Student-led health promotion toolkit: a practice development project

Abstract

Student nurses are uniquely placed to contribute to health promotion during their undergraduate programmes. The aim of this practice development project was to co-develop a toolkit to facilitate student nurse led health promotion practice. The project used an emancipatory methodology to explore health promotion practice opportunities for one university cohort of student nurses in partnership with the local practice area. A person-centred framework was used to engage with students and nurses to benchmark current student practice, scope for student-led activity and develop a shared vision for the toolkit resources. The student questionnaire revealed greater confidence in health promotion knowledge than in practice. Nurses lacked confidence in student-led health promotion despite the opportunities identified in practice. Identified barriers to practice were attributed to resources, support available and student motivation. The project findings support the introduction of a toolkit of agreed resources with the potential to encourage more student-led health promotion practice.