For his final placement, 3rd Year physiotherapy student Mubbasher became a member of our very own Therapy Placements team as he joined us as our first Student Practice Educator. This placement took place during the coronavirus pandemic when we had all three students’ cohorts for both Occupational Therapy and Physiotherapy BSc course out on their clinical placements – well over 200 students! Facilitating practice education support is fundamental to the core values of both professions, so what better way to begin developing these skills than supporting our 1st and 2nd year students during their clinical placement experiences.
Mubbasher began his placement by joining our clinical team of qualified practitioners on our ‘First time practice educators training’. Here he gained a critical understanding of the role and attributes of an effective practice educator, learning theory for adult and professional learners and how to plan effective strategies to implement and facilitate learning in practice settings.
Utilising this training Mubbasher was invaluable in providing the Therapy Placement team with support to facilitate a split clinical/remote project placement for our 1st year students. Enabling students to develop planning and implementation skills for their own student-led remote project to complement their clinical experience. Mubbasher soon moved on from the assistant role he took on at the beginning to becoming the ‘Lead Educator’ planning and leading his own teaching sessions with the students by the end of the placement
“I have been able to offer a unique student perspective to ideas which have been taken on board and implemented. The support that I received allowed me to direct myself and my learning to improve my critical thinking which allowed me to become more proficient. The skills I have learnt are invaluable despite the lack of ‘clinical’ exposure”
Mubbasher, 3rd year Physiotherapy student
“Coaching for Practice” sessions are integral to our part-time 1st and 2nd year placements. This is modelled on the action learning model of education, which supports students to bring issues from practice, discuss and reflect on them and create action plans to improve their performance. Mubbasher also used his student-eye here to review, evaluate and improve teaching strategies, session plans and resources for these sessions; all whilst also taking on the responsibility of leading his own bi-weekly interprofessional student coaching groups.
“It was clear the students really valued the expert peer support provided by a Student Practice Educator. Someone who had recent experience of being on clinical placement and had undertaken the assessment process. This was someone who was nearing the end of their student practice learning journey that truly understood and could empathise with them”
Becky, Physiotherapy Lecturer and Practice Educator