Hosted by Anita Volkert (@AnitavAHP) and Katrina Bannigan (@KatrinaBannigan) from Glasgow Caledonian University (@GcuOcc)

We are grateful to #OTalk for providing us with this opportunity to discuss a campaign that we have started called ‘Everyone needs a PAL’. PAL stands for Peer Assisted Learning, the name for the model of placement that involves having two or more students with one practice educator (Beveridge and Pentland, 2020). Our campaign is for occupational therapy, and the other allied health professions, to make it standard practice to have a minimum of two students involved in every placement. Our reasons for this are:

• New models of practice-based learning have been adopted and piloted but they have not solved the underlying capacity issue.
• The overarching challenge of scale remains because many of the new practice-based learning models operate on a one to one model, that is, one learner with one practice educator (Beveridge & Pentland, 2020). Unfortunately, this is unsustainable in the long term (Markowski et al., 2021).
• Modelling suggests that the need for placements is only going to increase over the next 10 to 30 years.
• Peer assisted learning is an approach that works (Markowski et al., 2021; Beveridge & Pentland, 2020).
• Supervising a peer assisted learning placement can actually feel like less work than supervising one student (Sevenhuysen et al., 2015).
• We need this bold move—essentially, a simple solution—so that we can divert the energy we put into finding placements into more productive activities, such as innovation and growth.

We hope that this campaign can help to bring this about. In #OTalk we are going to pose the following questions which we hope will provide a useful starting point for discussion:

• Have you had experience of peer assisted learning placements?
• Why do you think we need a campaign to move to peer assisted learning placements as standard practice?
• Do you want to play a part increasing facilitating peer assisted learning placements?
• What do you need to facilitate you to move to supervising peer assisted learning placements?
• How can we move campaign forward across the profession as whole and the wider AHP family?

References

• Beveridge J and Pentland D (2020) A mapping review of models of practice education in allied health and social care professions. British Journal of Occupational Therapy, 83(8): 488–513.
• Markowski M, Bower H, Essex R, et al. (2021). Peer learning and collaborative placement models in health care: a systematic review and qualitative synthesis of the literature. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 30(11–12): 1519–1541.
• Sevenhuysen S, Farlie MK, Keating JL, et al. (2015) Physiotherapy students and clinical educators perceive several ways in which incorporating peer-assisted learning could improve clinical placements: A qualitative study. Journal of Physiotherapy 61(2): 87–92.
• Volkert A, Bannigan K. The time is now to upscale all placements to a minimum of two students. British Journal of Occupational Therapy. 2022;85(7):475-476. doi:10.1177/03080226221097300

Blog posts

• If we keep doing what we’ve always done, we won’t increase placement numbers https://gcuocc.wordpress.com/2022/08/03/if-we-keep-doing-what-weve-always-done-we-wont-increase-placement-numbers/ 
• Researchers call on NHS to back new 2-1 student placements to end crisis Available at https://gcuocc.wordpress.com/2022/07/27/researchers-call-on-nhs-to-back-new-2-1-student-placements-to-end-crisis/

POST CHAT

Host:  Anita Volkert @AnitavAHP and Katrina Bannigan @KatrinaBannigan

Support on OTalk Account: @Ruth_Hawley

Evidence your CPD. If you joined in this chat you can download the below transcript as evidence for your CPD, but remember the HCPC are interested in what you have learnt.  So why not complete one of our reflection logs to evidence your learning?

Reflection logs

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