Practice Based Learning resources
Contents
Practice based learning takes place during placements which involve a range of learning opportunities for student development. Students apply and consolidate their learning, bringing together academic theory, workplace practice to develop skills and competences needed to register. Practice learning is supervised and structured to enable progress towards learning outcomes and usually involves assessment of the learner.
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News stories
Perspectives on increasing AHP student placements in public health settings - blog published on the RSPH
Linda Hindle is the Deputy Chief Allied Health Professional Officer, working for Public Health England as Lead AHP and Public Health Engagement Lead for the Emergency Services. Here, she outlines the need for public health placements for Allied Health Professional students and how RSPH is planning to help facilitate them.
Quick guides and toolkits
Guide to Practice-Based Learning for Allied Health Professional (AHP) Students in Research
This guide shows the possibilities and benefits of offering practice based learning in research for Allied Health Professional (AHP) students. The ideas and examples show how practice-based learning in research can enable students to achieve their learning outcomes and enhance their professional skills and employability.
Developed in collaboration with Public Health England, this toolkit has been broken into three sections, for Allied Health Professional students, organisations and education providers.
Expanding placement opportunities for pre-registration students in organisations such as public health teams and voluntary sector organisations will help expose students to a broader range of experiences in leadership, population health management, effective communication and behaviour change skills, project management and personalised care, as well as increase overall placement capacity. These types of placements are valuable, but opportunities are limited, organisations may not understand how they can support an AHP student or what they can offer to aid their education.
This toolkit seeks to offer solutions to some of the barriers through aligning placement opportunities to learning areas that are mapped to the Public Health Skills and Knowledge Framework (PHSKF) and the Standards of Proficiency/Practice Standards, and reducing the administrative burden of organising public health placements. It is intended to support student AHPs at all levels of their study, education institutions and potential placement providers to offer and undertake placements with a public health focus.
Also included are a series of case studies from people involved in public health placements, to help illustrate how the placements have been organised and what activities have been completed as part of them, alongside the combined benefits.
Guide to Practice based learning for Allied Health Professional Students in Leadership
This guide details the possibilities and benefits of offering PBL in leadership for AHP students. It includes key examples that we hope will be helpful in enabling you to host leadership PBL for AHP students, to achieve their learning outcomes and enhance their professional skills and employability.
Technology Enabled Care Services practice learning toolkit
A new Technology Enabled Care Services (TECS) toolkit for students, educators and universities has been developed by Health Education England e-Learning for Healthcare (HEE e-LfH) and the University of Winchester. It offers a framework to prepare, supervise and evaluate students’ practice learning opportunities in a TECS environment.
The toolkit has been developed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic with students now undertaking some placements online. It aims to support creativity and innovation while providing a structure in the way TECS placements are offered to ensure patient safety and appropriate practice learning.
An overview of three aspects of TECS are available within the toolkit:
- section 1 gives an overview of how students, educators and universities best prepare for TECS placements, including some practical tools
- section 2 discusses student supervision, the various methods of teaching students and record keeping in a virtual environment
- section 3 introduces an audit and quality assurance framework to formally assess student TECS placements, evaluate and improve virtual placements in a systematic way
The TECS toolkit is aimed at students, educators and universities across all allied health professions. For more information and to access the toolkit, visit the TECS Practice Learning Toolkit.
AHP guide to continuing practice learning while self-isolating
This guide is for educators and students who need to self-isolate and are therefore unable to attend in-person practice learning. It should be used to prepare and support educators, practice learning providers and students to continue their practice learning, to achieve learning outcomes and enhance professional skills and employability. The ideas may form an entire practice learning opportunity or may be used where a period of self-isolation is required during a placement.
AHP Technology Enabled Care Services (TECS) Practice Based Learning Guide
This guide is for educators and students who already provide TECS or are considering ways of introducing innovative learning experiences to accommodate social distancing or students who are self-isolating. It should be used to prepare and support educators, practice learning providers and students to continue their practice learning, to achieve learning outcomes and enhance professional skills and employability.
Additionally, the guide provides some solutions to information governance challenges to enable AHP students to safely access and effectively utilise TECS practice-based learning. These may form an entire practice-based learning experience or used for a discrete period of self-isolation during practice learning. The ideas presented below bring together ideas and suggestions that have been tried and tested by AHP teams across the country. As research evidence emerges and more experience becomes available this guide will be updated to reflect this new thinking.
Supporting AHP Students programme
Practice Based Learning (PBL) is a key component of health and care training and so it is essential that PPE provides a supportive and safe learning environment for all students. In addition to clinical educators, non-registered AHP staff can play a significant role in students’ education, teaching them clinical aspects of the role and also for pastoral support.
The aim of this course is to provide non-registered AHP assistants and support staff with training to develop their understanding of student education and to develop their skills in supporting students and educators within their teams. During this course, users will learn about the student journey, from the beginning of their studies to qualification and how practice placements form part of their learning. The resource will also offer an understanding of what is expected from students during placement, how to give feedback to students and educators and how to recognise and support a student who may be struggling. By developing these skills, non-registered staff will be able to contribute to the delivery of Practice Based Learning, improving the quality and capacity of placements.
Resources from the TECS Guide:
- A Student Placement Model for Speech and Language Therapy Students in The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust (PDF)- this is not accessible to all and is for printing purposes only.
- A Student Placement Model for Speech and Language Therapy Students in The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust (Accessible Word Version)
- SystmOne User Guide (PDF)
Case studies and blogs
- Practice Based Learning Case Study: Dietetics
- Practice Based Learning Case Study: A flexible approach to placements
- Practice Based Learning Case Study: Virtual Simulated Placements
- Aisha Ali Din's blog in which she shares her thoughts about her 10-week placement with HEE
- Luke Bartlett's blog in which he shares his experience during his eight-week leadership practice-based learning opportunity with HEE
- Rachel Hart's blog in which she shares her thoughts on her 10-week non-clinical practice based learning opportunity with HEE
Events and event resources
Pre-registration AHP student practice-based learning programme - celebration webinar - Monday 21 June 2021, 1pm – 2.30pm
Please note the webinar resources will be made available in dues course.
Pre-Registration AHP Student Practice Learning Programme: Non-clinical Placements Webinar - Thursday 10 December 2020, 12pm
- Webinar Recording
- Webinar Slides
Student placement expansion and innovation webinar - Friday 7 August 2020, 10am
- Webinar recording
- Webinar slides
Placement quick wins webinar 3: What are 'on site clinics' and how can we use them to our advantage - Thursday 16 July 2020, 4.30pm
- Webinar recording
- Webinar slides
Placement quick wins webinar 2: What are 'role merging placements' and how can we use them to our advantage? - Wednesday 15 July 2020, 4.30pm
- Webinar recording
- Webinar slides
- Webinar Q&A report
What are ‘alternative models’ of student supervision and how can we use them to our advantage? - Tuesday 14 July 2020
- Webinar recording
- Sophie Gay's webinar presentation slides
- Webinar Q&A report
Rapid Expansion of AHP placements: Simulation and Technology Enabled Care Services (TECS) webinar - Tuesday 7 July, 9 am - 12 noon
- Webinar recording
- Final agenda here
- Webinar slides
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