The NMC future nurse standards: perspectives of mental health nurse educators

MH nurse education is largely shaped by the standards developed by the NMC (NMC, 2018). The Future Nurse Standards (FNS) (NMC, 2018) is the current framework currently used to develop and assess proficiency among student nurses and graduates throughout the UK and was implemented in 2019. The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of the FNS on pre-registration mental health (MH) nursing education from the perspective of MH educators based across four Scottish universities. An additional purpose of this study was to provide a voice to the field of mental health by exploring individual experiences and perspectives. The study adopted a qualitative design and data was collected through semi-structured interviews. There were eleven participants involved in the study who were based across four Scottish universities and involved in the delivery of the registration MH nursing programme. Findings from this research indicate that MH educators are concerned that MH nurse education is becoming diluted and that the FNS has contributed to this. The themes developed from this study include the genericism of MH education, the dilution of MH education, MH educators as role models, the importance of MH identity for students, and the ambiguity surrounding students' preparedness for practice. Other themes include the practical factors and issues that have impacted how effective the FNS has been in achieving its goals. Another finding from this study is that MH educators often feel excluded from key decision-making processes surrounding the development of MH nurse education. These findings indicate that the FNS may be having a detrimental impact on the field of MH nursing by failing to adequately prepare MH nurse graduates for the role of MH nurse. Additionally, these findings indicate a need for MH nurse educators to be closely involved in the development of MH education to ensure fair representation of the field. This study recommends that further research be completed, using a mixed methods design, to collect data surrounding student, educator, and clinical staff perspectives of the FNS on a larger scale to allow for more generalisable results.