Faculty of Health & Social Care

School of Nursing

Shape your own future

Shape your own future

Life Long Learning in Nurse Education Promoting Partnership and Collaboration Through Work

Based Learning

Denise Owens Lecturer Child Health

June RutherfordLecturer in Adult Nursing

Shape your own future

The aim of this presentation is to briefly outline the development of a degree via WBL and how it has been designed to promote partnership, collaboration and life long learning within the Health and Social Care Arena.

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Changing Culture(s) and Drivers

• Health and Social Care

• Service Providers

• Higher Education

• University

• School of Nursing

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What is Work Based Learning?

• A creative way of learning. It encourages students to focus on their learning within the workplace by identifying ‘real life’ workplace issues

• It is a learning process rather than a teaching process which encourages learners to take responsibility, developing skills towards life long reflective learning

• It is a mechanism for integrating university level learning with learning from experience in the workplace, the bringing together of self knowledge, expertise at work and formal knowledge.

• It is not a subject for study but a mechanism for learning, valuing and changing practice

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Why Work Base Learning?

• National initiatives in the health and social care stress the need for flexible workers and the need to break down traditional job boundaries

• Work Base learning has been identified as a significant element in the UK government policy debates of professional development and life long learning

• The introduction of the Knowledge and Skills Framework and other competency based approaches to job evaluate clearly set out skills required to move from one band of pay to another

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Partnerships in Work Based Learning

• First identified as a priority for development in 2003

• Pilot project supported by Trusts and SHA (project team)

• Level 2 module in rehabilitation area

• Evaluation to produce our own evidence (Tracey Williamson)

• Level 3 module

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Programme Design

• The critical question when trying to design any educational programme is to decide what learning is valued.

• The underpinning assumptions for this programme reflect the belief that valuable learning occurs not just at work but also through work, from work and in work.

• The programme model facilitates learner autonomy and the development of lifelong learning skills by enabling students to take charge of their own learning, be responsible for their own learning and determine the direction of their own learning

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Teaching and Learning Strategies

Blended learning is used to facilitate the acquisition of knowledge:

• Action Learning Sets: learning with and from each other by working on real work place problems and reflecting on experiences• Critical thinking and reflective skills are integral to the process of learning• The formulation of a Personal Development Record and Personal Development Planning are compulsory elements on the Programme• The Blackboard Virtual Learning Environment acts as a resource for learning and development

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Assessment Strategy

Assessment is seen as a crucial part of the educational process which is directly related to the aims and learning outcomes of the programme. The students are given a choice in relation to how they want to be assessed from a range of strategies (e.g. poster, audio visual presentation, assignment, report). The rational for this is to encourage creativity through the utilisation of an adapted assessment grid specifically designed for use with this programme.

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Support and Guidance

Support and guidance is available to the students using a multifaceted approach;• Academic support• Peer support• Support in practice:

-Tripartite agreement between the student, their line manager and one of the programme leaders. This will be used to clearly identify the route through the programme for individual students.

-A practice guide: who can support the student in their personal and professional objectives

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In Summary

Through partnership and collaboration between the university, service providers and the students and the use of work based learning as a vehicle for learning the programme will facilitate the development of life long learning skills:

• Personal motivation (a new challenge)

• Professional motivation (engagement in a specific and challenging health and social care environment)

• Service motivation (improving patient and client outcomes)

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Telephone: 0845 234 0184E-mail: fhsc@salford.ac.ukWeb address: www.fhsc.salford.ac.uk

Faculty of Health & Social Care

ANY QUESTIONS?