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. 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.

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 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)

Mandatory training

On an annual basis you are expected to complete mandatory training before you are clear for clinical placement. This consists of being timetabled for the following:

• Basic life support
• Hand hygiene
• Manual handling
• Personal protective equipment

You will also have a variety of online training packages to complete as part of your mandatory training, including radiation safety.

Additional mandatory training may be undertaken within the clinical placement site, depending on local requirements.

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 practise supervisors and assessors to provide you with feedback using the assessment of practice documentation appropriately.

You must document in the - Dietetics Attendance Form - all hours you attend on your placement and have these verified by your practice supervisor or other registered professional you work with on your shifts.

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.

Clinical Simulation

At SHU we have a dedicated simulation suite for Radiotherapy and Oncology including a treatment couch and controls, immobilisation equipment and Surface Guided Radiotherapy technology & a novel technology gaining widespread interest in radiotherapy centres across the UK.

Year 1

During your first semester in year 1, you will participate in clinical simulation before you attend your clinical placement. These weeks have been designed by staff and students and will help you to prepare for what to expect during your first clinical placement by exposing you to different patient diagnoses and all areas of the patient pathway. Sessions are very interactive, and include active engagement in the following areas:

• Mask making and radiotherapy immobilisation
• Tattooing practicals
• Patient and couch manoeuvring
• Communication skill development i.e. interacting with service users, ID process, handling difficult conversations
• Bladder scanning
• Peer learning

Please note, you will attend your clinical simulation in your student uniforms and will have objectives to work towards followed by debriefs of your learning to replicate the clinical environment as much as possible.

Year 2

This year, simulation will focus on planning and image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT). The aim of this placement is to expand students' knowledge of planning and the implication of decisions made when verifying treatments. Each student will be allocated 1 week and will have experience of the following activities across a variety of anatomical sites: inverse and forward planning, proton planning, brachytherapy planning, IGRT trouble shooting, the role of adaptive planning/p>

Year 3

In your third year you will have the opportunity to start expanding your clinical care skills; these are skills healthcare professionals use related to patient care such as assessing patients' health and wellbeing. This will help to widen your skill set and give you more confidence working in the healthcare setting. Some examples of the sessions include learning how to read and take patient observations and assessments.

VERT Training

In year 1, you will also receive VERT training; this is a form of simulation training on using lasers in practice and radiation safety. VERT will be used within your anatomy teaching sessions.