Practice allocation

Learners on the Registered Nurse Degree Apprenticeship, who are also paid employees, remain in their current clinical base whilst on the programme. As a learner, you are required to undertake work-based learning opportunities that allow you to develop and meet the Standards of proficiency for registered nurses (NMC, 2018). These learning opportunities and range of proficiency experiences will support you to deliver safe and effective care to a diverse range of people across the four fields of nursing practice: adult, mental health and children’s nursing. 

Learners will also be allocated external placement experiences to support wider clinical development and achievement of the summative requirements within your EOAR (MYEPAD). As stipulated by the NMC, you will be supernumerary throughout the duration of your programme. 

During your base placement you will be expected, in negotiation with your Practice Assessor and Supervisors, to undertake a range of static spoke experiences. Static spokes will support a deeper understanding of the patient journey, the roles of various professionals within the multidisciplinary team and support you to meet your proficiencies and summative assessments, outlined within your EOAR (MYEPAD). Learners will be expected to take a lead role in arranging static spoke experiences with the support of Practice Assessors, Practice Supervisors and your Academic Assessor. Static spokes normally last between one and three days and must be negotiated in advance. The learning must be identified in advance, documented in your EOAR (MYEPAD) and achieved under the supervision and support of the named Practice Supervisor within the placement area. 

The Department of Health Sciences is responsible for the allocation of your external practice experiences in collaboration with practice partners. Your external placements will tend to be away from your base environment to support learning from a broad range of care environments. You may be allocated to a placement within an acute, inpatient, specialist, community or continuing care environment. The individual learner allocation will be discussed and shared with the programme lead; the practice education teams at York Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Tees, Esk and Wear Valley NHS Foundation Trust; Advanced Training Practices (ATPs) and Private and Voluntary Organisations (PIVO) involved in the partnership; Foundation Programme Lead; Deputy Programme Lead; and e-portfolio team. 

In the final year you will undertake an ‘Inclusive placement’. The purpose of these ‘inclusive placements’ is to expose you to a range of patients, families and carers across adult, mental health, child and learning disability fields for example A&E, GP practices, theatres, outpatients departments, hospices, or community. Whilst on your inclusive placement you are expected to take control of your learning and work with the staff within those departments to ensure you maximise your learning across the four fields of practice. Your academic assessor, who will be undertaking your tripartite progress reviews, will also advise you how to maximise your learning experience on these placements. You are expected to actively engage with your learning and identify those experiences across the lifespan and settings. 

For further information on the external and inclusive placements, there are placement descriptions available for you to view that other learners have produced for their base areas and uploaded to the VLE. These placement descriptors will identify opportunities you may wish to undertake during your placement experiences and will help you to maximise your learning in those areas. 

All learning outcomes achieved, across the range of your base and spoke experience, must be recorded, as appropriate, in your EOAR (MYEPAD) and verified by a Practice Assessor or Practice Supervisor. Your Practice hours must be recorded on Pebblepad

Each practice module has an initial, mid point and final interview. Practice experience modules have credit weighting, and the assessments must be passed by achieving the identified summative outcomes by the end of the module and learners must complete the stage specific assessments and proficiencies by the end of each stage to be able to progress. Practice modules are non-reassessable. Outcomes not met by the published completion date must be achieved during the automatic extension period (within the first four weeks of the next practice experience or during a ‘retrieval placement’). These outcomes are outlined in the Electronic Ongoing Achievement Record (EOAR) (MYEPAD). Where sickness or other circumstances lead to a ‘lack of opportunity’ students can apply for extension via the exceptional circumstances process.

Individual plan & tripartite reviews

Learners will be required to meet the requirements of the Apprenticeship Standards for Registered Nurses (2018). As part of the requirements for the apprenticeship you will have an individual learning plan which is a live document detailing how the apprenticeship framework will be achieved and will be updated throughout your programme. Alongside the individual learning plans, you will be expected to attend tripartite reviews between yourself, your employer and key university staff. These reviews have to take place every 12 weeks. If you do not attend, you are at risk of losing funding and therefore putting your place on the course at risk. 

Practice hours

The total practice programme hours are 1170 (accelerated programme) and 2340 (full programme). You are required to work across the range of hours expected for registered nurses. You are required to document your practice hours in your EOAR (MYEPAD). 

It is very important that you keep up to date with your practice hours. Deficits in practice hours risk your opportunities to pass practice modules and ultimately to meet the minimum practice hours required for NMC registration. Where deficits arise, it is vital that you work with your Academic Assessor to develop a plan to retrieve the necessary practice hours. The practice lead will check that all simulation documentation is uploaded to your e-portfolio and that simulated practice hours are accurate. 

As part of the apprenticeship requirements, you are required to complete and record a minimum of 6 hours a week of off the job training. This ‘off the job’ training includes any theoretical teaching or simulation, any learning support and time spent writing assignments, any shadowing or learning within the workplace in which you are acquiring new knowledge, skills and behaviours that are directly relevant to your Registered Nursing Degree Apprenticeship. 

Your base placement will reflect your field of practice. However you will be expected to take control of your own learning and negotiate ‘static spoke’ placements with your practice assessor and line manager. So, for example, you may be based in outpatients but negotiate to follow a patient pathway, and so spend time in cardiac investigations or endoscopy. If you work at a GP practice you may negotiate to spend time with the district nursing team or at a laboratory. 

In addition to the range of experiences you can gain from ‘static spokes’, each stage of the programme you will undertake two blocks of external placements. This equates to 150 hours of external placement for each stage. If you work less than 37.5 hours per week you will undertake more external placement weeks to ensure you receive the same number of hours. These dates will be arranged with your personal supervisor/academic assessor. The timings of these placements cannot be moved without authorisation as they have been planned alongside all the other programmes to ensure you receive a good placement experience and are not competing for time.The external placement block weeks are highlighted on your course plan.

Adjustments to allocated placements

All practice learning areas are subject to educational audit to ensure they provide an environment that supports your achievement of the programme learning outcomes. The Department has a team of staff dedicated to practice allocation. For each experience they consider a number of complex factors, of which the most important is to ensure you will meet the programme learning outcomes, proficiencies and knowledge, skills and behaviours related to your apprenticeship route. The equity of travel for all students is also taken into account. Please note that no changes will be possible unless there are exceptional circumstances. 

If there are health related reasons why you should/should not be allocated to a placement area then you should raise this with your Personal Supervisor/Academic Assessor who will seek guidance from OH via the FtP committee in relation to the suitability of placement allocation. If you believe that there are exceptional reasons why you should not be allocated to a specific practice area (and where OH guidance is not already in place) you will be invited to complete a placement change request form before the start of that placement. There are limitations in practice capacity, however, where possible, we will endeavour to offer you alternative allocations for reasons of health or exceptional circumstances.