Pre-registration student nurse placement hours, competency, and outcomes: A systematic review.
| Title: | Pre-registration student nurse placement hours, competency, and outcomes: A systematic review. |
|---|---|
| Authors: | Kenny A; La Trobe Rural Health School, La Trobe University, PO Box 199, Bendigo, Victoria 3552, Australia. Electronic address: a.kenny@latrobe.edu.au.; Knight K; Chester Medical School, Faculty of Health, Medicine and Society, University of Chester, CRV 111 Wheeler Building, Castle Drive, Chester CH1 1SL, United Kingdom. Electronic address: k.knight@chester.ac.uk.; Garrow A; School of Nursing and Advanced Practice, Liverpool John Moores University, Tithebarn Building, 79 Tithebarn Street, Liverpool L2 2ER, United Kingdom. Electronic address: A.L.Garrow@ljmu.ac.uk.; Leigh J; Nursing and Midwifery, Edge Hill University, St Helens Road, Ormskirk, Lancashire L39 4QP, United Kingdom. Electronic address: Leighj@edgehill.ac.uk.; Roberts D; United Kingdom. |
| Source: | Nurse education today [Nurse Educ Today] 2025 Nov; Vol. 154, pp. 106851. Date of Electronic Publication: 2025 Aug 13. |
| Publication Type: | Journal Article; Systematic Review |
| Language: | English |
| Journal Info: | Publisher: Churchill Livingstone Country of Publication: Scotland NLM ID: 8511379 Publication Model: Print-Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1532-2793 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 02606917 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Nurse Educ Today Subsets: MEDLINE |
| Imprint Name(s): | Original Publication: [Edinburgh, Scotland] : Churchill Livingstone |
| MeSH Terms: | Clinical Competence*/standards ; Students, Nursing*/statistics & numerical data; Humans ; Education, Nursing, Baccalaureate ; Time Factors |
| Abstract: | Aims: The aims of this systematic review were to a) identify studies on pre-registration student nurse placement hours, b) appraise the quality of studies to date, and c) synthesise the impact of different placement hours on student nurse competency and outcomes for people who use health services.; Design: A mixed method systematic review involving five steps: framing questions, study identification, assessing quality using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool, summarising evidence around major focus areas, and interpreting findings, using thematic synthesis.; Data Sources: Searches were conducted to identify peer-reviewed studies, theses, and reviews in MEDLINE, EmBase, the Education Resources Information Center, the Cumulative Index to Nursing & Allied Health Literature, PROSPERO, Cochrane Library, PsycInfo, Web of Science (Social Science Citation Index), and the ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global database.; Review Methods: The population was pre-registration nurses, and included peer-reviewed studies, theses, and reviews that referred to practice hours, the impact of practice hours on competency, and studies that linked practice hours to health service user outcomes. Searches were imported into Covidence software, with all documents screened independently by two reviewers at the title and abstract and full text stages. All authors independently assessed methodological quality with discussion occurring until consensus was reached. Reporting is consistent with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses and the protocol is registered in PROSPERO.; Results: A total of 4958 documents were screened, with 49 articles forming the final dataset. Overall, the literature is characterised by small scale evaluations in single universities, primarily focused on the replacement of practice hours with simulation.; Conclusion: There is a lack of high-quality evidence to underpin practice placement hours. Given calls to significantly accelerate the graduation of nurses to address crisis-level nursing shortages the lack of a strong evidence base on practice hours warrants global attention.; (Copyright © 2025 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.) |
| Competing Interests: | Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. |
| Contributed Indexing: | Keywords: Competency; Hours; Nurse education; Outcomes; Practice placement; Pre-registration |
| Entry Date(s): | Date Created: 20250822 Date Completed: 20250906 Latest Revision: 20250908 |
| Update Code: | 20260130 |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.nedt.2025.106851 |
| PMID: | 40845768 |
| Database: | MEDLINE |
Journal Article; Systematic Review