Physician Associate Foundation Preceptorship Programme

The HEE Workforce Transformation Team in West Yorkshire are delighted to be moving forward with a piece of work that has been in development now for 18 months; featuring in the West Yorkshire People Plan and following the successful implementation of a programme in Primary Care, we are delighted to be implementing a small-scale Physician Associate (PA) Foundation Preceptorship programme in secondary care. The programme sees two of our acute trusts joining forces to deliver robust education and supervision over a two-year period whilst PA’s rotate between clinical areas in the trusts. Underpinned with a specially developed curriculum and competencies, the candidates will participate in regular appraisals to monitor their progress.  

In addition, a small cohort of senior PA’s will be supported to develop their education and supervision capabilities via access to a PGCert in Clinical Education, these individuals will play a key role in delivering the education across the programme. 

The aim is to expose PAs to a variety of clinical settings, demonstrating how they may integrate within the teams delivering service. In developing a curriculum and competency framework, trusts can be assured of the capabilities of the PAs in these areas. Development of the senior PAs will reduce the supervision burden on senior medics and start the journey of implementing multi-professional supervision for higher level clinicians in training. 

For more information, please contact Sarah.Rowson@hee.nhs.uk