What price research? Good preparation contributes to good performance.

Marie Cerinus uses a study into the value of clinical supervision to illustrate some of the resource issues involved in the conduct of action research. She describes the range and level of financial and personal commitment required if the research is to be successful.

Students in employment: learning and working.

The last two decades have witnessed the emergence of research findings in the field of education which clearly demonstrate the powerful influence of 'workload' on both what and how students learn. In nurse education, this notion of workload has focused on assessment demands and the dual role of the student nurse as learner and employee. Indeed it has only been with the implementation of the Project 2000 programmes of pre-registration nurse education that this latter aspect has been dealt a death blow. Or, has it? This paper presents a picture of current student nurses who should have greater educational freedom due to their supernumerary status. However, whilst not employees (as part of course participation), many students are participating in other employment. This phenomenon should be of interest to nurse educators because for many it presents the first opportunity for dealing with students in this situation.

Preparing nurses for preceptorship.

The introduction of Project 2000 diploma-level courses in Scotland raised many questions about how a smooth preparation and transition could be effected. One of the main difficulties related to how the new students' supernumerary status would affect their learning experiences in clinical areas, and how practitioners could be helped to make the students' experiences valuable in educational terms. This article describes how one Scottish college decided to employ preceptorship as the framework for clinical supervision, and how it prepared practitioners for their new responsibilities.