Innovative support programme for newly qualified colleagues and students shortlisted for national award
Students and newly qualified healthcare professionals are benefitting from an extensive pre-preceptorship and preceptorship support programme at UHDB, which aims to help them feel more comfortable and confident when they take on their first role in the NHS.
The pre-preceptorship programme offers students from universities across the Midlands who are seeking or are already on a placement within the Trust the chance to attend a range of sessions over a five-day period, covering the fundamentals of care as well as providing vital pastoral support.
The aim is to help students feel more comfortable on their placements and their transition from student to registered roles such as nurses, midwives, allied health professionals (AHPs) such as physios, and healthcare scientists - which includes roles in areas such as pathology.
Despite only running for the first time in July 2023, the programme has been incredibly well received, and the team behind it has now been shortlisted for Student Placement of the Year Award at this year's Student Nursing Times Awards.
The programme covers a range of areas, including medicines management, how to support patients receiving intra-venous (IV) medication, and basic patient assessment for hydration and nutritional needs. Students are also supported to help build their 'soft skills' to help deliver meaningful, compassionate engagement with patients to help improve their experience when receiving care at UHDB.
Stacey Martin, Practice Learning Lead for the Practice Learning Support Unit (PLSU) at UHDB, said the PLSU and Preceptorship teams worked together to design the programme after identifying students felt like they needed extra support when making their first steps into a career in the NHS:
"After having conversations with our university partners and senior leaders from across the organisation, there was a sense that students can feel anxious about making the step into their first role in healthcare, or that there were certain things they didn't quite feel prepared for.
"It is understandable that students may feel a little overwhelmed at the prospect of starting their first post in a hospital, but we wanted to do as much as we could to help ease their worries and let them know they had our support, both professionally and pastorally."
The teams took on board this feedback, and engaged with ward teams across the Trust to create a tailored five-day programme to cover as many areas as they could to help prepare students for their new roles.
The programme runs twice a year, giving students the flexibility to book onto as many of the sessions as they wish, helping them to get the support they need in the areas they most need it. Not only has the programme been shown to help students find their feet, but it has also proved beneficial when recruiting into nursing and healthcare posts, helping to maintain an established staff base across the Trust.
Stacey continued: "The teams have worked with lots of our senior colleagues on our wards to find out what they feel our students would benefit from, and also spoken to the students themselves to get first-hand feedback of what they need from this programme. We've done our best to make sure we're including as much of these themes as possible so that students can build their confidence up quicker.
"By making placements as valuable and positive as possible, we are seeing students return to the Trust in full time roles, which is always really good to see and shows how impactful this programme is on their future careers plans."
In what has been a record year for nominations for the Student Nursing Times Awards, the team has expressed its pride at making the shortlist, alongside Charge Nurse, Craig Hale, who has been shortlisted for the Practice Supervisor of the Year Award for his work supporting students and newly qualified healthcare colleagues.
Stacey added: "It is an amazing achievement for the teams to have been shortlisted, especially in a year where the Student Nursing Times Awards has had such a high number of nominations submitted.
"We are really proud to have even gotten to this stage, and even if we don't come out as winners, this is still a wonderful accolade and an ode all of the work the team has put in to create such a varied, extensive programme."
The team will find out if they have been selected as the winners at the Student Nursing Times Awards ceremony, which will take place on Friday 26 April at Grosvenor Hotel on Park Lane, London.
Craig Hale, Practice Learning and Support (PLSU) Facilitator, has also been shortlisted at this year's Student Nursing Times Awards in the category of Practice Supervisor of the Year.
Craig was nominated by his colleagues for his role in supporting students, showing "enthusiasm for excellence in clinical training", while they also praised his pastoral work in helping to nurture students through their placements, drawing on his experiences in the Trust and NHS.
In addition to this, Craig has taken the lead in his ward area in organising placements for students, ensuring they are exposed to and trained in a wide variety of the day-to-day tasks that help the ward to run efficiently.