Equitable and high-quality practice learning for children’s nursing students

Clinical placements provide essential practice learning for undergraduate nursing students in the UK and are central to fulfilling the Nursing and Midwifery Council's regulatory requirements. For children's nursing students, the quality and suitability of placements are particularly important, given the complexity of caring for children and young people across a range of settings. This article explores the current practice learning landscape for children's nursing students and examines some of the challenges that affect its quality, such as limited availability of placements, staffing shortages and variability in the quality of supervision. The authors highlight the importance of addressing these challenges to provide children's nursing students with learning experiences that adequately prepare them for practice and ensure the future sustainability of the children's nursing workforce.