Edinburgh Napier University

  Project Summary
This project was led by a team of academics from The Scottish Collaboration for the Enhancement of Pre-registration Nursing (SCEPRN). The project purpose was to follow up on previous literature reviews completed, that addressed complexity and challenges in providing meaningful feedback to students in the practice learning environment (Haycock-Stuart, Darbyshire & Donaghy, 2013; Pollock, Rice & McMillan, 2015). A qualitative study was conducted utilising individual semi structured interviews (n=7), which explored mentors behaviours in seeking feedback from members of the inter-professional team, and people who access services (PWAS). The purpose was to identify how this data was integrated by mentors to capture both feedback and the assessment process for student nurses.
Aim
The aim of the project was to identify how mentors use feedback on student performance to inform practice assessment in pre-registration nursing programmes in Scotland. Edinburgh Napier University, University of Glasgow and Queen Margaret University collaborated on the project with a view to:
 Updating the reviews of literature of the last 3 years practice assessment in pre-registration nursing programmes.
 Identifying how mentors elicit feedback from the Inter-professional Team, patients and carers views of student performance in practice assessment within pre-registration nursing programmes.
 Explore mentors’ perspectives of practice assessment and feedback provided to students and Universities, within pre-registration nursing programmes.
 Reviewing mentor preparation programmes in Scotland for content on preparation to provide meaningful feedback to students in practice learning.
 Synthesising the data gathered within the context of the current evidence base and the updated literature reviews.
 To propose any recommendations that may arise from the findings.
Questions
 How do mentors collect evidence that contributes to the student’s final assessment?
 How do mentors elicit feedback from the inter-professional team that informs the student’s final assessment?
 How do mentors engage with users of health care services to enable their feedback to inform the student’s final assessment?
Methodology
This is a qualitative research study, using semi-structured interviews with a purposive sample of mentors of student nurses (n=7), from across Southern Scotland. Data analysis was undertaken using Burnard’s approach to thematic analysis (Burnard, 1991, 1996, Burnard et. al., 2008).
Findings
The two themes were identified from the data were: Collaboration and Gathering formal feedback.