Q Exchange
South Yorkshire Eating Disorders Student Placements with “Placement Ready” Training.
- Idea
- 2024
Meet the team
Also:
- Elizabeth Pegg
- Debra Cummins
- University of Sheffield
- SHSC
- RDaSH
- South Yorkshire Eating Disorder Association
What is the challenge your project is going to address and how does it connect to the theme of 'How can we improve across system boundaries?
The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan aims to ensure the NHS has the workforce it needs for the future. It highlights the need to grow the workforce by significantly expanding domestic education, training and recruitment.
This project will improve working across system boundaries. It is a system wide Student Placement Process in partnership with two local universities, multiple NHS and VCSE organisations supporting patients with an eating disorder across South Yorkshire.
Consultation with Eating Disorder Services suggests having students who are ‘placement ready’ via a pre-placement training programme would allow for more student placements. It will support better student experiences and patient care, boosting the culture, capabilities and structures needed for learning and improvement.
The project will interface between services, students and universities more efficiently. It will allow placements from a range of different disciplines at different times and for a different time length of 6 weeks to 12 months
What does your project aim to achieve?
By developing a system wide Student Placement Process across South Yorkshire, we will:
· Provide an increased number of student placement opportunities working in a variety of eating disorders settings (NHS and VCSE) across South Yorkshire.
· Develop a pre-placement training programme so that students are upskilled in advance to provide support on the placement and enhance their placement experience.
· Increase the workforce capacity within eating disorder teams to help improve patient care by utilising the skills and resources of students placements which may free up time of trained clinicians.
· Raise awareness of eating disorders services across other health professions e.g.) Occupational Therapy, Nursing. This will help with earlier identification and associated intervention support.
· Support the recruitment and retention of the future workforce.
· Strengthen links with the Universities to support eating disorder module development, interface and training opportunities across a range of university modules and disciplines.
How will the project be delivered?
1. Project scoping has commenced with eating disorder services and universities.
2. A working group will be established to manage the project including agreeing roles, objectives, and deliverables. The ICB will be responsible for the overall project management.
3. The development of the “Placement Ready” Training will be commissioned and piloted ready to roll out in Sept 2024.
4. A survey will be circulated for services to indicate the placements available. The universities will match students to these placements and placement dates will be agreed. The universities are responsible for ensuring that services are compliant with placement regulations.
5. Students will commence the placement ready training in advance of starting their placement in September 2024.
6. Monthly progress meetings will be scheduled to review processes and to collate learning with all stakeholders.
7. Programme evaluation will be written with a view to the process becoming business as usual.
How is your project going to share learning?
1. Project scoping has commenced with eating disorder services and universities.
2. A working group will be established to manage the project including agreeing roles, objectives, and deliverables. The ICB will be responsible for the overall project management.
3. The development of the “Placement Ready” Training will be commissioned and piloted ready to roll out in Sept 2024.
4. A survey will be circulated for services to indicate the placements available. The universities will match students to these placements and placement dates will be agreed. The universities are responsible for ensuring that services are compliant with placement regulations.
5. Students will commence the placement ready training in advance of starting their placement in September 2024.
6. Monthly progress meetings will be scheduled to review processes and to collate learning with all stakeholders.
7. Programme evaluation will be written with a view to the process becoming business as usual.
How you can contribute
- Feedback on the bid - how to improve and tie more closely to the brief
Comments
Ray Hennessy 12 Mar 2024
Eating disorders have some of the highest levels of mortality as a condition. This is a great idea, which will help build knowledge and resilience in the health system to support people with eating disorders. Students and others experiencing placements will have a long term benefit, no matter what career route they may take.
Ursula Philpot 6 Mar 2024
This is a brilliant idea. We really need to expand placements in more specialist areas and consider the barriers faced. More student placements means more chance of recruiting into ED services. This training will improve the student experience by giving key skills and knowledge prior to placement, allowing the student to "hit the ground running" and get a better student experience. It will also support staff who will not have to go over the basic information and dose and don'ts with each new student. It also supports patients as all students will come with a base level of knowledge and key skills despite being different disiplines.
Parya Rostami 5 Mar 2024
Great to see this idea focussing on improving such an important priority area. Improving understanding of ED services early within careers will be fundamental to helping with access to ED services and better continuity of care. I think the plans would benefit the use of QI tools - have dropped you an email :-)
Debra Cummins 6 Mar 2024
Thank you for your comments. We would like to incorporate the use of QI tools and training into this project. Having recently completed the QSIR-P training as a team we are strong advocates for this work and think supporting our future workforce early with QI skills will be really beneficial. Elizabeth Pegg will be in touch to chat this through with you as it would be great to get your thoughts how we could do this too.
Simon Barnitt 4 Mar 2024
What's not to like about a joined up partnership approach to the education and development of the future workforce in a highly specialised and often under represented area. This programme will not only enable the student to get the most form the placement but also the placement from the student, the greater the preparation the greater the engagement of the student, brilliant.
Debra Cummins 6 Mar 2024
Thanks Simon, our thoughts exactly!! Supporting and developing our future workforce is so important and engaging with them early will be really beneficial. It also gives us an opportunity to look at things through a different lens which will help too!
Amy Wicksteed 29 Feb 2024
I think this is an excellent idea. Within our community ED Team we routinely offer undergraduate placements for MH nursing, occupational therapy, dietetic, and medical students alongside year long placements for DClinPsy (Clinical Psychology Trainees) & medics. We recognise how important it is for work-force sustainability in the future to introduce and encourage others to develop a professional interest in working with eating disorders (having a team who feel pretty passionate about working in the field helps!).
Although we are familiar with structuring placements for learning, I agree it would be valuable to have a more formalised training package to support this.
There are overlaps with a current project we have within the service in relation to developing a core competency training for new starters joining our service (informed by some of the existing UCL competency frameworks).
We have also been supported by Prof Glenn Waller to train non-therapy staff (including Assistant Psychologists) to deliver brief 10 session CBT-T interventions (under close supervision of a qualified CBT therapist). It would be helpful if we could consider whether this model could be an option for students who are are on longer placements.
Debra Cummins 6 Mar 2024
Great feedback Amy.
Thank you for all the support you have given to the whole Eating Disorders programme so far. Your input into this particular working group is really valuable and has really helped us to develop the project idea.
Elizabeth Pegg 6 Mar 2024
Hello Amy
Thank you for your comments and it was great to catch up with you. Thank you for helping to shape the project.
Sarah Boul 28 Feb 2024
This sounds a very innovative and forward thinking approach to workforce development and supporting people with eating disorders. By enabling students to be placement ready and to access placements within eating disorder services there are the benefits of not only potentially increasing the ED workforce but even if students do not then go on to work in services they will have increased awareness of ED to potentially spot and signpost people who may be living with an eating disorders from other career paths or in their personal lives.
Elizabeth Pegg 28 Feb 2024
Hi Sarah
Thank you for your comments. I completely agree the more people who can spot and signpost early the better the potential outcome for the patient.
Karen Guymer 28 Feb 2024
This is a great idea to develop "placement ready" training for healthcare students. It should help the students gain more from their placements, and contribute more during their placements. Given the importance of early diagnosis and interventions wrt improved outcomes for people with ED, and as per comments above, offering this training to students from a wide range of health professions should increase its impact.
Elizabeth Pegg 28 Feb 2024
Hello
Thank you for your comments.
Nicky Winsor-Gray 28 Feb 2024
Fantastic idea. I know that that universities are always struggling to find placements. As a student I remembered not having much of an idea of what to expect when arriving on the ward. This idea would increase the confidence level of both the students, and those supporting them.
Elizabeth Pegg 28 Feb 2024
Hello
Thank you for your support.
Lucy Hinchliffe 28 Feb 2024
Brilliant proposal: improving awareness of eating disorders and upskilling the workforce from training level onwards would be very beneficial for the South Yorkshire population.
For the evaluation, I think it would be worth considering following up with students who took part at agreed intervals as they progress through their careers, to understand the impact of the placement in terms of increasing skills and confidence in caring for people who have eating disorders. I.e. not just an immediate evaluation.
Debra Cummins 28 Feb 2024
Hi Lucy,
Thank you for your comments. As well as the initial evaluation the plan is to follow up with students a year after they have graduated to see how their careers have progressed and the impact of the placement in terms of increasing skills and confidence in caring for people who have eating disorders.
Thanks
Jacqui Hallam 28 Feb 2024
A really innovative and interesting project. We would need to make sure that the placement is right and that their is the experience and expertise in order to support students and ensure competencies and learning is achieved. It needs to take a multi-disciplinary approach and incorporate all students.
Debra Cummins 28 Feb 2024
Hi Jacqui,
I completely agree that we need to make sure that the placement is right and that there is the experience and expertise in order to support students and ensure competencies and learning is achieved.
We are working with a wide range of partners and will be involving students in the project design too.
We would like to include a range of support both from the university and placement as well as opportunities for action learning sets, communities of learning, mentors etc.
If you have any ideas please let me know so that we can look to include these.
Jon Rouston 28 Feb 2024
Really appreciate this proposal and a willingness to tackle some of the issues which lead to inequity in provision further down the line. As per above commenters I would welcome a 'broad brush' approach for trainees including Nursing, AHPs and Social Workers, although I appreciate you've already addressed this in above responses.
Helen Crimlisk 28 Feb 2024
We desperately need more healthcare staff trained to help people witheating disorders both as specialists but also importantly as a part of the generic skills of mental health workers of all professions
Having appropriate pre placement educational preparation is an essential part of ensuring students get the best out of their placement (along with having clear educational learning aims and opportunities to debrief & reflect of their experience) .
The involvement of SYEDA as a 3rd Sector partner is especially strong - we know that the involvement of people with lived experience can add value and meaning ensuring educational input is impactful and meaningful.
HEE commissioned a piece of work specifically for PA s in this area Jess, run by RCPsych - I’ll put you in touch.
I’d also be interested to think about how this could be adapted for Medical Students - BEAT has done some great work in this area - again happy to pick up a conversation at UoS with you Jess
Jessica Anderson 28 Feb 2024
Thanks Helen - that's really helpful and yep if you could put me in touch with the relevant people that would be much appreciated.
Dr David Crichton 27 Feb 2024
I support the proposals which appears to bring together a number of very important areas of development: Firstly, innovative academic education opportunities earlier in training. Secondly, broadening involvement of different professional group's and the voluntary sector. Thirdly, targeting an important health condition of eating disorders which rarely get the focus it needs. I wish you well and look forward to hearing of the progress and outcomes.
Debra Cummins 28 Feb 2024
Thanks David, your support for this project is greatly appreciated. We will keep you updated with our progress and look forward to sharing our learning across the ICB too.
Simon Hamilton 27 Feb 2024
Improving training and awareness around eating disorders in trainee mental health professionals is a valuable goal, and this project offers a good chance for service providers to work more closely with training providers to improve the "job readiness" of students coming on placement, potentially increasing the value of the work they can do.
Elizabeth Pegg 27 Feb 2024
Hello Simon,
Thank you for your comments.
Caroline Greenough 27 Feb 2024
A good initiative to support what is often seen by students and newly qualified staff as a very specialist area, and so would hopefully have a positive impact on recruitment, particularly to newly qualified / band 5 / preceptor posts.
Important to ensure that this is available to all professions, including AHPs (OT, art therapy, music therapy, drama therapy) and consideration to professions that may not already be part of the ED service provision and offer.
is there the option of the training being available to people new to the ED workforce, and include all or elements of the training in induction and preceptorship?
I'm not clear how the training programme would fit with established and accredited professional curriculums.
Elizabeth Pegg 27 Feb 2024
Hello
Thank you for your comments.
I agree it is important to ensure that this is available to all professions, including AHPs and is an option. We are considering professions that may not already be part of the ED service provision. Placements will be allocated on patient, student and services needs.
At the moment there is not an option of the training being available to people new to the ED workforce. This could be considered a future development and welcome your thoughts on how this could work.
The Student Placement Programme is being Co-designed with Sheffield Hallam University and Sheffield University and will be part of their Placement offer. The training offer will be complementary to accredited courses.
rob carter 27 Feb 2024
as a commissioner of eating disorder services for young adults and adults in Sheffield I support this initiative. In the longer term it will hopefully improve knowledge of eating disorders and support recruitment and retention.
Elizabeth Pegg 27 Feb 2024
Hello Robert C,
Thank you for your comments and support.
Naomi Cheshire 27 Feb 2024
This is a great idea for already established workforce. I would have some reservations about the student experience and the impact on staffing in the areas that do not have a fully established workforce in Eating Disorders pathway.
However, fully support the idea, and would happily offer experience to support learners. I think this would be great for getting ED knowledge out there in the wider student field and will also support recruitment and retention.
I also believe it would be good to tie this into trauma informed care, to support students.
Elizabeth Pegg 27 Feb 2024
Hi Naomi,
Thank you for your comments and offer of support.
It would be really helpful if we could have a chat about the project and understand your reservations about the student experience and the impact on staffing in the areas that do not have a fully established workforce in Eating Disorders pathway.
This will help us improve the project for everyone!
Clair Clarke 27 Feb 2024
Love this proposal! It would be brilliant if we can ensure that the placements are multiprofessional so that both nursing and AHP students are able to take advantage of this offer, as doing so would ensure that those entering all caring professions would gain a greater knowledge base and understanding and be able to deliver the care this population needs in a way that works for them, and empower them to educate their colleagues too after completing the placement and pre placement learning.
Elizabeth Pegg 27 Feb 2024
Hi Clair,
Thank you for your support on this project.
We welcome students placements from a range of courses.
Comments are now closed for this post.