Key Messages and links to 3rd June 2020
Welcome to Health Education England’s weekly COVID-19 stakeholder bulletin.
HEE is working with partners to support the system-wide response to COVID-19. Our priority is to ensure trainees and learners are kept informed of immediate changes to their training and recruitment, as well as to support returners to the NHS.
In this bulletin we will provide:
- Weekly message from Interim Chief Executive, Professor Wendy Reid
- Overview of HEE and our partner’s national response to COVID-19
- An update from your regional office
Weekly message from Interim Chief Executive, Professor Wendy Reid –
In this week’s message we focus on revolutionising our workforce’s contribution, both in the immediate and longer-term by building teams focussed on skills required, not professional backgrounds. Read the full message here
We are supporting all professions to rapidly grow to meet the needs of patients by:
Student nurses – The nursing & midwifery team continues to develop and share case studies that tell the stories of the student deployment over the COVID-19 period.
Student nurse Samantha Stratton was due to graduate from Lincoln University in September 2019 but went on maternity leave before she had undertaken her management placement. Organised through Lincoln University and Lincolnshire Training Hub, Sam has been supported to start and continue her management placement at Abbey Medical Practice, including throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Samantha Stratton and Lisa Freeman, Director of Nursing at Lincolnshire Training Hub tell us more.
Bringing the employer perspective, Jo Marinas, Head of Professional & Practice Development at Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust explains how the trust has deployed and supported student nurses during the pandemic.
Feedback Sessions for Healthcare Learners – Health Education England has sent a call to healthcare learners deployed during COVID; to include student AHPs, nurses, midwives and Interim Foundation Doctors. We are running the virtual feedback sessions on Thursday 4 and Monday 8 June; to specifically capture learners experiences around support and training.
ICONS – The Impact of COVID-19 on Students Survey (ICONS) launched this week (Monday 1 June) and will remain open for four weeks. The survey will understand the experience of medical, dental, nursing, allied health professional and healthcare science learners, whether they have stepped into clinical practice, into new environments to support frontline clinical services or have opted to continue with their academic studies. The questionnaire will focus on the support provided to learners during the pandemic in particular key areas, such as induction, clinical supervision and academic supervision. Importantly, the survey will provide an opportunity to hear from healthcare learners currently working or studying and will inform our approach to supporting these learners now and in the future.
Occupational Therapy Virtual Practice Placement – Case Study – The University of East Anglia developed and implemented a virtual practice placement for Occupational Therapy 2nd Year BSc students, using the virtual learning environment Blackboard.
As a result of Covid-19, the 2nd year Occupational Therapy students had their usual face-to-face placements suspended. The Occupational Therapy academic team at the University of East Anglia looked at a virtual alternative allowing their students to continue their learning to achieve their placement outcomes in line with statutory and professional body requirements and to progress on their course.
In the Blackboard learning environment, students took responsibility for a virtual caseload, with a mix of group and individual working; they conducted interviews with ‘patients’, completed their guided reflections in their handbook. They worked through the occupational therapy process with each of the six cases, using their professional reasoning. Occupational therapy theory and practice were interwoven through the practical and written activities in their handbooks, through the student’s learning contracts and their case presentations.
This case study will be added to the chapter: ‘Enhancing the quality and capacity of the learning environment’ in the HEE Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL).
Read the full case study here
We are ensuring core HEE work to support our NHS colleagues continues:
Health Careers Winners of Step into the NHS competition announced – Now in its 11th year of running, the competition helps to raise career aspirations and awareness of 350 NHS careers.
Over 3,180 Year 7-9 students from 126 schools across England took part. Each chose an NHS role, wrote the ideal job description and created an advert that would appeal to their peers.
Our national winners, students from The Belvedere Academy in Liverpool, created a fun and informative video to advertise the role of an NHS innovation consultant. Chosen from a total of 1,784 submitted entries, each student receives a certificate, a £50 Amazon voucher and a class prize.
A panel of judges from across the health and education chose the overall winner. Trainee GP Dr Tom Watchman said of the winning video: “The animation was fun, exciting, upbeat and innovative!”
This year’s competition saw 66 new schools entering, with the majority of teachers saying that their primary motivator for taking part was to support and raise the career aspirations of young people. 94% of teachers said the competition developed students’ job seeking skills, and 60% of students would now consider a career in the NHS.
Step into the NHS also runs a primary schools competition, which has had its deadline extended to 19 June. It asks Key Stage 2 (Years 3-6) pupils to explore the wide range of opportunities in the NHS, by creating a ‘thank you’ to NHS staff, which could be a poem, piece of street art or a creative video.
We are making sure all professions have the training they need to make a difference:
Letter and ARCP update from the four Statutory Education Bodies sent to all trainees, 3 June 2020
This letter states that to maintain the essential pipeline of trained medical staff, resumption of training must be given full support and a very high priority as services are planned and reintroduced. Read the letter in full.
elearning for healthcare – The elfh COVID-19 programme has now seen over 1.25million launches since it went live in the middle of March 2020.
Supporting student nurses in general practice
elearning for healthcare has just released a new learning path to support student nurses undertaking a general practice placement as part of the COVID-19 response. Offered as part of the programme entitled ‘Resources for Nurses, Midwives and AHPs Returning to work, being Redeployed or Up-Skilled’, the training is intended to equip student nurses with the basics and complement local training. You can access ‘Supporting student nurses in general practice’ here
Learning Hub Beta launch – System now live
HEE’s Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) team released the Learning Hub on Friday (29 May 2020).
The Learning Hub is a new digital platform that provides easy access to a wide range of resources that are pertinent to education and training in health and care. New features will be frequently released to provide a comprehensive learning experience for users.
The resources shared on the platform play a pivotal role in its success, in its vision for collaboration and supporting learners. Many stakeholders from across the health and care workforce, including clinical commissioning groups, social care, professional bodies, charities, and the simulation community, have already contributed a range of quality learning resources. Many of the resources are in response to the COVID-19 efforts to support the health and care workforce. These resources include videos, webinars, slide presentations, Q&A packs, simulation scripts, lesson plans and web links to support system readiness, recovery and beyond.
Do you or your networks have resources to share? By contributing resources, you are supporting both the growth of the system and the evolving communities of learners that will use the Learning Hub.
You are invited to access the Learning Hub (https://learninghub.nhs.uk) either using eligible elearning for healthcare log in details or by creating a Learning Hub account.
If you have any questions or require further support, contact the Learning Hub team: enquiries@learninghub.nhs.uk.
FURTHER INFORMATION
By following @NHS_HealthEdEng you can keep up to date with new information and resources as they are published. Most importantly are the notifications of webinars being broadcast during the week.
Right now, making sure we are communicating properly is obviously incredibly important. If there’s any information you think is missing on HEE’s webpages, please let us know by submitting your question to the HEE Q&A helpdesk.
