Organisation(s)

Bournemouth University

Alex Dunford

Physiotherapy lecturer and placement lead at Bournemouth University

Summary of placement

Six week placement for final year physiotherapy students. The students were based at the care home with a long arm supervisor. Long arm supervising refers to the process whereby a supervisor, who is located at a distance to the practice learning area, takes responsibility for supervising, supporting, and assessing the student. Students also have a key worker who is a named member of staff at the care home who supervises them on a day-to-day basis. The placement was set up with 2:1 model of supervisor with two students per care home with one long arm supervisor. Students were able to have two-three hours per week supervision with the long arm supervisor across the week. Supervision was a mixture of face to face and virtual supervision.

The student’s objective where to:

1. Identify the needs of the residents at the care home – For example, group class to increase activity or individual need to help with mobility
2. Set up appropriate physiotherapy service for future students and residents – For example, exercise class that can be handed over to the staff

We have run three very successful placements like this and will continue to.

Benefits

Students get experience of:

  • Working independently which is helpful for qualification

  • Managing their own case load

  • Building communication skills

  • Clinical reasoning

Challenges

  • Initially you will need time to set the placement up

  • Recruiting staff to be long arm supervisors

Advice you’d give to others

  • Training both students and long arm supervisors (practice educators)

  • Works well with long arm supervisors with an interest and experience in practice education

  • Mix of face to face and virtual meetings

  • 2:1 model supervision

  • Allocation criteria – best for experienced 2nd years of 3rd years