Involvement of experts by experience in academic assessments for undergraduate nursing students.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council standards for education (2018 and updated in 2023) requires that assessment of student nurses is fair, reliable and valid and involves contribution from a range of people who use services. This is evidenced by service user engagement becoming prominent within Higher Education Institutes. Within preregistration nursing programmes people with learning or intellectual disabilities have previously been included in curriculum design, student selection, teaching and practice-based feedback (Scammell et al., 2016). However, including service users in assessments to support authenticity and fidelity has proven more problematic (Haycock-Stuart et al.,2016). This is particularly pertinent within learning or intellectual disability nursing where preparedness of service users with a learning or intellectual disability is vital to the success of such an endeavour.

This will be the third year of involving a service user in the final assessment of learning disability nursing students. Involvement included supporting the writing of scenarios, role playing the scenario in an observed structured clinical exam (OSCE) and providing narrative feedback to assessors. This poster will report on the perceptions and experiences of the OSCE from the perspective of an individual with a learning disability or the student nurses involved in the OSCE at one university. The presentation will illustrate the initial analysis of the responses to the online survey and provide recommendations for future involvement of service users within preregistration nursing assignments.

References.
Haycock-Stuart, E., Donaghy, E., & Darbyshire, C. (2016). Involving users and carers in the assessment of preregistration nursing students' clinical nursing practice: a strategy for patient empowerment and quality improvement? Journal of Clinical Nursing, 25(13-14), 2052–2065.
Nursing and Midwifery Council (2023). Standards for Education and Training:Standards framework for nursing and midwifery education. Available at https://www.nmc.org.uk/globalassets/sitedocuments/standards/2023-pre-reg-standards/new-vi/standards-framework-for-nursing-and-midwifery-education.pdf.
Scammell, J., Heaslip, V. and Crowley, E. (2016) ‘Service user involvement in preregistration general nurse education: a systematic review’, Journal of clinical nursing, 25(1-2), pp. 53–69.