On Friday 21 March 2025, the British Journal of Nursing held their 2025 Awards.
Aby Mitchell, Senior Lecturer in Nursing Education, and Behnam Jafari Salim, Digital Learning Specialist, won Educator Nurse of the Year for their work on virtual placements in the Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery and Palliative Care.
Placements are a vital part of nursing training, they help student nurses get practical experience in health and care environments. Expanding placement opportunities is a key national strategic priority, aligning with the government’s goal to significantly grow the nursing workforce by 2036. The Nursing and Midwifery Council revised its standards, allowing Higher Education Institutions to incorporate a portion of practice learning through simulated practice.
To expand placement capacity, Aby and Behnam have been working on a bespoke virtual placement. Their solution has delivered more than 10,000 hours of simulated practice learning to first- and second-year nursing students since its launch in July 2024.
The King’s simulated virtual placement provides students with a valuable opportunity to engage in digital health, offering a learning experience that mirrors the rapidly evolving healthcare landscape. It enables students to develop key skills in telehealth, digital health and virtual care.
A student testimonial from a current Adult Nursing student says of the virtual placements, "They’re a really valuable balance of practical and theoretical experience. Lectures and seminars can only take you so far in such a practical profession, but there aren’t always opportunities for real-world practice, and when there are, they can sometimes be intimidating. The virtual placements help bridge this gap by providing an opportunity to apply my learning in realistic cases. I appreciate being able to experiment and make mistakes while having difficult conversations, managing workloads and creating plans and documentation. This makes me less likely to make the same errors in the future and improves my confidence that I can handle similar scenarios."