Fit for purpose: does specialist community nurse education prepare nurses for practice?

This paper sets out to explore the experience of newly qualified community nurses, one year on in practice, and to establish if the specialist course prepares them for the reality of practice. It presents a piece of action research evaluating the education process for community nurses through a series of cycles of self-reflection which lead to recommendations for both policy and curriculum changes. Our findings show that community nurses are very positive about their new roles and their work with clients and patients, that they are able to use their newly acquired analytical skills in their practice, but felt inadequately prepared for the reality of practice. Our most significant finding was the lack of preparation for the world of work, the pressure of work and the pace of activity in the health service. As curriculum planners we realized that the course fell short in preparing for actual practice. As a result, changes to the course are underway and in partnership with local health trusts we have set up a support programme for newly qualified community nurses. Our work in community nurse education builds upon the findings from the Peach Report (1999), which only looked at pre-registration nursing and midwifery education.