Nurse Education in Practice 2001–2011: An examination of a decade of progress

BackgroundEmerging in 2001, the journal Nurse Education in Practice, according to Crookes (2001: 1), aimed to support “the brave new world of university-based nurse education”. As a primarily a practice based journal, this journal aimed to support nurse educators to not only share their research endeavours, but also to share experiences and evidence of good practice. Ten years on it is interesting to analyse the extent to which this journal achieved these aims.AimThis paper aims to take a look back at patterns and trends, within the journal Nurse Education in Practice, over the past 10 years.MethodsA triangulation approach was used, whereby all papers (n = 466) were subjected to quantitative analysis of trends. Underlying patterns and trends, and inherent meanings were also explored from a qualitative perspective.FindingsMost papers had primarily an educational focus (n = 452, 97%), rather than specifically health care (n = 14, 3%). The largest majority of papers were classified as case studies.DiscussionFindings reveal that the journal has achieved its goal of supporting nurse educators to share both their research endeavours, and practice experience. Key challenges ahead appear to relate to interprofessional education and clinical roles of educators working in health care.