Supporting Physiotherapy students in Practice Settings
Work Based Learning Team
Faculty of Health & Wellbeing, UCLan
Support spanning academic and practice settings
Academic Advisor
Continuous support across academic and practice settings to help students develop in their journey to graduate Physiotherapist
The Academic Advisor offers support in helping students to develop as a graduate Physiotherapist. Their role is to offer continuous support throughout a programme to challenge students to maximise success in both academic and practice settings. They can also offer pastoral support when there are circumstances that may affect a student’s capacity to perform to the best of their ability.The Academic Advisor may also signpost the student to the University student support services.
Students may contact their Academic Advisor during practice based learning (in clinical settings), and the best way to arrange appointments is through Starfish. Meetings with Academic Advisors will generally be at the University and should be arranged on days when students are not rostered to be on placement.
Year Lead
Overall monitoring of student experience and performance across each year of the programme
The Year Lead has a responsibility for the overall monitoring of delivery of the programme within each year and students’ achievement within that year of the programme. From a practice perspective, it is unlikely that students will have contact with theYear Lead, except for in exceptional circumstances. However, any information shared with Academic Advisors may be reported to Year Leads for overall monitoring purposes.
Course Leader
Overall monitoring of student experience and performance across the programme
TheCourse Leader has overall responsibility for the coordination andintegration of content within and between modules. The Course Leader will offer support when it is deemed necessary for a student to suspend their studies, and make decisions regarding the student’sfitness to resume study following time away. It is not normally theCourse Leader’s roleto support studentsduring practice based learning, unless there are serious circumstances either raised by a student or where concerns have been raised about a student’s conduct or performance. Any situations which have been reported to the Year Lead may also be reported to the Course Leader to ensure that the correct processes are followed in terms of offering longer term support.
Support focussed within practice settings
Clinical Educator
Supporting students in the practice setting to maximise learning opportunities and develop core standards of proficiency as set out by the HCPC
Clinical Educators are qualified practitioners who have undertaken further professional development to enable them to facilitate learning in practice and who assess a student’s achievements at intervals throughout a placement. Clinical Educators are responsible for ensuring that students have an induction to the placement area within the first 48 hours, and will work with students to develop a set of agreed learning objectiveswithin the first week so that suitable learning opportunities can be arranged.
Students may also be allocated associate clinical educators who will support learning in practice when the lead clinical educator is not available. Students also work with other members of the placement team, which could include other professions.This provides opportunity to develop a greater understanding of inter professional working relationships and practices.
If a student has any concerns on placement the first point of contact should normally be theClinical Educator, who will work with the student to develop an action plan to support achievement of learning objectives. In some circumstances or where a Clinical Educator has concerns about a student’s conduct or performance they will liaise with the Visiting Tutor and in some instances the Practice Education Facilitator for the placement to facilitate development of an action plan.
P.E.F.
Supporting Clinical Educators and students in the practice setting in the delivery of the highest quality learning environment.
Practice Education Facilitators (P.E.F.s) are responsible for ensuring the provision of high quality multiprofessional learning environments within a defined Trust or PCT and associated private and voluntary sector organisations.
In order to ensure that high quality learning experiences are provided P.E.F.’s often work with our students in providing Trust Inductions, facilitating learning events within Trusts and in delivering listening events, all of which contribute to P.E.F.s being able to monitor and ensure quality learning experiences for students in practice settings.
As part of their role, P.E.F.s also provide support for students and clinical educators in decisions relating to student experience, including the achievement of learning outcomes, competence and fitness for practice and will be involved in providing best practice advice in a clinical setting for clinical educators. P.E.F.s may therefore be involved in supporting Clinical Educators or in supporting studentswho do not feel they are getting the support they need.
If students are concerned about anything within the practice setting and do not feel able to approach a Clinical Educator or Manager within the clinical area, they should contact the named P.E.F. who will be able to work with students and Clinical Educators to draw up an action plan to address concerns and facilitate success in the learning environment.
Where any concerns have been raised or any incidents have occurred involving students P.E.F.’s will be informed and will inform the Work Based Learning Team to ensure the overall monitoring of quality within a clinical area. Where incidents have involved a student, Academic Advisors and Visiting Tutorswill be informed by the Work Based Learning team to ensure support can be offered and overall monitoring of competence and fitness to practice can occur.
Visiting Tutors
Supporting students and Clinical Educators in developing Graduate Physiotherapists
Visiting Tutors are members of the Physiotherapy course team who during placement periods.
Students on the BSc(Hons) programmereceive visits on all full time placements, and the Visiting tutor will typically arrange:
- Two visits on each of the placements in Semester 2 at Level 5
- Two visits during Semester 1 at Level 6.
Students on the MSc (Pre-registration) Physiotherapy programme will undertake a mixture of part time and full time placements, and the Visiting Tutor will typically arrange:
- During part time placement periods:
- Face-to-face student support on non-placement days at the University once every 4 weeks (minimum)
- One face-to-face Clinical Educator visit per block, and telephone contact once every 4 weeks (minimum)
- During full time placement periods:
- Telephone contact with student and Clinical Educator after one week of placement, with face-to-face visits arranged when required.
The Visiting Tutor works to support students in work based learning by discussing placement and patient experience, as well as facilitating development of a students’ portfolio. The Visiting Tutor also supports the Clinical Educator in developing their role in supporting student development and in the assessment process to assist with objectivity and parity of assessment. Extra visits can be arranged if students or Clinical Educators need further support.