Before placement
We will inform you that you have been allocated a student approximately six weeks before they arrive. There is an expectation that the student will contact you before commencement in order to ask about uniform, shift patterns, and any other immediate concerns.
Please do not contact students before they contact you, as in rare cases allocations may change before they are released to students (this is usually four weeks prior to the placement). Always contact students by phone or via their DMU email address which can be found on the allocation sheet sent to you in the column labelled “Uni #”. Their email address will begin with a P and end with “@my365.dmu.ac.uk”. This information is also detailed at the bottom of the allocation form. You may wish to send them some introductory information about your service or share knowledge that will help them during their first few days such as directions, their Practice Assessor’s name, working hours or eating arrangements.
During placement
Students do not have a study day during their time in placement and so their weekly 37.5 hours will be in practice. On top of this, the Practice Assessor will allocate 2.5 hours of self-directed learning time per week for students to complete their reflections.
The NMC no longer specifies how much time a student needs to spend with the Practice Assessor. The student will spend the majority of their time with Practice Supervisors, who can be any registered health and social professional (unless local arrangements specify otherwise). The Practice Assessor must be aware of where and how the student is spending their time and receive regular feedback from others regarding their learning and progression. It may be beneficial to the student to have another contact for information and support during their placement.
Initial, midpoint and final meetings provide formal opportunities to plan and review student’s progress with the student, the practice supervisors and possibly the academic assessor. See this page for guidance on completing these interviews.
-The first meeting will allow discussion of what the student hopes to learn, what opportunities are available and what experiences the student build upon from previous placements.
-The mid point meeting is an opportunity to assess how the student is progressing with actions agreed at the initial meeting. It is at this point that the Academic Assessor will need to know if you have concerns about the student’s performance. This way a plan can be created to address such issues in collaboration with the student.
– The final meeting will encompass feeding back to the student, checking that booklets are completed and action plans for the next placement have been created where necessary.
Student Sickness
Students should contact the placement to report sickness following local policy. Sickness can be recorded on the ePAD by the student, PS, or PA by submitting a timesheet with ‘Absent – Sickness’ as the shift type. This is considered to be reporting to the university. Absences of more than seven days, or concerning patterns of absence, must be reported to the Academic Assessor by email.
Following the placement
The student will be asked by DMU to complete an evaluation form for the placement when it has been completed. Feedback is sent to the designated contact for your service. If you make a change based on the student’s feedback, or wish to ask about your feedback, we would like to hear from you. Please contact our Practice Lead for placement quality Jo Willcox.