Continuing education needs of community nurses, midwives and health visitors for supervising and assessing students

The objective of this study was to ascertain the changing educational needs of community nurses, midwives and health visitors in relation to the teach ing, supervising and assessing of pre- and post-registration students. A qu estionnaire was sent to all education institutions providing community nurs ing experience in England (Whittaker et at. 1997), which allowed identifica tion of three centres for in-depth study. Questionnaires were sent to pract itioners (community nurses and midwives, health visitors and school nurses) , their managers, and teachers of community courses in the three centres: 3 14 were returned. Eight semi-structured interviews were undertaken with vol unteers in each of the study centres (n = 24). Extensive demands are being made on community staff to provide learning experiences for students on a w ide range of courses. Practitioners reported that in order to fulfil their teaching and assessing functions they needed continuing education in matter s which would assist them to provide research-based practice and education, teaching and assessing in the community and personal skills, for example a ssertiveness and counselling. Less than a quarter of practitioners were und ertaking continuing education courses. However, opportunities for further a cademic study varied enormously and most practitioners had to study in thei r own time at their own expense.