The GP retainer scheme: report of a national survey.

The current context of organisational change and new working patterns, together with the high cost of medical training, mean it is of vital importance that the NHS retains its trained workforce. The GP retainer scheme supports doctors who for reasons of personal circumstance are restricted in their ability to compete for employment in medicine, and aims to facilitate the retention of their skills and confidence. This national study evaluates the experiences and views of current and past GP retainers and provides a rigorous assessment of the retainer scheme.

Learning together, working together: an evaluation of experiences of a pilot programme for partnership between unions and management in the health service.

This article describes an innovative initiative to support partnership working between trade unions and management in three National Health Service Trusts, by means of shared participation in a series of learning and development days. Although there is existing evidence, within the literature on partnership, of the benefits of partnership working for employees and employers, there is little discussion of processes by which effective partnership is developed. More specifically, there is no current academic literature on the role of education in enabling improved partnership working between trade unions and managers.

How 'blended' is blended learning?: students' perceptions of issues around the integration of online and face-to-face learning in a Continuing Professional Development (CPD) health care context.

Purpose: This paper explores students' perceptions of blended learning modules delivered in a Continuing Professional Development (CPD) health care context in the UK. 'Blended learning' is the term used to describe a hybrid model of learning where traditional face-to-face teaching approaches and newer electronic learning activities and resources are utilised together.

Method: A new model of CPD for health care practitioners based on a blended learning approach was developed at a university in the south west of England.

Time spent studying on a pre-registration nursing programme module: an exploratory study and implications for regulation.

European Union (EU) regulations require that university programmes are of specified duration. Additional EU regulations apply specifically to university based nurse education, enacted in the UK by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC). However, little is known about how much time student nurses spend on their studies.

Researching student absence: methodological challenges and ethical issues.

This article describes the challenges encountered in a research project aiming to explore non-attendance from the perspective of absent students. These students are nursing students in a Faculty of Health and Social Care, but the issues raised here are of wider interest. Although attendance at the sessions monitored for this project is stated to be compulsory, there is typically a non-attendance rate of around 20%.

Help is just a text away: the use of short message service texting to provide an additional means of support for health care students during practice placements.

This article discusses the findings from a pilot study using short message service (SMS) texting to provide an additional means of support for health care students in practice placements. Pre-registration students were recruited students from 2nd year cohorts in Adult Nursing, Children's Nursing, Occupational Therapy, and Radiography to pilot the use of SMS texting with their private mobile phones from their work-based learning placements. The pilot was evaluated using an online questionnaire for students with follow-up telephone interviews, and face-to-face interviews with the four tutors.

Race equality education: implications of an audit of student learning.

Racial harassment continues to be a feature of the United Kingdom (UK) National Health Service (NHS). It has serious consequences for those at the receiving end and impacts negatively on attempts by the NHS to retain and recruit a diverse workforce. The prevalence and persistence of racist views and behaviours amongst NHS staff raises questions concerning the preparation and education of practitioners.