Late in 2013 the Nursing Council approved the below draft documents for consultation.
The background to the draft documents relates to a request from Council to review the process for ongoing monitoring of nursing education programmes leading to registration in the registered nurse scope of practice (the programmes), and the ability of the monitoring process to provide objective data about the quality of programmes.
The Council requires schools of nursing offering a bachelor’s degree in nursing programme to submit an Annual Report to the Council by May 1 each year (Council Handbook). While schools of nursing submit annual reports as required the information submitted has not been presented in a consistent format and this had made collating information across schools and analysing patterns and trends difficult.
Following the publication of “The Future Nursing Workforce: Supply Projections 2010-2035” the Council committed to improving data related to students in nursing programmes to assist work force planning. As identified in the publication there will be an increased demand for registered nurses over time in order to meet the health care needs of New Zealand (NCNZ August 2013). In order to plan and prepare for possible workforce changes the Council requires reliable and consistent data across a range of areas including pre-registration nurse education.
The draft annual report template has been designed to collect relevant information regarding the number of students undertaking the programmes, success and retention rates, the make up of the student groups including age and ethnicity and planned increases or decreases in student numbers.
The draft monitoring tool evidence guide has been developed based on the Education Programme Standards for the Registered Nurse Scope of Practice and clearly identifies the types of evidence required to comprehensively assess each standard. The guide also links to the information provided by the schools of nursing in the annual report template.
Both draft documents are available here:
Feedback Due: Please send comments to Policy Analyst, Jill Clendon, jillc@nzno.org.nz, 03 5463941 by April 5th 2014