Ian Stables describes a pilot project in which third-year learning disability nursing students taught vital skills to their first-year colleagues

The closure of residential homes for service users over recent decades has reduced opportunities for learning disability nursing students to practise their clinical skills while on placement. As a result, simulated teaching methods have been adopted increasingly in undergraduate nursing programmes. This article describes a model for teaching clinical skills on an undergraduate nursing programme piloted at Edinburgh Napier University in which third-year students were prepared and supported to teach first-year students a range of clinical skills. The pilot not only helps first-year students acquire these skills, it allows third-year students to consolidate their teaching skills.