The British Association of Prosthetists and Orthotists (BAPO) is the professional body for Prosthetists and Orthotists in the UK. Prosthetist/orthotist is a regulated profession under the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) and undertake qualification via an established BSC(hons) or by emerging routes to practice.
We have been identified as an ‘at risk’ profession and require to increase our number of graduates to meet the NHS service requirements. Our training places are limited by the number of available practice placements in the UK. Our 2 established training schools at the University of Salford and Strathclyde University have increased the their intake of undergraduates in the last 12 months. The new apprenticeship programme at Derby University alongside the Masters level entry course at Keele University will increase training numbers by a minimum of 20 extra students a year. With the first co-horts expected in January 2022, increasing placement capacity as well as improving the quality and support for the placement educators has become imperative.
This 12 month project is funded by the Health Education England (HEE) within the clinical placement expansion programme of work launched 2020. This is a funded programme of activities to support all allied health professions expand and improve practice placements.
This project will deliver a package of measures to increase practice educator numbers and placements for P&O students in the UK with a legacy that will be self sustaining going forward into 2021 and beyond.
We will:
- Map existing placement centres
- Standardise education and create resources to support practice educator training in the UK for Prosthetist/orthotists.
Identify and address barriers to placements - Demonstrate the value of students contribution to a centre
- Challenge current placement models and offer alternative models
- Improve placement experience for students by adopting supervision models and providing peer support for students.
- Improve placement experience for educators by creating streamline, standardised process and peer support
- Expand opportunities to attend specialist clinics by collaborating across localities
- Increase numbers of practice educators across UK.
- Create a practice educator network for P&O across the UK to become self sustainable into the future
To achieve this we have engaged with all of the universities (existing and prospective) running our training programmes in the UK and would like your help as placement educators to join us in this project and achieve our goals.
We are running several listening events and you can join these sessions on the links below:
To view a powerpoint with more details please click here
Many thanks
Nick Gallogly Practice Placement Co-ordinator
Lynne Rowley
