursing education. The results revealed, unsurprisingly, that placement accessibility and staffing issues were the most pressing challenges facing nurse education across the UK. Others included ongoing pandemic pressures, student attrition, regulatory burden, filling nursing courses, financial challenges and too many students wanting to start some courses.

In light of these and other issues, some universities have called for the reform of placement tariffs for nursing students and the reconsideration of required practice learning hours, in order for them to scale up nursing training provision. Meanwhile, in January, the Nursing and Midwifery Council approved changes to its pre-registration education programme standards to help widen participation in nursing. These include doubling the number of hours nursing students can have for simulated practice learning, and greater flexibility around entry requirements to get onto a nursing and midwifery programme.

There is, therefore, a lot going on in nurse education, with many challenges, changes and conversations. Regardless of these, student nurses continue to excel on great courses with the support of great educators and institutions. We also continue to hear and write about new innovations and ideas that benefit students and learning, many of which I’m pleased to say are on the shortlist for this year’s Student Nursing Times Awards. In short, there is so much to celebrate, share and reward at this ceremony.

I am delighted that we are back at the fabulous Grosvenor House on London’s Park Lane. Attending the awards this year will be students from all over the UK and at different stages of the nursing education journey, from first years to those who have recently qualified. Welcome to you all! Your innovation and achievements so early in your nursing career already make you sources of inspiration and highly employable in future.

Meanwhile, the many higher education institutions and placement providers represented on the shortlist demonstrate the constant evolution and development in the way the next generation of nurses are educated, equipping them to deal with the challenges they will face and helping them to provide the best care possible.

As ever, I would also like to thank our judges. Their hard work, time and commitment allows us to hold this annual celebration of nursing education. Given the quality and quantity of entries, choosing a winner is often not a straight-forward task. Likewise, I want to give a massive thanks to our sponsors for their ongoing support, because we simply could not hold this event without them.

Once again, well done once again to all our winners and finalists. Please enjoy the Student Nursing Times Awards 2023 and I look forward to seeing you during the ceremony.