Background to the Website
The materials on this website were developed as part of a collaborative project involving staff from Ulster, Northumbria and Bournemouth universities to make practitioners more effective in promoting the quality of practice based learning. The three year project was funded by a grant of £250,000 from the Department of Employment and Learning (Northern Ireland) and the Higher Education Funding Council for England.
The Project aimed to make practitioners more effective at supporting & supervising students in the workplace across a range of healthcare disciplines. The project undertook the following activities:
- Identify and document good practice on preparing practitioners for their educational role.
- Develop and evaluate learning materials for practitioners.
- Disseminate learning materials across health and social care communities.
The disciplines involved in the project were Dietetics, Occupational Therapy, Physiotherapy, Radiography, and Nursing. The project outcomes were disseminated to other disciplines where integration of theory and practice-based learning occurs, for example, Biomedical Sciences, Podiatry, Clinical Physiology Midwifery and Social Work.
Project Outcomes
Phase One:
- Identify and document good practice on how practitioners are prepared for their educational role.
Phase Two:
- Develop and evaluate learning materials for use by practitioners across five health care disciplines.
- Make learning materials available in a number of efficient media, e.g. paper, electronic, CD-ROM and web-based.
- Develop a programme applicable to interprofessional and uniprofessional contexts.
- Widen access for a multicultural workforce.
Phase Three:
- Embed best educational practice through the establishment of an academic-practitioner network.
- Disseminate a range of materials and processes across the wider academic and health and social care communities.
The Team
The universities of Ulster, Bournemouth and Northumbria were the main partners in the consortium responsible for this Project.
Project Director
University of Ulster: Joan Mulholland
Project Manager
Northumbria University: Chris Turnock
Project Manager
Bournemouth University: Janet Scammell
Administration
University of Ulster: Barbara Gregg
Evaluation
The Making Practice Based Learning Work team established a number of teams to review content of the resources on this website. Membership of the six review teams includes experts in the subject, staff involved in preparation of practice educators and practice educators.
The themes considered by each team are listed below. Clicking on the theme title will link you to information about membership of the group.
Learning and Teaching
Group Members:
Mary Watkins, APU
Tony Cook, University of Ulster
Judith Foley, An Bord Altranais
Mary Thrall, Teesside University
Pauline Douglas, Belfast City Hospital
Noeleen McMorris, Altnagelvin Hospital
Suzanne Medows, Newcastle upon Tyne NHS Trust
Supporting Learning and Teaching
Group Members:
Karen Hill, Derby Hospitals
John Dallat, University of Ulster
Nuala Thompson, University of Ulster
Fiona Brewster, Royal Hospitals
Lynn Dracup, North Tyneside PCT
Jane Hewison, Whitley Bay Health Centre
Lindsey Bellringer, Salisbury NHS Trust
Assessment
Group Members:
Kathy Wilson, Middlesex University
Elizabeth Carver, University of Wales
Janet Hargreaves, University of Leeds
Pam Parker, City University, London
Diane Watkins, Cardiff University
Interprofessional Learning
Group Members:
Marion Helme, TRIPLE
Vicky Jarman, NHH NHS Trust
Paul Webster, General Social Care Council
Lisa Hughes, Department of Health
Helena Lowe, CAIPE
Helen Armitage, Sheffield Hallam University
Helen Bywater, Sheffield Hallam University
Helen Bulpitt, Higher Education Academy
Reflection
Group Members:
Anne Quinney, Bournemouth University
Paul Shepherd, University of Ulster
Mel Symons, Poole PCT
Kathleen Head, East Somerset NHS Tr.
Rebecca Khanna, Coventry University
Helen Bristow, Chartered Society of Physiotherapists
Diversity:
Group Members:
Julie Childs
Paula McGee, University of Central England
Rena Papadopaulos, Middlesex University
Helen Allan, University of Surrey
John Larsen, University of Surrey
Mark Johnson, De Montfort University
Elizabeth Anionwu, Thames Valley University
Uduak Archibong
Phil Clements, University of Portsmouth
Kate Gerrish, University of Sheffield
Lorraine Culley, De Montford University
Lena Dominelli, University of Southampton
Pam Smith, University of Surrey
Tricia James, University College Northampton
Mark Francis, South Bank University
Mark Appleby, DSHA NHS Trust
Paula Hancock, University of Sheffield
Sue Hopkins, STH NHS Trust
Paul Lumsdon, Dorset HC NHS Trust
Holly Crossen White
Project Report
This page contains two reports. The first report, written for a wide range of audiences and for a number of purposes, covers the main project. The report was submitted to the Higher Education Academy (HEA), Department of Employment and Learning (Northern Ireland) (DEL) and the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). It is also for the interest of anyone who is involved in the area of Practice or Work Based Learning, the development of web resources or managing a project. Sections One and Two follow the template required for the formal reporting mechanism and Sections Three, Four, Five, Six and Seven are accounts of the various aspects of the project which it was felt by the Steering and Working group as important to capture and document. The second report, located at the bottom of this page, covers the project's transferability phase in which the usefulness of the project's original resources were tested outside of the health context.
Section One: Executive Summary
This is a summary of all the sections contained in this report
Section Two: Making Practice Based Learning Work Outputs and Outcomes
This section has six aspects to it and is specified by the HEA guidelines.
Section Three: Scoping Practice Based Learning
This section outlines the context, methodology, literature review, findings and recommendations arising from five discipline specific case studies undertaken in Phase One of the project.
Section Four: Supporting Practice Based Learning
This section considers the experiences and work undertaken in Phase Two of the project, in the development of the web portal, learning materials, mapping of standards and other project outputs.
Section Five: Enabling Practice Based Learning
This section discusses Phase Three of the project; strategies and approaches adopted in the dissemination and evaluation of the project outcomes.
Section Six: Managing the Making Practice Based Learning Work Project
This section reflects upon how people, processes and resources were managed in order to meet the required project outcomes.
Section Seven: The way Forward in Practice and Work Based Learning
This section provides the summary and conclusions and considers the future of the project during the transferability phase.
Transferability Report
This report concerns the transferability phase of the project, in which the project team undertook work to assess the usefulness of materials developed in the main phase of the project for use in non-health contexts.