Development and delivery of the trainee nursing associate pilot curriculum

As university lecturers in acute adult care, the authors were involved in the development of a medicines management module for trainee nursing associates, as part of the pilot curriculum at their university. With limited guidance from professional organisations, the authors considered the needs and concerns of service users and providers, drew on educational philosophies and the feedback of the students. This article describes the development process.

A literature review provided background information. This included details about the emergence of the nursing associate role from the Shape of Caring review (Higher Education England (HEE), 2015), which called for higher-level training and apprenticeships (Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), 2016). The literature also revealed:

Additionally, the literature demonstrated that the design of a curriculum directly affects the acquisition of knowledge, therefore this multidimensional and complex process required understanding. Embedded educational philosophies provide the rationale for the chosen content and the strategies used to deliver it. Nurse education has been influenced by humanistic psychology, a philosophical and ethical stance concerned with human welfare, nature and values, with an emphasis on the importance of self, with motivation, empowerment and autonomy being key.