A wide variety of factors impact on the scope of nursing practice, including government policies, organisational structures, the media, education, future healthcare directions and service users themselves. It is an NMC requirement that nurses understand these factors in order to deliver quality care. This book provides a clear and practical introduction to these contexts for the new nursing student. The new edition (formerly 'Nursing in Contemporary Healthcare Practice') has been revised to cover the organisational structures that students will find themselves working in, the various bodies involved in healthcare policy and the big issues in current and future healthcare delivery.

A multi-professional research team comprising practitioners, academics, service-users and students has undertaken a major research project on pre and post-registration students engaged in Social Work, Midwifery and Emergency Care (Nursing and Paramedicine) professional degrees. This book explores students' perceptions of the tools and methods used to assess their practice and the impact these processes have had on their learning and professionalism during their journey through the programme. A four-year longitudinal study comprising annual interviews with 14 students has enabled their developing understanding and changing views to emerge, rather than just gaining a snapshot as in previous literature.