Tablets prescribed to improve progress of nurses

More than 200 nursing students at Anglia Ruskin University will have their progress measured by an app while they are out on placement with NHS Trusts, thanks to a £100,000 grant.

 

Anglia Ruskin will become first UK university to measure student progress by app.

The interactive platform, called MyProgress, will allow real-time monitoring of students’ performance, rather than assessors relying on written reports after the student has returned from their placement. This in turn allows students to get instant feedback and will enable better performance, benefiting themselves, the NHS Trust and the patient.

The 205 second-year students, including 25 work-based learning students, chosen for the project were given their tablets last week and will begin their placements across Cambridgeshire in February. It will be the first time a UK university has used tablets to assess nursing students’ progress and it is expected that others will follow suit.

Anglia Ruskin’s Nursing students are required by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) to spend 50% of their three year course on clinical practice, the equivalent of 2,300 hours.

Sian Shaw, Senior Lecturer within Anglia Ruskin’s Faculty of Health, Social Care and Education, said: “This project will enhance the ability of lecturers to support and monitor student progress while on placement which in turn will improve the quality of practice learning.

“It is vital that our students on placement can get timely and accurate feedback, because this is of course beneficial to the patients and to the taxpayer – according to Health Education East of England, it costs £78,000 to train a student nurse for three years.”

The money for the tablets has been provided by Health Education East of England (HEEoE) and is the result of a successful small trial held between February and May 2015. The NMC has commended the project as an example of innovative practice, to be shared nationally via its website.

Anglia Ruskin is one of the largest providers of nurses in the East of England, and 1,500 pre-registration student nurses are currently enrolled on NMC-approved courses.

 
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For more press information please contact:
Jon Green on t: 01245 68 4717, e: jon.green@anglia.ac.uk
Jamie Forsyth on t: 01245 68 4716, e: jamie.forsyth@anglia.ac.uk

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