Editorial. An overview of data-based papers on undergraduate nurse education recently published in Contemporary nurse : progress, challenges and the need for a strategic agenda

The history of nurse education is strongly grounded in the apprenticeship-style of training that pre-dated the delivery of nurse education in the higher education sector. The apprenticeship model was essentially premised on a belief that students of nursing learned by being exposed to the clinical environment, and being supported to learn on-the-job (Mannix et al. 2006). Because of this and despite the many dedicated nurse teachers who worked within hospital-based schools of nursing, for many years, nurse education was barely problematised; nor was it the subject of particular debate, scrutiny or interrogation.