This chapter explores the central role of practice in nursing and midwifery education, examining its impact on students, professional identity and higher education staff. It builds on an article first published in 2024, which focused on the midwifery education workforce, to include nursing in an analysis of the impact of the transition from the pre-2019 mentorship model to the Nursing and Midwifery Council’s (NMC) Standards for Student Supervision and Assessment (SSSA). The discussion highlights both the benefits and challenges of the new framework such as improved objectivity on the one hand, but reduced continuity and increased academic workloads on the other.

Using Acker’s Theory of Gendered Organisation, the chapter examines the transition from clinical practice to academia, where nursing and midwifery lecturers reform their professional identity, whilst providing much of the same emotional labour with students as they may have done with patients and women in clinical roles. It questions whether nursing and midwifery education are distinct from other academic fields due to the regulatory and pastoral demands arising from practice exposure. By addressing these tensions, the chapter calls for systemic changes, improved student and educator support and better resource allocation to bridge the divide between academia and clinical practice.
This chapter situates the importance of this book within a broader political and economic context, addressing the impact of neoliberal marketisation on higher education and healthcare, the casualisation of the (largely female) workforce, and the growing rollback of women’s rights globally. We explore the intersections of gender, race, and class in shaping professional experiences before acknowledging our own positionalities and the challenges of curating diverse perspectives while striving for authenticity and cohesion.