Lecturers and students as stakeholders for education commissioning for learning disability nursing: Focus group findings from a multiple method study

SummaryBackgroundIn England, the numbers of learning disability nurses are declining; a need for urgent attention to workforce planning issues has been advocated. This paper considers views of lecturers, students and potential students as legitimate stakeholders for future education commissioning for this field of nursing.ObjectivesThis project aimed to undertake a strategic review of learning disability nursing educational commissioning, to provide an ‘evidence based’ evaluation to inform future strategic commissioning of learning disability nursing for one Health Authority, UK.DesignThe project adopted a structured multiple methods approach to generate evidence from a number of data sources, this paper reports on the findings from one method [focus groups] used for two groups of stakeholders.InformantsInformants comprised 10 learning disability nursing students studying at a Higher Education Institution, 25 health and social care students studying at a Further Education College, and 6 academic staff from 5 universities; all informants were from the south of England.MethodsThe method reported on in this paper is focus group methodology. Once completed, transcripts made were read in full, and subjected to content analysis.ResultsThe process of content analysis led to the development of 11 theoretical categories that describe the multiplicity of views of informants, as to issues of importance for this element of the health workforce.ConclusionThe paper concludes by identifying key messages from these informants. It is suggested that both method and findings have national and international resonance, as stakeholder engagement is a universal issue in health care education commissioning.