The first group of London Ambulance Service staff to complete a pioneering training cours have been recognized at a special ceremony.
The 25 paramedics and emergency medical technicians have completed a three-module course for practice educators who provide support for university students and student paramedics on placements with the service.
The 150-hour training programme, believed to be the first of its kind in the country, includes assessing staff, giving feedback and also dealing with more challenging students, as well as completing written assessments.
The course attracts 15 higher educational credits from the University of Greenwich at two levels. To complete the course, practice educators attend 30 hours of taught lessons (three modules) and provide a portfolio that includes a written assignment of 1500 words. The service has now been approached by other ambulance services who are keen to follow its lead.
It is vital that all student paramedics have a named practice educator, this is a requirement of the Health Professions Council (HPC). The service has over 800 student paramedics needing some form of developmental support and access to a practice educator.
Each year the modules are reviewed and update to take account of the feedback received from staff who complete the courses. Paramedic, Caroline Woodward, who has completed the course, said:
‘Working as a practice educator has been a very rewarding experience. Initially, I was concentrating on what the student could learn from me but ultimately I will become more effective as a mentor with what I have learned from the student. I now realize that as well as helping the student become a better student paramedic, they have made me a better mentor through feedback about my performance.’
Paramedic Scott Windley added:
‘Since the training programme has evolved, I now feel much more confident, prepared and feel that I can display good leadership as an educator. There is now much more support for both the student and the educator. I feel I have a greater understanding of the different methods to mentor students and how to give constructive feedback, so that the student can improve throughout the placement.’
The London Ambulance Service in partnership with higher education institutes, provides foundation and BSc degrees in paramedic science. The service works in partnership with three universities: University of Hertfordshire, University of Greenwich and University of London, St George's Medical School. Since 2006, these courses have been accredited by the HPC and require the creation of practice placement educators to mentor the students throughout their vocational placements in the operational field of the ambulance service. Practice educators are not unique to the ambulance service and are soundly developed within other health disciplines.
Unlike these other health disciplines, ambulance services are only just beginning to develop specific educational packages that are ft for purpose in supporting and developing student paramedics during their practice placements which form an integral part of a students’ professional development.
Certificate in practice education
The London Ambulance Service certificate in practice education course is designed to support the mentors by giving them the tools to effectively mentor and support students in practice placements, which includes understanding the role of the practice placement educator, providing feedback and the standards required in completing the practice assessment document.
The development of practice educators in other health disciplines is predominantly aimed at developing the registered health professional. It was recognised that there was a wealth of knowledge and expertise with the development of emergency medical technicians (EMTs) and their skills. As a result, this course was developed to include EMTs as well as paramedics, to provide student placement support and mentorship within the scope of their practice and in relation to the students’ developmental needs.
Staff wishing to become practice educators must have completed one year post qualification and be supported in their application by their area management team when applying for the course.
The certificate in practice education has been designed to attract a higher education credit rating. The University of Greenwich, School of Health and Social Care (credits for learning) offer practice educators who successfully complete the programme, 15 credits at level 5 or 6. The programme consists of three taught modules, totalling 30 hours of study and 120 hours of student placement development. After completing this, practice educators have to submit a specific portfolio that demonstrates their continued professional development. Modules 1 and 2 are taught consecutively and students then consolidate this theory during subsequent student placements.
The modules
Module 1
The first module looks at the educational drivers for the ambulance service and reviews the structure of the paramedic programmes. It reviews the roles and responsibilities of both the student and the practice educator and reviews the process of feedback using Gibb's reflective cycle (Gibbs, 1988). The module then examines the assessment process that uses Bloom's taxonomy of learning (Bloom, 1956) and the practice assessment document (PAD) developed by the South East Ambulance Practice Education Group. As suggested by Bloom (1956) practice educators are asked to assess and form developmental plans that review a student's abilities in three areas of learning:
Module 2
The second module was developed with Kay Stephan and Jenny Glenton (Mirador, Learning and Development Consultancy) and allows the student to develop and practice their coaching and feedback skills. The module reviews personal experiences of feedback and learning and then uses Honey and Mumford's learning style questionnaire (Honey and Mumford, 1982) to explore how they prefer to learn and discover the relationship it could have on students. Feedback techniques are introduced and the GROW model of coaching (Whitmore, 2002) is explained and practiced using role play in small groups. This widely acclaimed model of coaching is a four stage model to enhance an individual's performance through goal setting and feedback:
Module 3
The final module looks at dealing with challenging students and explores some of the theories of student behaviour. This includes students who fail assessments in practice, the reasons why, the student reaction and the practice educator's own feelings and again role play in small groups is carried out. The module also looks at offering feedback for driving and prepares the practice educators for submitting their portfolio, offering guidance on its construction and on essay writing and referencing as they are set a final written assignment.
The portfolio
Portfolios have to be submitted six weeks after attending the final module, with the accompanying written reflective assignment of up to 1500 words that reviews their individual understanding and performance as a practice educator. Portfolios must contain the following evidence:
Practice education support materials
Practice educators have a range of support materials available to them. Apart from receiving a student handbook and a practice guidance document, a work book is provided for each module. All of these materials are available via the service's intranet site and they can also access this remotely. The website also provides additional work materials to complete the course and include newsletters and web links to external sources.
Feedback
Below are just some of the extracts taken from practice educators’ reflective assignments. The majorit of the statements are taken from their conclusions and highlight the benefit and success of this course:
‘Effective communication lies at the heart of what we as clinicians and educators do given that 90% of our contact with patients is based upon it. If we fail to communicate effectively no one benefits; neither the student, nor the educators, nor the patient’
‘I aim to consolidate the things I have learnt throughout the practice education course, providing more clearly identifiable objectives and expectations with specific feedback throughout, along with improving the structure of that feedback to become more effective at managing and developing each student’
Conclusion
Developing an in-house programme of study validated with credits for learning, has provided practice educators with a more relaxed, focused and rewarding opportunity to learn and share their knowledge and skills. Many operational staff now see this as a natural progression for CPD and in their role as a paramedic or emergency medical technician. The benefits to both practice educators and student paramedics are evident in feedback and should be an integral element to ambulance service development in the future.