The book presents five significant areas of learning within professional programmes of preparation most applicable to student nurses and midwives in their pre-registration education but also with relevance to other learners on healthcare related disciplines. This volume has emerged from several sources: the editor s role as a Director for Learning and Teaching in Adult, Child Nursing and Midwifery and also from an EU funded project looking at quality benchmarks and assuring clinical learning environments (HEALINT). The Francis Report (Francis 2013) and the Shape of Caring Report (Willis 2015) highlighted challenges related to practice learning and mark a renewed focus in its overall significance (Morley et al 2017).