Information about NHS Education for Scotland (NES) Allied Health Professions (AHP) Practice-based Learning Recovery.
The Scottish Government provided additional funding to address the disruption caused to student practice-based learning, or placements, as a consequence of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. This recovery of placements requires an increase in capacity for services provided by Allied Health Professions (AHPs) and other partners to provide high quality learning experiences for student learning. This work is essential to ensure that students have a high quality and positive learning experience, and that we continue to have a new generation of AHP graduates fit to practice and to gain employment across all Sectors in Scotland. Practice education leads were in post for 18 months up to end March 2023.
NHS Education for Scotland (NES) recruited 7.2WTE AHP Practice Education Leads (PELs) who focused on placement recovery projects and worked as part of a wider team of PELs committed to identifying and supporting practice-based learning for AHP students. The objective is to modernise, diversify and sustain quality practice-based learning for the future AHP workforce across Scotland.
Ten of the projects had a profession-specific, uni-professional, focus aiming to identify challenges and solutions to practice-based learning recovery. The remaining two projects had a broader remit focusing on cross-sector working and on developing the educational infrastructure to support Practice Educators and placement provision.
The AHP PELs worked closely with the Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) that deliver AHP pre-registration programmes, Practice Educators, placement providers, Professional Bodies and other stakeholders. Building relationships was key to restore practice-based learning in settings very familiar with placement provision prior to the impact of Covid 19, as well as providing support for adapting and developing new opportunities for student learning.
Workplan for AHP PELs:
Carry out an initial diagnostic to identify specific barriers/challenges to practice-based learning recovery whether these are geographic, client group or service setting based
Establish an action plan specific to the specialist focus of the role
Run practice educator preparation sessions in partnership with HEIs and other required workshops
Promote and implement a range of different models of practice-based learning to modernise, diversify and sustain opportunities for learning
Identify examples of good practice and build upon assets to spread across Scotland
Contribute to measuring impact and dissemination of learning and innovations
Support digital practice-based learning through developing toolkits, guidance and other resources to enable Technology Enhanced Learning and other relevant support for Practice Educators
Generate written updates and flash reports relevant to the specific area of responsibility
The eighteen-month projects aimed to provide sustainable change that will be carried forwards in to 2023 and beyond. Further information can be found in the key information and resources tab.