Experiences of physiotherapy and occupational therapy undergraduates of blended practice-based learning

Barnes-Brown, Vikki, Edge, Chris ORCID: 0000-0001-9419-2987, Deaves, Amanda, Orton, Helen, Prescott, Denise and Sharp, Jo (2022) Experiences of physiotherapy and occupational therapy undergraduates of blended practice-based learning. [Poster]

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Abstract

Securing sufficient practice-based learning opportunities for health care students is long-standing and well documented and not unique to the United Kingdom (Walker 2001, Martin et al 2004, Beveridge and Pentland 2020). Increasing Allied Health Professional learners on healthcare programmes and the COVID-19 pandemic have highlighted the need for radical change and innovative ways of working to address placement capacity. Due to the aforementioned pressures, blended practice-based placements were implemented in partnership with clinical collaboration across Cheshire and Merseyside region for physiotherapy and occupational therapy learners. As this placement model had not been robustly tested, a decision was made to pilot this across different settings and ethical approval was sought and granted by the University of Liverpool Research Ethics Committee, to fully evaluate this approach. The participants consisted of second-year physiotherapy and occupational therapy learners. The aims of the study were to: ascertain the value and experiences of a newly introduced blended placement-based learning through the anonymous collection of data from an online questionnaire (quantitative) and focus groups (qualitative) in response to challenges relating to placement capacity. Initial findings suggest there are benefits for learners including new skill acquisition, such as adaptability and delegation skills, the ability to influence change in patient care and improved clinical reasoning. Challenges for learners include the type and length of project not being comparable to their peers, and concerns regarding marking during the placement. Alternative placement models are required to meet ongoing capacity demands. This work adds to the growing body of placement related literature.

Item Type:	Poster
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Education and students
Divisions:	Faculty of Health and Life Sciences Faculty of Health and Life Sciences > Institute of Population Health Faculty of Health and Life Sciences > Institute of Population Health > School of Health Sciences
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	14 Jun 2022 15:54
Last Modified:	18 Jan 2023 21:00
Related URLs:	Author
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3156462