Building Relationships to Enhance the Student Experience in Practice Placements

Terri Rapson

Faculty of Health

What we thought we had

• Nationally a series of reports highlighting poor standards of basic nursing care in several acute hospitals and care homes

What we actually had

Background

• Rise in regulatory organisations assuring quality and standards of care

• Health Committee – Seventh Report 2011 reported the Nursing & Midwifery Council was underdeveloped particularly around fitness to practice, education and training

Headlines

NHS failing in basic care of some elderly

patients, warns watchdog some NHS trusts

do not provide dignity and nutrition for some senior

citizen patients

Nurses 'too busy' to help elderly patients with basic care

One in three nurses said they did not have time to help

patients eat or go to the lavatory

Hospital sorry for failings over care of toddler

Man, 35, died after catalogue of hospital errors

Disengagement and despondency

How do we change the relationship

• How do we change the bridge to provide higher quality placement experience for students

Scrutiny Revealed: • The need for further Integrated Team

Working between care providers, education and regulatory bodies

• Duplication of work and time when gathering and presenting evidence

• Impact on staff confidence,

morale and ability to work

efficiently and effectively • Inconsistency of message

given and received

Embracing change

LETTING NEW PICTURES EMERGE

Opportunities of Scrutiny

• Improving quality care and patient safety• Transparency• Openness• Honesty and probity• Building genuine partnerships (beyond

tokenism)• Enhancing the quality of the learning and

practice environment • Proactive culture of learning

Strategic Planning and Visioning through Action Planning

• Unifying education and practice (people and resources)

• Shared vision with objectives (direction with a purpose)• Working in partnership

(relationships)• Learning from past and present

(actions, consequences and outcomes)

Process of Change

• Practice Learning Improvement Project (PLIP)

• PLIP Coordinator appointed• Deputy Director of Nursing/Professor of

Nursing and Practice Development appointed• Strategic plan

- Senior clinician forums - Educational audit improvements- Practice engagement (Link lecturer visits) enhancement- Algorithm devised– for withdrawal of placements

Key Lessons Learnt to Improve Student Experience

• Senior level organization engagement in mentoring issues, student capacity, educational audit, recognizing and responding to student concerns.

• Recognition of early indicators of a clinical area in difficulty

• Investment in strong placement support roles is essential • Asking the right questions of students, clinicians and

service users

Conclusions

• Acknowledge the need for transformation and change

• Recognise that investing and resourcing is essential for quality placement experience.

• Scrutiny should be embraced not avoided. • Networking and dissemination vital to share

learning

Any Questions Please?

References

Nursing and Midwifery Council (2010) Quality Assurance of EducationNMC, London http://www.nmc-uk.org/Educators/Quality-assurance-of-education/ [Accessed 29th June 2011]

Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) (2008) ‘Standards to support learning and assessment in practice’ NMC, London.

Quality Assurance Agency (2011) Benchmarking academic and practitioner standards in health care subjects QAA, London.http://www.qaa.ac.uk/academicinfrastructure/benchmark/health/default.asp [Accessed 31 May 2011]

Parliament United Kingdom Health Committee; Seventh Report 2011 Annual Accountability Hearing with the Nursing and Midwifery Council 19th July 2011.