Guides for UK student nurses
Clear, practical answers to the questions every student nurse hits: placement hours, proficiencies, reflections and calculations, written around the published NMC standards.
Placement hours
Student nurse placement hours, explained
How many placement hours you need for a UK nursing degree, what counts toward the 2,300, how the 600-hour simulation cap works, and how to keep an accurate log.
Read the guide →How to track your placement hours as a student nurse
A simple, reliable system for tracking nursing placement hours: what to record per shift, paper vs spreadsheet vs app, and how to avoid the third-year scramble.
Read the guide →What counts as placement hours? (And what doesn't)
Which hours count toward the 2,300-hour NMC practice requirement (nights, weekends, sim, spoke days) and which don't: travel, sickness, paid work and more.
Read the guide →NMC proficiencies & your PAD
The NMC proficiencies and your PAD, explained
What the NMC proficiencies are (the 7 platforms, Annexe A and Annexe B), how your Practice Assessment Document (PAD) works, and how to evidence proficiencies on placement.
Read the guide →How to evidence NMC proficiencies (and get signed off)
A practical system for evidencing your NMC proficiencies on placement: what counts as evidence, how to capture it, and how to make sign-off conversations easy.
Read the guide →The 7 NMC platforms explained (for student nurses)
What the seven platforms in the NMC Standards of proficiency actually mean, what each looks like on placement, and how to use them to organise your evidence.
Read the guide →Reflective practice
How to write a nursing reflection (with a Gibbs example)
A step-by-step guide for UK student nurses on writing reflections with the Gibbs reflective cycle: all six stages, a worked example, and a template you can reuse.
Read the guide →Driscoll's model of reflection: What? So what? Now what?
How to use Driscoll's three-question model for nursing reflections: prompts for each stage, a worked example, and when to choose it over Gibbs.
Read the guide →Gibbs reflective cycle: a full worked nursing example
A complete, annotated Gibbs reflection from a student nurse placement: all six stages written out in full, with notes on what makes each stage work.
Read the guide →Start planning your placements today
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