Teaching Innovation of the Year
Brunel University of London The Crystal Mission: Gamification that makes soft skills shine in clinical practice
The Crystal Mission, introduced in 2024 at Brunel University of London, is a gamification strategy in the Nursing curriculum. It uses games and puzzles to enhance soft skills like decision-making, leadership, communication, collaboration, and critical thinking. This approach shifts learning from passive to active, providing a dynamic and engaging environment. The programme has received overwhelmingly positive feedback from students and faculty, with high engagement and improved skills reported. Its alignment with professional standards, adaptability, and potential for interprofessional learning suggest its sustainability and effectiveness in preparing students for real-world healthcare environments.
Edge Hill University Edge Q Framework
At Edge Hill University we deliver pre-registration education working collaboratively with over 80 practice partners, providing over 1.2 million hours of placement learning. Our application stands out from the crowd because we have used our EDGEQ Framework to set and measure the key areas that we need to focus on. These include offering an innovative teaching environment, improving our students understanding of academic subjects, and clinical skills, connecting students through social networks, and setting the right culture within our school so that students and staff can thrive. Equality, diversity, and inclusion is a key theme that runs through our framework.
Edge Hill University Implementation of Schwartz Rounds within Nursing and Midwifery Education
The implementation of Schwartz Rounds at Edge Hill University is a testament to the power of innovation in healthcare education. This initiative has enriched learning, improved teaching standards, and fostered resilience and collaboration among students and staff. With its proven success, popularity, and sustainability, Schwartz Rounds represent a transformative approach to preparing the next generation of healthcare professionals. The implementation of rounds, in addition to enhancing teaching and learning, also aligns with Universities UK guidance for Suicide-Safer universities. Through this innovative teaching, we have enabled supportive measures for students on healthcare programmes, alongside fostering a supportive learning environment.
Edge Hill University Nothing about me without me - the art of listening
Edge Hill University has established a fully integrated partnership with its Service User and Carer (SUC) Group, aimed at enhancing teaching and learning by incorporating the lived experiences of service users. The group's involvement spans the entire student lifecycle, from interviews to assessments, ensuring a well-rounded professional education. Members contribute to curriculum delivery through live online sessions, face-to-face interactions, webinars, podcasts, and videos that cover a wide range of topics, including physical, mental health and social care issues. Its reach extends nationally across the UK and internationally through collaborations with student nurses in India, fostering cultural diversity and inclusion.
Edinburgh Napier University Pharmacology Escape Room
In response to student requests for enhanced understanding of psychiatric medications, our innovative escape room offers an immersive alternative to traditional pharmacology lectures, which can often be perceived as 'dry'. This engaging experience transforms learning into an adventure, compelling students to solve medication-related puzzles to 'escape'. By combining elements of gamification with educational content, the escape room not only deepens knowledge but also improves retention and application skills in an interactive way. This approach addresses students' educational needs while fostering teamwork, critical thinking, and practical application. The students evaluated the experience as both enjoyable and effective.
Edinburgh Napier University Team-based Risk Identification and Assessment with Gamified Exploration, determined by students
TRIAGED (Team-based Risk Identification and Assessment with Gamified Exploration, Determined by students) is an innovative teaching method designed to teach risk assessment to second-year mental health nursing students. Using dice as prompts, such as the Behavioural Indicators Die, which highlights subtle behaviours that may signal evolving risks, or the Risk History Die, which identifies past risky behaviours, students collaboratively build patient profiles. Drawing on their own clinical experiences, they create realistic and meaningful scenarios. This gamified, student-led approach mirrors the fast-paced emergence of new information in practice, fostering critical thinking, adaptability, and teamwork while bridging academic learning with real-world.
University of Central Lancashire Transforming Interprofessional Education
The University of Central Lancashire created a novel Interprofessional Education (IPE) leadership team to coordinate teaching across 17 disciplines and integrate IPE across all years of pre-registration nursing. This innovation aims to enhance the academic and clinical skills of health and social care students. Over the past year, over 3000 students have engaged in innovative IPE sessions, including scavenger hunts and multidisciplinary simulations. Student evaluation is overwhelmingly positive, demonstrating significant improvements in teamwork, communication, and confidence. The award-winning initiative has set a new standard for IPE, recognised across the sector for its innovative approach and strong faculty and student engagement.
University of Chichester Living Lessons: Interactive narrative-based learning
Living Lessons is an innovative project that blends real-life healthcare narratives, interactive theatre, and digital technology to transform nursing education. Developed through collaboration with the Chichester Engagement & Advisory Group (ChEAG) and Sim Players (acting students), it bridges the gap between theory and practice using personal stories from service users and carers. These stories align with Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) standards and are delivered through dynamic, interactive theatre sessions. This co-produced approach fosters active student engagement, enhances empathy, and provides a sustainable and scalable model for healthcare education, preparing future nurses to meet professional competencies.
University of Derby Proficiency Skills Directory for Mental Health Nursing Students
The University of Derby deserves the Student Nursing Times Award for its innovative Proficiencies Directory, a digital resource that maps NMC proficiencies to mental health nursing skills using a biopsychosocial model, ensuring that students engage with a holistic approach to patient care that reflects the complexities of mental health. By contextualising course content within real-life scenarios, it enables students to connect theoretical knowledge with practical, relevant skills, which is crucial for preparing them to handle diverse patient needs. It exemplifies a sustainable, forward-thinking teaching approach, supporting the evolving needs of mental health nursing education with modern, impactful learning solutions.
University of East Anglia Escape Room Simulation: Innovative teaching for the golden hour of paediatric sepsis
Detecting and managing paediatric sepsis in the 'Golden Hour' saves lives. This teaching and learning innovation for children and young people's nursing students, integrates immersive high fidelity paediatric centric simulation with an escape room themed challenge. The students are provided with a real time authentic clinical simulation to assess and manage a child with sepsis; a parental role is included for a family centred, holistic experience. The escape room learning activities promote teamwork, communication, problem-solving and decision making, engaging students to work together to achieve the sepsis six within the Golden Hour, enhancing knowledge and skills for future clinical practice.
University of Salford Pre-Registration Nursing Associate Programme
The University of Salford’s Pre-Registration Nursing Associate Programme is set to be the first in the UK to use podcasting as a groundbreaking assessment method. By challenging traditional evaluation practices, we are transforming student engagement through creative, inclusive, and practical learning. Podcasting empowers future nursing associates to develop essential skills in communication and collaboration, reflecting real-world healthcare scenarios. Our commitment to this innovative approach ensures sustainability, providing students across disciplines with the tools to thrive. We believe our transformative initiative makes us a strong candidate for this award, demonstrating meaningful, lasting change in nursing education
University of Wolverhampton Structured Training and Resources to Succeed
University of Wolverhampton STARS programme.