“Hello, my name is Lucy Compiani. I am a Practice Educator in the Our Dorset Workforce Delivery Team. I started here in May 2021 on a twelve-month secondment from my substantive post as a Specialist Nurse for Children in Care at Dorset HealthCare.

I have been a nurse for over ten years, mostly working within Public Health, and when I saw this role advertised, I felt it was an exciting opportunity to be part of our Integrated Care System (ICS) and make a real difference to our future workforce in Dorset.

I had always been passionate about the importance of sharing good practice and expertise and had enjoyed supporting students and colleagues with their learning.

With the introduction of the Integrated Care System in Dorset, the Placement Expansion Programme, and the unique challenges that the NHS is currently facing-it felt like the perfect time to pursue my interest in development and education. The ICS commitment to supporting and developing a workforce with the skills and expertise to support people in Dorset to lead healthier lives, for longer, really resonated with me.

I was a little apprehensive about moving from a role where I felt confident and experienced into a new role, in a different organisation, but if 2020 taught me anything, it’s that life is too short, and it’s good to try something new and step outside of your comfort zone!

Dorset is lucky to be part of a Clinical Placement Expansion Project to increase the availability of nursing and allied health professional placements across primary care and social care. There has been a significant growth in student numbers this year across all healthcare professions. Applications in England have risen by 34% for nursing and 27% for allied health professionals and the Department of Health and Social Care have pledged to deliver an extra 50,000 nurses by 2025. There is real national recognition and commitment to the importance of expanding clinical placements to support the learning and development of our future health and care workforce, with Health Education England recently announcing an extra £15 million funding towards clinical placement expansion.

I really enjoy the variety and the opportunities to collaborate with colleagues across primary care, social care, NHS Trusts, Higher Education Institutions and Health Education England. Whether it’s identifying new placement opportunities, facilitating training for practice supervisors and practice assessors, providing pastoral support for our learners, working creatively to solve placement challenges, thinking strategically about our wider ICS workstreams, or working with quality teams to ensure a high-quality placement offer-each day is different, and there is a real sense of satisfaction seeing the positive impact our efforts are having.”