Public involvement in nursing education

A key challenge in any nursing education provision is meaningful public involvement - in the development of the education, its delivery and in the wider aspects of assessment in practice, selection of students etc. While there does not appear, so far, to be a strong evidence-base for public involvement, it is intuitive to me that service users, carers, and others should be involved in the work that we as educators do to develop practitioners who are fit for purpose and practise. There are many ways in which we can work with the public - through the use of volunteer patients, through forums within the community, through links and networks that feed into the work of education providers..... If we are to educate practitioners who can provide person-centred care, we absolutely must engage with the public as an integral part of the development of our programmes.