In preparing for placement learning, students must read all the information on this page

Practical work experience is at the heart of all SHU courses and is delivered through placements in relevant workplaces.  We work in partnership with NHS Trusts, Local Authorities and many private, independent and voluntary sector providers to provide the required experience for our students.

Your placement attendance, learning and practice will be an assessed part of your course. Attendance on mandatory placements is compulsory.

On placement, you work with experts, professionals and service users gaining experience, and developing your knowledge and skills for people with a wide range of health and social care needs.  Your placements will cover a variety of settings, working with people with physical and mental health issues across the whole life span.

 You will develop your confidence in using your core skills in traditional and emerging areas of practice; enhancing your employability on completion of the course. During your time on placement, your experience will reflect the working times of the team you work with on placement.  This may involve shift work including weekends, evenings and nights. 

This page provides students and clinical partners with key information needed to prepare for and get the most out of practical work experience. Follow the link below to find shared information to help any student approach preparation for placement from a learning perspective. Within this profession specific pages, you will find more clinically focused support and guidance for your area.

Professional Requirements

• Professional requirements of students (Link to Sheffield Hallam University webpage)

Preparation for Practice Learning - Mandatory Requirements

There are a number of Pre placement Mandatory Training requirements. They include on-line learning with MCQ assessment for Basic Life Support, Infection Control, Moving and Handling, information governance, fire safety, student and patient safety, equality, diversity and human rights. There are in addition, practical sessions in Basic Life Support, Moving and Handling and Infection Control. The university will inform you of the dates of the mandatory sessions.

Attendance at all university based mandatory teaching sessions, as well as occupational health and DBS clearance, must be completed before you commence your placement learning experiences. Failure to attend mandatory preparation and assessment sessions will preclude you from placement and impact on your completion of the course.

Placement Planning Life Cycle

• Link to description of the College Placement Planning Life Cycle on Hallam Help pages

Student Guidance

Important - you must familiarise yourself with the following policies and guidance, held in the Policy Library/Student Guidance Policies section of this website (Link to Sheffield Hallam University webpage).

• Reporting Incidents, Accidents or Concerns
• Health and Safety
• Data Protection
• Inclusivity
• Staying Safe 
• Working Hours
• Travel
• Uniform

Induction to your Allocated Placement

As soon as you have received confirmation of your allocated placement, you must check communications including emails from your placement provider or the university's Professional Placement Team informing you of the date, time and location of your placement induction event. 

Students must attend the placement provider's induction event in order to continue on their allocated placement.  If you are unable to attend for any reason you must inform your placement provider and the university's Professional Placement Team using your university email address before the scheduled event.

Assessment of Practice Documentation

As a student it is your responsibility to familiarise yourself with your assessment of practice documentation and practice learning outcomes for the placements you attend.  This will help you to plan for and document your placement learning opportunities and support your supervisor to provide you with feedback using the assessment of practice documentation appropriately.

Before starting your placement, you are advised to consider the learning outcomes and competencies you would like to achieve. During your Initial Interview on placement, you will agree a plan of action with your Supervisor that will help you to achieve your learning outcomes and competencies. This plan will be reviewed and updated as necessary at the Mid-Placement Interview and a final review will take place at the end of your placement, which will contribute to your assessment of progress.

Your learning and assessment of progress towards required learning outcomes and competencies will be recorded by you and your Supervisor in the online PebblePad document. This is accessed via a login, which students will be provided with by the University.  Supervisors will be advised individually about access to PebblePad, by the University.

You must document all hours you attend on your placement and have these verified by your Medical Supervisor.

PARE

You must familiarise yourself with PARE and ensure that you can align your allocated placements to your PARE profile.  PARE provides useful information about your placement to help you to prepare for your placement learning experience.

PARE provides you with a placement learning evaluation survey (NETS) which you must submit when you complete your placement learning experience.  Further information is provided on the Evaluation page on this website.

Course Overview

By the end of the course you will be able to:

• effectively apply critical thinking to make informed judgements and decisions in your practice through the judicious application of specific knowledge in relation to your decision making in a range of clinical situations.
• synthesise knowledge from a broad range of sources to advance your comprehension and understanding of issues specific to medical practice in a range of situations.
• critically review and evidence your development of key employability skills, such as the enhancement and development of professional clinical practice skills and your role in developing and enhancing service.
• critically explore and apply the concepts underpinning service improvement including legal and ethical dimensions of practice, patient safety, patient education and health inequalities.
• develop strategies for effective team communication through the critical application of communication theories and the development of interpersonal skills within multi-disciplinary working practice. Apply this knowledge to a range of clinical case scenarios to enhance opportunities for service improvement.
• practice safely and effectively and give due regard to the limitations of your role and to promote individual and public health as well as cure or palliate disease.