NET2019 - Exploring the politics and fantasy surrounding patient involvement policy in Nurse Education

Patient involvement in practice assessment was first introduced in 1996 but failed to establish itself as a routine practice. Fourteen years later, in 2010 the UK Nursing and Midwifery Council restated this requirement in response to concerns that university-based Nursing Education was not producing caring and compassionate nurses. This presentation offers a critical explanation of the political and phantasmatic logics surrounding the re-introduction of patient involvement in practice assessment and the dichotomy between policy rhetoric and the realities of practice. The implications for patient involvement following the publication of the 2019 NMC Standards for Pre-registration Nursing programmes will be discussed.