Setting up Healthcare Students
for Success Project
Equipping future healthcare workers to deliver safe, effective care to diverse patient populations is important for upholding the human right to health. With expertise in addressing social and health inequalities, RJ4All recognise the need to improve training and support for healthcare students, ensuring that all individuals, regardless of background, receive quality care. To this end, we are supporting the success of healthcare students in their practice placements through a research collaboration that ultimately strengthens the healthcare system. This project is led by Buckinghamshire Health and Social Care Academy (BHSCA), NHS England South East and University of Surrey.
About The Project
Project Background
The current programmes for pre-registration healthcare degree students in nursing, midwifery and allied health professions do not adequately ensure students are prepared for their clinical practice placements. The clinical environment can present challenging and stressful situations that many students are unprepared to thrive in and deliver effective care to their patients.
To respond to this need, a Project Board from BHSCA, NHS England South East and the University of Surrey was formed to run the Preparation for Practice Placements project to pilot a resource for educators to prepare pre-registration healthcare learners for their first practice placement focusing on the non-clinical skill aspects of clinical practice.
Hypothesis
By exposing students of pre-registration healthcare degree courses for nursing, midwifery and AHPs to the realities of their first placement through a series of videos, including an animated ‘explainer’ video about practice placements, their stress and anxiety will be decreased, and the following will be increased:
- Emotional intelligence to cope with practice challenges.
- Resilience and initiative in advocating for and managing their own learning.
- Interpersonal skills including fitting and working with a team.
- Confidence to successfully continue their placement and course.
Geographical Scope
The project will unfold over the course of 5 months, spanning from August to December 2024.
Project Objectives
The overarching objective of this project is to help students to be more prepared for the non-clinical aspects of clinical practice during their first placement. This project will measure the effectiveness of the project interventions which include:
- 12 videos hearing from senior students about their experiences along with top tips and hearing from practice educators
- An animated 'explainer' video about practice placements and the range of practice placements available at....
- E-handbook that complements the videos and supports educators to include the videos in their teaching by summarising the content of each video
The project will evaluate whether these interventions will support students in achieving the project goals, which include increased:
- interpersonal skills and fitting into a team
- emotional intelligence and resilience
- proactiveness in advocating for and managing their own learning
Domains of Change
This project will measure whether there was a decrease in stress and anxiety, an increase in emotional intelligence to cope with practice challenges, an increase in resilience and initiative in advocating for and managing their own learning increase interpersonal skills including working within a team, an increase in confidence to successfully continue their placement, and an increase in confidence to successfully continue their course.
Phase 1
Phase 2
Phase 3
Project Report
Inspiring Confidence in Healthcare Students for their Practice Placements Evaluation findings from the pilot “Preparation for Practice Placements”
This eBook presents the findings of an independent evaluation of the Preparation for Practice Placements project, which was delivered between December 2024 and January 2025. The project aimed to enhance the experiences of nursing, midwifery and allied health professional learners, during their practice placements by exposing them to a set of scenario-based films before their placement, designed to support understanding, confidence, and the behaviours necessary to thrive in practice placement environments and to deliver safe, effective care. For educators, the resources served as tools to enhance teaching efforts that support learner readiness for practice-based learning. The core objective of this eBook was to assess whether these resources successfully prepared students for the realities of their practice placements, and the evaluation followed a three-phase approach: establishing a baseline of learners’ experiences, examining the implementation of the intervention, and measuring its impact. A total of 72 learner responses were evaluated in the impact evaluation and an additional 28 learners and 4 educators took part in the process evaluation. This eBook explored their feedback and insights, and revealed how the films contributed to learners’ preparedness, emotional resilience, and ability to navigate difficult placement situations.