The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan highlights the need to expand and diversify placement capacity in line with future transformative healthcare delivery plans (NHS England, 2023). For Nursing and Midwifery Council-approved education institutions (AEIs), moving away from hospital centralised care involves exploring new placement opportunities in social care, the voluntary sector and emerging digital spaces. However, many of these ‘new’ settings do not employ the registered supervisors and assessors required by the regulators.
These challenges arise at a time when some AEIs have reported challenges in recruiting registered academics, and there is a need to develop new ways of supporting clinical staff interested in joining AEIs (Baltrucks et al, 2020). A new model of practice education has been devised by the University of Chester (Knight et al, 2022), an approach primarily intended to support placement expansion; however, other noteworthy benefits have emerged, including the introduction of a new variety of prospective nurse academics at early career stage, and the fostering of stronger working collaboration between AEIs and private, independent and voluntary organisation (PIVO) placement providers.
Delivering health professional programmes in university settings is complex and resource intensive. It relies upon AEIs developing a pipeline of clinical academics. Recently, this has become more challenging (Baltrucks et al, 2020). AEIs often find themselves in competition with the NHS, where salaries can be higher. Furthermore, demands in delivering clinical services mean that many registrants have had little exposure to AEI teaching environments. Limited opportunities for continuous education may also result in entry level expectations being out of reach. Against this real-world backdrop, it is essential that AEIs develop ways to support clinical staff interested in teaching and research.
The indirect supervision/assessment (long arm) practice education model, developed by the authors (Knight et al, 2022), helps to promote exposure to teaching in AEI environments at early career stages. The faculty employs a bank of 40 registered nurses who are visiting lecturers in practice education (VLPE). In this role, they act as indirect supervisors and assessors during faculty simulation placements, and also support students on placement in PIVOs who do not employ registrants themselves. As one VLPE stated: ‘I enjoyed working as an indirect PA as it enhanced the relationships with the students and was great to see them grow in confidence.’
Feedback on this new role has been positive and, after initially advertising for these posts, further recruitment has been maintained through word of mouth. Most VLPEs work in health care and conduct this role alongside their substantive post. Staff report that this is a helpful and supportive way of developing a deeper understanding of working within an AEI environment, while developing an understanding of clinical academic careers:
VLPEs have frequently been successful in applying for internal roles, standing out within the recruitment pool for junior lecturing staff. Subsequently, 10% of the VLPE team have applied for and achieved substantive posts at the university. The VLPE roles provided experience of working with students outside of their ‘traditional’ settings, while supporting the needed shift in healthcare policy towards providing more care outside hospitals and closer to home.
At the University of Chester, VLPEs interact closely with lecturers in practice learning and personal academic tutors, and are fully involved in teaching, learning and assessment across the programmes. The faculty provides VLPEs with training, clinical supervision and opportunities to fully engage with academic teams. This bespoke support helps VLPEs to build confidence, as well as build a portfolio of evidence to assist their applications for substantive academic posts in the future.