There is a national crisis of paramedics missing from practice that needs to be addressed. The temporary Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) register set up during the pandemic demonstrated that there are paramedics in England with the potential and desire to return to practice. It is essential that we are proactive in channelling this workforce with their currently untapped knowledge, skills and experience back into health and care sectors.
In 2022, Coventry University was successfully awarded a tender by NHS England Workforce Training & Education, formally Health Education England, to create and deliver a blended course for ‘Return to Practice’. The 12-month target was 50 returnees. By the end of the financial year, we had enrolled 100 former HCPC registrants (10 paramedics) onto the course and had a waiting list.
Aims and objectives
From across England, we saw excitement from all regional AHP groups to become involved and we leapt at this opportunity for co-production. Over 50 AHPs passionately joined our team to offer each returnee their profession-specific mentoring as required by the HCPC. In turn, we invested in them. They have been supported through the university, accessing mentorship and coaching development programme, have access to the university academic development portfolio and are core to the team. Mentors' drop-in sessions and a shared Teams space enable ongoing collaboration across professions for the mentors and enhance the quality of the provision.
Method and implementation
Each returnee met with a member of staff and completed a Skills Scan based on the four pillars of practice. This in turn created a purposeful and meaningful study plan for them, their motivation and excitement harnessed and focused for the study time they needed to achieve. From this, they accessed one or two modules, each designed around the four pillars, with the AHP strategy, professional standards and other national policy embedded within. The content was designed to be engaging; a mixture of media with 40% of each module entwined with a virtual simulated placement. Here, over 20 virtual case studies and true-to-life environments can be explored, interacted with; clinical reasoning developed and strengthened, ready for returning to the workplace.
Lessons learned and implications for practice
Returnees
Mentors
Collaboration across higher education and employers
From induction, many types of media are used to support the returnee, such as bite-size recordings demonstrating how to integrate the modules and simulated placement. These have been essential as the returnees present with very different levels of digital experience and ability. This means they are also developing digital proficiency, preparing them to return to the workplace.
Accessibility and inclusive design quality have been key. The course team are continually evolving the simulated experiences, including profession-specific case studies, interviews with practising clinicians and structured knowledge and skill checks.
Returning to the register and back in the workplace
The impact across the country, the AHP regions, the professional bodies and the individual returnees has been a phenomenal result of the co-production. From the creation and ongoing development of the course to the aims of improving health outcomes for all, providing better quality care, and improving sustainability of health and care services—the four pillars have been brought to life.