Supporting allied health professionals in their role as practice educators

Aim: To find out what continuing professional development (CPD) and support Allied Health Professions’ practice educators felt would be beneficial to their role to support good learning experiences for students during practice placements. Background: For the first time, representatives from the four universities that run AHP pre-registration education programmes in Scotland, and NHS Education for Scotland (NES) collaborated to design and distribute a questionnaire to student practice educators across all sectors in Scotland. Method: An electronic questionnaire was designed and piloted. It consisted of closed questions using 5-point likert scales and open questions about different aspects of AHP Practice Educator preparation and ongoing CPD and support. The questionnaire was circulated by email three times through university, NES, and professional body networks. Respondents:1127 responses were received from 12 professions. 1082 responses were received from NHS Scotland educators (11% of the regulated AHP workforce), 45 were from AHPs providing practice placements in other sectors. The majority of responses were from experienced Practice Educators. Outcomes: The universities and NES now have a ranked list of CPD needs for practice educators. Key messages from the open questions have been identified about how educators prefer to access CPD and broader support issues both within the practice setting and from universities