Coventry University: E-Journals
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"Being Absorbed in That Environment…It’s Just So Beneficial” – The Experiences of Physiotherapy Students in a Situated Learning Pilot Study
Get PDFIn this article, we aim to add to the existing literature on practice-based education. First, we will present a form of situated learning, which involved piloting a new teaching and learning relationship between the university and healthcare setting. Second, we will examine how students made sense of this perspective of practice. Using a phenomenologically oriented approach, this pilot study explored the experiences of entry-level physiotherapy students learning in a classroom environment, facilitated by clinicians, and located on a healthcare partner’s site. Twenty students completed two concurrent, theoretically oriented subjects that did not involve traditional clinical practicum experience. Two individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with students. Data was thematically analysed using an inductive approach. Three inter-related themes emerged. First, meaning-making is enhanced by the relevance and authenticity afforded by immersion in a practice-oriented classroom environment where clinicians facilitate learning. Second, learning from those ‘in practice’ challenges students’ professional and academic accountability. Finally, new educational infrastructures influenced students’ agency in unanticipated ways. This work highlights that students valued contextual learning. While meaning-making was enhanced by the development of key new relationships with others and the environment, these relationships also influenced student agency. Recommendations for health professional curricula are discussed, and include: capitalising on learning with peers, bringing the hidden curriculum into view and creating opportunities for students to navigate uncertainty and change
Impact of Disability Placements on Allied Health Students: Placement Educators’ Perspectives
Get PDFResearch on the relevance of placements to the development of allied health student skills to work with people with disability, is an underexplored area. This knowledge is important for several reasons: to prepare students for disability placements, develop their work readiness skills to work with people with disability upon graduation, inform placement curriculum development, and ensure placement educators are supported to provide effective and efficient supervision of students on disability placements. The study discussed in this article, explores placement educators’ perceptions of powerful learning experiences during disability placements that shape students’ attitudes and perceptions of working with people with disability. Allied health placement educators from three Australian disability organisations, were invited to attend focus groups on this topic. Two focus groups, with a total of seven participants, were conducted in February and May 2016. The allied health disciplines represented in the focus groups were Speech Pathology, Occupational Therapy, and Physiotherapy. Thematic analysis technique was used to analyse focus group data. Findings related to the following four key topic areas, are discussed in this article: a. Reasons for placement educators entering and staying in the disability sector; b. Placement educator perceptions of changes in student attitudes and skills post disability placements and how their experiences shape their approaches to student placement education; c. Recommendations for universities to better prepare students to work with people with disability; and d. Preparation of students for job-seeking in the disability sector
Comparing Occupational Therapy Students' Competency Scores: 2:1 versus 1:1 Fieldwork
Get PDFFieldwork is essential to occupational therapy students’ development of professional competencies. Fieldwork models using student-to-fieldwork educator ratios of 1:1 and 2:1 are widely used, however, quantitative research exploring differences in student competencies between these two models is scarce. The objective of this study was to determine if development of student competencies differ between 2:1 and 1:1 fieldwork models during an occupational therapy educational program. A retrospective study using two years of occupational therapy students’ competency ratings by fieldwork supervisors (N = 95 students; N = 355 fieldwork events) was performed. The Competency Based Fieldwork Evaluation for Occupational Therapists tool was used to assess student competencies at each fieldwork rotation (n = 5 placements). Independent samples t-tests were used to compare students’ scores during 1:1 and 2:1 placements. No significant differences were noted in student competencies following participation in 2:1 and 1:1 placements. It was concluded that students are equally well prepared for practice if they have 1:1 or 2:1 fieldwork experiences
Preparing the Dietetic Workforce of the Future – Developing Innovative Placements in Social Care Settings
Get PDFPractice placements are key to the training of an allied health professional, supporting the integration of theoretical and practical knowledge, allowing the development of key skills and enculturation to a professional role. Practice placements in dietetic pre-registration training have largely focussed on clinical/health care settings, with the students based in dietetic departments. Current developments in integrated health and social care provision in the United Kingdom mean there is a compelling need to develop a workforce equipped to work across sectors to effectively support people’s nutritional needs. Against this background, a partnership group of healthcare and managerial professionals, representing NHS Education for Scotland (NES), NHS Highland (NHSH), a private care home group based in the North of Scotland and Robert Gordon University worked together to pilot and develop a model for the placement of student dietitians within social care settings (initially care homes). This novel approach embeds students in a social care setting for part of their placement rather than having them based within a dietetic department. The placements were positively evaluated and widely shared via Allied Health Profession (AHP) blogposts and in publications such as the Care Inspectorate newsletter, and other Scottish Health Boards are now developing local models of dietetic social care placements. There is a recognition that practice placement models should prepare the dietitians of the future for working beyond NHS environments, and that alternative models of placement should be explored from the perspective of raising the profile of the profession and ensuring sustainability of placement provision
Planning and Delivering Primary Care (CPD): Planners’, Managers’ and Consumers’ Views on Process and Outcome
Get PDFBackground: A Scottish National Health Service organisation commissioned a series of continuing professional development activities for primary health care professionals across seven topic areas and coordinated their delivery. The project was offered over one year and aimed primarily to change secondary care referral practice among general practitioners.Aim: To explore the experience and views of planners relating to the planning, delivery and evaluation of continuing professional development activities for primary health care professionals.Method: The qualitative approach involved focus group and individual interviews with 22 participants.Results: The planning of this CPD programme was successfully completed and a range of lectures and workshops ensued. The period required to plan this complex programme of CPD was underestimated. Some participants declined an invitation to participate in CPD despite significant financial incentives to do so, and several of those with greatest perceived need did not take part. Dissemination of CPD learning in primary care must not be taken for granted and related preparation and provision of incentives may improve this. CPD planners should consider including process and personal knowledge rather than the habitual prioritisation of technical skills and propositional knowledge.Conclusions: Planning primary care CPD with secondary care facilitation may offer more challenges than are immediately apparent. Implementation of suggestions for improvement highlighted here may well result in increased participation and greater impact of CPD
Student Satisfaction with Work-based Learning: Evaluation of a Foundation Degree Health & Social Care Programme
Get PDFThis paper presents findings from an evaluation of student satisfaction with work-based learning as experienced by 57 Foundation degree (Fd) Health & Social Care students. The study participants were all employed by the National Health Service (NHS) in a range of clinical settings in the English Midlands. Three cohorts of students completed a questionnaire which sought to uncover the individual circumstances, behaviour, attitudes and beliefs of work-based learners. Students undertaking the acute care, long-term conditions, children and mental health study pathways were supported by a workplace mentor and assessor, while students studying the diagnostic radiography, radiotherapy and mammography pathways had their work-based learning supported by a clinical learning facilitator (CLF). Most of the participants were undertaking the Fd to make the transition from radiography helper or healthcare assistant (HCA) to assistant practitioner (AP). The findings distinguish the individual circumstances of students in the context of their study pathways and on the basis of their contracted hours and the role that they hoped to fill on completion of the programme. Student behaviour was characterised by the regularity with which students worked with their mentors, assessors or CLFs and their engagement in a range of work-based learning activities including practice-based assessments, knowledge and skills acquisition and, with particular regard to radiography students, the learning of new procedures. Although the level of student satisfaction with work-based learning was high, several participants perceived that their colleagues seemed reluctant to recognise them as students in their own right and lacked an awareness of the role of the AP. Participants believed that their confidence had increased and that they were playing a greater role in their clinical teams as a result of gaining knowledge and skills that had helped them to engage in new ways of working
The Effect of a Restructured Dietetic Placement Programme Centred Around the Nutrition and Dietetic Care Process (NDCP) on Students’ Confidence and Paperwork Burden
Get PDFDietetic pre-registration training includes placements within a healthcare setting. In 2011, King’s College London and London Metropolitan University updated the placement programme with learning outcomes and assessment tools, based on the Nutrition and Dietetic Care Process (NDCP). Over a two year period (2012-2014), students completed a questionnaire post their second placement, measuring their confidence with the NDCP in clinical practice and reporting the hours they spent on placement assessment tools. Fifty-three students met the inclusion criteria. Twenty-two students (42%) had completed the new-style placement, P2, and thirty-one (58%) the old-style placement, PB. Students’ median confidence level score for undertaking nutritional assessment tasks for patient care (step 1 of NDCP) was significantly statistically higher in the group that had completed P2 (5.0; very confident) than the PB group (4.0; confident), U = 464, z = 2.545, p = .011. The median hours-spent score was significantly statistically higher for PB students (3.0 equates to 1-2 hours) than P2 (2.0 equates to up to 1 hour), U = 205.5, z = -2.546, p = .011. The use of a care process model (NDCP) introduced at university to structure placement learning outcomes and assessment tools, is effective at preparing students to provide dietetic care. The reduced amount of paperwork required to demonstrate achievement of learning outcomes, decreases learner burden and shortens working hours. Further research, and placement assessment tools modification, are recommended to improve the student learning experience while reducing paperwork burden for learners and practice educators
Does an Online Clinical Educator Preparation and Support Program Change Practice?
Get PDFPreparation of clinicians to act as student placement supervisors is important to ensure quality student placements for the development of the skills needed for competent performance in the workplace. Clinical educator preparation programs are offered in many formats, but these programs are rarely evaluated for impact on practice. In this article, we describe the results of the evaluation of an online clinical educator preparation and support (CEPS) program. Thirty allied health professionals, across a range of professions, responded to a survey regarding their experience of the program, usage patterns and their application of learning to practice. As a result of participation in the program, there was a significant increase in confidence levels in a number of topic areas covered in the program, and a quarter of respondents had changed their student supervision practices as a result of participation. Due to a low response rate at the three month follow-up survey, planned interviews to explore the impact of change in practice on the student placement experience could not be completed. While the study was not able to measure the impact of the CEPS program on placement quality, it did show that the CEPS program is able to significantly increase supervisor confidence in a number of areas, and is able to effect change in practice
Teaching Disciplinary Writing as Social Practice: Moving Beyond ‘text-in-context’ Designs in UK Higher Education
Get PDFThis paper concerns the teaching of disciplinary academic writing in Higher Education in the UK and is motivated by the need to identify an EAP instructional design that will facilitate student writers’ engagement with disciplinary writing as a situated social practice. In the paper I describe and critique what I characterise as a ‘text-in-context’ genre-based pedagogy influential in EAP provision in the UK, and then sketch out the broad parameters of a ‘social practice’ instructional design, enactable within the context of UK Higher Education.