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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of workplace support measures offered by employers on the academic performance and satisfaction of distance-taught paramedic students.

Using a combination of quantitative, qualitative and open text data, the authors identified factors important for student success.

Dedicated study time was not a significant predictor of student pass rate, but was related to the quality of achievement as measured by pass grade. More important for success were less tangible factors such as relationship with a mentor and being part of a supportive peer group.

The number of respondents to the survey of graduates in the second part of the investigation was small (n=30; 8.9 per cent) and limited to one profession (Emergency care).

The support measures the authors have identified should be overtly built into new course design. Placements undertaken away from the primary workplace should be well organised, and students proactively supported while undertaking them.

The value of these findings is that they inform, and can be used to enhance, the experience of students on work-based learning programmes and also on degree apprenticeships.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a nursing quality indicator (NQI) framework and provide a comprehensive reporting mechanism for nursing care.

Mixed method, including patient records audit, patient experience questionnaire, nurse self-report questionnaire and collecting ward-level information. The sample was 53 patients and 22 nurses.

Outputs from the NQI framework domains offer a more comprehensive understanding of nursing quality compared to when domains are analysed separately. The NQI framework also provides a more inclusive mechanism for assuring nursing care.

Sample size was limited to 53 English-speaking patients who consented to participating in the study.

One design strength was the ability to describe individual patient care across the four domains and subsequently show relationships between nursing knowledge, nursing interventions and patient outcomes/experiences. Additionally, corroborated information from three sources (documentation review, patient and nurse responses) strengthened the conclusion that the NQI framework could provide more comprehensive assurances on nursing quality and identify care improvements.