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J. Ashman1, D. O'Connor1, M. Hellawell2, C. Graham2, V. Ashworth1
1Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, United Kingdom, 2Neoniq Training Solutions Ltd, Bradford, United Kingdom
Background: The health and care system in the UK is undergoing significant change, there are opportunities for the physiotherapy workforce to grow, develop new roles and influence how services evolve.
The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy has identified increasing supply as a critical issue for the Physiotherapy workforce’s capacity to respond to current and projected needs. Although the workforce has been expanding this is not keeping pace with increasing demand. Without a significant increase in the number of physiotherapists, it has been suggested the problems created by this shortage will only worsen.
Developing practice-based learning opportunities is essential to produce and sustain the training places required to grow the future workforce, a shortage of placements in some areas and placement capacity issues remain a significant barrier to workforce development.
Digital health innovations are a prominent feature of the modern National Health Service (NHS) and the future physiotherapy workforce will be required to be digitally literate to contribute to this paradigm shift.
The use of digital, or technology enhanced placements, has been suggested as a solution to some of these placement capacity issues. These were primarily developed and delivered through the COVID-19 pandemic as a means of maintaining student practice hours. Some have remained but many appear to have been discontinued. One of the barriers to wider adoption appears to be the lack of robust assessment and evaluation.
There is a need to further develop and evaluate innovative placement models that not only increase capacity, but also improve the employability skills required for practice.
By designing a bespoke placement offer with an independent training provider, placements can be designed to cross traditional physiotherapy disciplines. It is important to move the digital placement beyond just addressing capacity issues to where the focus is on improving students' digital skills, preparing them for the physiotherapy workforce.
The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy has identified increasing supply as a critical issue for the Physiotherapy workforce’s capacity to respond to current and projected needs. Although the workforce has been expanding this is not keeping pace with increasing demand. Without a significant increase in the number of physiotherapists, it has been suggested the problems created by this shortage will only worsen.
Developing practice-based learning opportunities is essential to produce and sustain the training places required to grow the future workforce, a shortage of placements in some areas and placement capacity issues remain a significant barrier to workforce development.
Digital health innovations are a prominent feature of the modern National Health Service (NHS) and the future physiotherapy workforce will be required to be digitally literate to contribute to this paradigm shift.
The use of digital, or technology enhanced placements, has been suggested as a solution to some of these placement capacity issues. These were primarily developed and delivered through the COVID-19 pandemic as a means of maintaining student practice hours. Some have remained but many appear to have been discontinued. One of the barriers to wider adoption appears to be the lack of robust assessment and evaluation.
There is a need to further develop and evaluate innovative placement models that not only increase capacity, but also improve the employability skills required for practice.
By designing a bespoke placement offer with an independent training provider, placements can be designed to cross traditional physiotherapy disciplines. It is important to move the digital placement beyond just addressing capacity issues to where the focus is on improving students' digital skills, preparing them for the physiotherapy workforce.
Purpose: To develop and evaluate a consistent and sustainable digital placement offer for a University physiotherapy programme delivered by a dedicated training provider.
Methods: We planned, delivered and evaluated an assessed digital placement for 10 students in every practice placement block for one University physiotherapy programme.
A structured placement programme was developed around digital skills and leadership with facilitated group work, reflective practice, peer learning, patient, and practice colleague involvement throughout. Feedback was sought from all stakeholders through standard student evaluation, quality assurance processes and more specific tailored feedback.
A structured placement programme was developed around digital skills and leadership with facilitated group work, reflective practice, peer learning, patient, and practice colleague involvement throughout. Feedback was sought from all stakeholders through standard student evaluation, quality assurance processes and more specific tailored feedback.
Results: Student satisfaction was high and comparable to the other physiotherapy placements at the same University. Students felt more confident in their digital skills. In addition, the placement contributed significantly to overall placement capacity for the University.
Conclusions: This is a placement model that proved successful using the outcomes measured and could be rolled out and evaluated in other HEIs.
Implications: A digital placement approach is a suitable way of improving students' digital skills and leadership, preparing students not only for future placements but also for employability. It also can increase the number of practice placements. This model clearly has the potential to be implemented in other physiotherapy environments.
Funding acknowledgements: There was no funding for this piece of work.
Keywords:
Digital placements
Technology enhanced learning
Practice placements
Digital placements
Technology enhanced learning
Practice placements
Topics:
Education: clinical
Education: methods of teaching & learning
Service delivery/emerging roles
Education: clinical
Education: methods of teaching & learning
Service delivery/emerging roles
Did this work require ethics approval? No
Reason: This is an evaluation of a unique model of delivering practice education. It describes an innovative way of meeting the current placement challenges and a sustainable proposal for future delivery.
All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.
