@article{McKay_E-2022_101686,
title = {Learning from COVID-19 Experiences to Progress System Change in Practice Education},
author = {McKay, E. and Thomas, Y. and Penman, M.},
month = {oct},
year = {2022},
abstract = {The COVID-19 pandemic and the introduction of public health restrictions challenged health and socialcare service delivery and had unforeseen consequences for practice-based learning policies andprocedures. While acute health services focussed on the urgent demands of COVID-19 patients,outpatient, community, social care and GP service providers rapidly pivoted their service delivery modelstowards telehealth, online and virtual delivery. In the UK, the lockdown resulted in many face-to-facepractice placements being cancelled or ending abruptly. Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) faced theunprecedented challenge of facilitating practice-based learning for thousands of allied health professionalstudents in line with social restrictions, whilst maintaining educational and professional standards.Manyprofessions have an hours-based practice education standard embedded in professional accreditation andregulatory processes; occupational therapy programmes require a minimum of 1000 hours practiceeducation (Thomas &amp; Penman, 2019), Canadian physiotherapy programmes require students to completea minimum of 1025 hours (Canadian Council of Physiotherapy University Programmes, 2019), UKspeech pathology programmes require completion of 150 sessions (Royal College of Speech andLanguage Therapists, 2021), and Australian social work programmes require a minimum of 1000 hourspractice-based learning (Brown et al., 2015). Weobserved thatsuch requirements resulted in delays instudent graduations during this period. Even when students had been assessed to have met all the requiredcompetencies, the hours requirement mandated in their degree programmes prevented students fromgraduating.The urgent need to increase the health workforce acted as a driver for creativity and innovation and themotivation to continue progressing students through their degrees to join the workforce. While thecurriculum accreditation requirements regarding thenumber of hours was not adjusted, professionalbodies encouraged the implementation of innovative practice-based learning strategies, which haveprovided a unique opportunity to learn from students’, HEIs’ and practice educators’ experiences. Theaim of this article is to reflect on our learning of practice-based education across a range of allied healthprofessions, during this time, and to reconsider the requirement for hours-based standards of practice-based education.},
pages = {67-70},
volume = {10},
issue = {1},
journal = {International Journal of Practice-based Learning in Health and Social Care},
publisher = {National Association of Educators in Practice},
url = {https://doi.org/10.18552/ijpblhsc.v10i1.727},
}
