COLLABORATIVE PHYSIOTHERAPY EDUCATION: THE ROLE OF STUDENT PARTNERSHIPS

C. Hamshire¹, K. Jack², D. O'Connor², R. Wilkinson²

¹University of Salford, Manchester, United Kingdom, ²Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, United Kingdom

Background: Practice education is central to Physiotherapy programmes; providing a real-world environment in which students can contextualise theory and skills. Fundamental to a successful placement is a positive relationship with the Practice Educator (Hamshire and Wibberley, 2017), however the practice environment often pre-supposes established, embedded practice and structures, which a studentarrives into(Kumar and Greenhill, 2016; Hills et al., 2019) and there is limited research focused specifically on establishing and understanding partnership workings between educators and students within a physiotherapy placement setting. Despite the prevalence of research on student partnership within Higher Education, there is less research focused specifically on establishing and understanding partnership work within a physiotherapy placement setting.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of practice educators within the UK, specifically, it focused on the importance of partnership working to enable effective student learning. Facilitating partnership working and collaboration within the Physiotherapy practice environment enables students to navigate their professional development within a supportive environment and provides a space for mutual growth for the wider practice team. Whilst there are challenges to adopting a partnership model for practice education, we need to recognise the active role that students can play in their own learning and the potential for transforming practice education.

Methods: This paper reports on findings from a national UK mixed-methods study with physiotherapy practice educators who were also members of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapists to explore their experiences of supporting students on placement. The sequential mixed-methods approach combined an online survey and qualitative focus groups for comprehensive analysis (Creswell, 2003) to explore this topic and suggest considerations for future developments.The survey contained open, closed, Likert questions and free text spaces, and was distributed over a four-month period in 2021.The survey (n=208) identified the systems and resources practice educators required to support their professional development. Subsequent focus groups (n= 3) used the key themes identified during a thematic analysis of the survey responses as a topic guide for discussion.

Results: Data analysis identified how students can make important contributions to the placement environment, with participants detailing how they learned from and with students. Reciprocal, collaborative relationships were identified as vital to support effective learning; with teamwork, holistic approaches to practice placements and student voice all significant. Three key themes emerged from the analysis, staff values in practice education, the importance of integrating students into teams and learning from students.

Conclusions: The clinical placement environment can be challenging for some students as they join unfamiliar workplace teams and have to develop new connections and working practices within a short timeframe. Exploring how to further develop student partnerships, as a process of positive change, enables educators to provide a welcoming, inclusive environment to support integration of learners into the team environment.

Implications: Whilst acknowledging that there will be international variations, both Practice Educators and students need to work together to develop partnership working within the practice environment.
Findings of this project provide valuable insights to inform future student support on placement and in safer healthcare practice.

Funding acknowledgements: This work was funded by the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, UK.

Keywords:
Practice educator
Student
Partnership

Topics:
Education: clinical
Education
Education: methods of teaching & learning

Did this work require ethics approval? Yes

Institution: Manchester Metropolitan University

Committee: Faculty of Health and Education

Ethics number: 34872