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As a way of sharing our successes, we want to share feedback we received following a student placement in East Cheshire. This feedback is from their first student nurse – a 3^rd year transitional placement student from Chester. She wanted to begin her career in A&E in September until she undertook a primary care placement. She has changed her mind, been interviewed, and secured her first job within the PCN starting in September. 

STUDENT NURSE FEEDBACK FORM

After only recently opening their learning environment to student nurses and being a pilot site for the Universal Learning Environment (ULE) audit, student feedback has been very positive, so much so, primary care is being chosen as the career destination upon qualifying, over secondary care.

Experience gained in Audiology, Phlebotomy, District Nursing, and alongside Physician Associates and Pharmacy Technicians, has provided an eye-opening array of services within a primary care network, in addition to that of the general practice nursing role.

Overall, the PCN rotational student nurse placement, has offered a wide variety of experience, within a supportive and inclusive environment. Simultaneously supporting other student nurses and learners on this rotational basis has made for a sense of belonging within the group of learners. Further impacted by the role of the Learning Environment Facilitator (LEF), who has meticulously coordinated the timetable, and been a point of contact for the student nurse in addition to the clinical and academic personnel. Establishing the Clinical Educational Lead has been instrumental in undertaking and succeeding with the ULE and collectively, this approach has had a beneficial effect for both students and the GPN workforce.

Observing and interacting with many departments encompassed within the PCN has demonstrated the holistic approach implemented to provide care for patients. It has provided an insight to the growing service provision within general practice and an interest to join this workforce as a qualified nurse.

Through working with the Training Hub (TH) to fulfil the requirements of the ULE, and receiving regular support and communication via the LEF links with the TH, the PCN has enabled their nursing staff to upskill as part of the process. Student nurse tariff (which equates to £700+ for one 6 week placement) can further provide funding to enable staff development.

The value of student nurses in practice –

background

Recruiting to healthcare posts is becoming increasingly difficult, and this is particularly true of the Practice Nurse role – a bespoke role involving post registration training support and experience. The shortage of experienced Practice Nurses nationally adds a further hurdle to overcome for General Practice. Vacancies more often than not will request experience as a Practice Nurse as an essential criteria. Yet how do nurses gain this experience? The Training Hub is often contacted by students and qualified nurses wanting to enter Primary Care, yet at a loss of how to “break in” to the role.
This case study follow the journey of one 3rd Year Student Nurse and of a Practice trying to recruit a trained Practice Nurse. It hopes to demonstrate how new ways of training and recruiting can be valuable for both General Practices and for individual nurses who wish to embark on a career in Practice Nursing, and how the Training Hub can help to support this.

Meet Kate…

Kate approached Liverpool Training Hub at the start of her 3rd year of training as she wanted to experience her final management placement (12 weeks) in Primary Care. Kate says “From the start, practice nursing had always been my dream. I love chronic, long term illnesses and I’m passionate about being proactive with patient care, wanting to help and support people to avoid or manage their condition. I was also really passionate about providing health promotion and the benefits of screening programmes to aid in the prevention of illnesses. In addition, the autonomy of practice nursing and career opportunities to specialise in a particular field and work towards advanced nursing skills such as prescribing really appealed to me.”
We were able to informally offer a placement pending approval from her University. Before Kate started her placement in April 2022, she already had an offer of a job upon qualifying in the District.

Which departments did you have the opportunity to shadow? Which ones did you find most beneficial?

• If I was honest seeing ALL departments and having the variety was really helpful while on placement, to get a good understanding of how primary care works and KMP. Coming from all hospital based placements this was really valuable.
• Personally, I have enjoyed seeing the clinics and expanding my knowledge on dressings, and chronic disease management and manual assessment techniques (manual BP).
• I enjoyed spending time in the coil clinic, social prescriber and with the physician associate also.
• Having a timetable was BRILLIANT having structure and organisation was really great and really helped me focus while on placement.

Did you visit an external location within your placement? (Community Hospital/Care Home) If so, please comment on your experience:

• I managed to spend some time with the district nurses, again was really good to have one placement that allowed me to see other departments and see how services link together between primary care and community.
• Ward Round with GP in a care home, again good experience to see how the whole primary care system works and relating this to a nursing role.

What occupation are you currently training for?

Nurse

Overall, out of 10 (0- lowest, 10 – highest) how would you rate your student placement experience?

9

What did you enjoy most during your placement?

• Having a timetable and structure enabled me to plan what proficiencies needed to be signed off and what I wanted to see within primary care.
• Having the variety of departments within primary care (and some community).
• Witnessing the communication and teamwork between departments and staff within the practice.
• Learning, the management of chronic diseases within primary care.

What part of your placement needs improvement?

• Potentially may be better to shadow in the final few weeks of placement one nurse so that the time is intense together in order to get documentation signed off, and to understand level of skills and where can be improved and developed in the remainder of placement.

Any other comments?

• I have thoroughly enjoyed my time on this placement it has been the most interactive and educational, to date. The teamworking between departments is really nice to see and to see everyone has been welcoming and really engaged and tried to help me while on placement.