At Erskine (the largest of Scotland's veterans' charities) we welcome students on placement in all of our care homes. Erskine has four care homes across the central belt of Scotland, supporting 339 residents to live well and, importantly, to die well. The care home is an ideal learning environment, providing students with a wealth of learning opportunities.
At a professional level we recognise a duty to support the development of the next generation of health professionals, as in The Code (Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), 2018: 9.4): ‘Support students' and colleagues' learning to help them develop their professional competence and confidence’. Note that The Code does not just say support student nurses, it says ‘support students' and colleagues' learning’. At Erskine we support graduate students from nursing and physiotherapy, we have started to welcome student paramedics, we have even had genetics students on placement. In addition, we are looking at how we can support student social workers and student occupational therapists in the future. We also have Higher National Certificate students who are studying social care in further education colleges or on pre-nursing programmes.
Not all of this support to students is entirely altruistic or a one-way street. Those students we have on placement also make significant contributions in a number of ways: they bring up-to-date knowledge, new thinking and external links and they often ask questions about practice, policies and procedures. There are a number of activities students can undertake, without direct supervision, that contribute to high-quality resident care. Several of our registered nurses started off with us as students, so welcoming students is an important way for us to develop our next generation of registered nurses.
Over the last 2 years care homes have been very much at the fore in the nation's consciousness. Now is an important time for us in the sector to continue to change the narrative around the skill level of care home nurses. People who have never worked in a care home, particularly other nurses, can have a false impression of the skills and knowledge required to be a confident and competent care home nurse. This narrative needs to be changed, not simply by talking about it but by demonstrating to undergraduates that care home nurses are experts in their field; their skills are critical to supporting residents to live well, remembering most residents live with multiple morbidities. Care homes, such as Erskine, are a truly nurse-led service. Our residents are living with cardiac issues, with renal problems, musculoskeletal problems, dementia and other mental health issues. We offer care and support to people living with Parkinson's and Huntington's as well as multiple sclerosis and other degenerative conditions. There are a number of learning opportunities for students or registered nurses where they can experience a wide range of learning experiences along with a habilitation approach, to maximise the individual resident's wellbeing.
During 2020, when students came to Erskine as paid employees, their contribution was outstanding. However, they would not have been here had Erskine not been considered a quality care and learning environment that had previously welcomed students. Our intention all along has been to offer learning experiences that will develop the individual learner, who will in turn provide those in need of care and support with high-quality, safe and effective care with the resident at the heart of all that is done.
In a recent Twitter chat, one student nurse said that she was considering a career as a care home nurse simply based on her placement experience and what she had learnt and experienced. The chat started from a tweet I posted following a conversation with one of our students on placement who had been told: ‘You need to go into a ward to get experience and consolidate your learning once you qualify.’ It is important that we in the sector, indeed any community nursing provider, change this outdated viewpoint. So, to any care home that does not currently support student placements: nominate yourself, contact your local university or care home education facilitator (in Scotland) and embrace the brilliant experience of welcoming students to your home.