5 issues with student clinical work placements and how to tackle them - How leading universities are gaining a signifi cant advantage in the race ...
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5 issues with student clinical work placements and how to tackle them How leading universities are gaining a significant advantage in the race to place students into work experience positions.
The future of learning
is in the workplace
From healthcare to education, social services to law, degree programs
incorporate significant blocks of workplace learning. Such learning is crucial to a
student’s growth, providing a practical opportunity to apply classroom knowledge
in real-world situations.
According to a study from the Swinburne Centre for New Workforce, work-
integrated learning is only going to grow in the future. The report states that
learning-integrated work – “where learning is increasingly taken off campus and
immersed in disruptive work environments” – is getting more important with the
rise of digital technologies.1
Universities must prepare To stay at the top of their game About this report
and ensure that their students don’t
for this future, now miss out on placements, universities Within this paper, we explore the
need to: issue of workplace learning within
Universities must prepare for this
the context of the healthcare sector,
growth in workplace learning – which • Be trusted data custodians
specifically nursing. We examine the
means preparing for the logistical – responsible for keeping all
challenges that universities face when
challenge of connecting thousands of students’ private information and
trying to place thousands of nurses
students with thousands of different documentation secure
into wards; and demonstrate how
workplace opportunities. • Streamline and speed up the InPlace presents a powerful solution.
placement process – replacing
In nursing, for example, already 50% paper-based, ad-hoc systems with
of a student’s time is spent on the one central system
wards. Yet, acccording to Birks et
• Better align students with the
al, student nurses are critical of the
appropriate placements – so that
lack of time they have to prepare for
students are consistently sent to Learning is increasingly
placements.2 To boost their reputation
the right work experience jobs at
and ranking, universities need to
tackle such issues head-on.
the right time taken off campus and
• Empower students to have a say
about placements – to boost the
immersed in disruptive
With competition fierce, every student experience and enhance work environments.
the reputation of the university
placement counts
• Gain complete visibility across
Across the globe, student numbers all placements – to ensure more
are rising. Yet in most industries, strategic relationship-building
the availability of placements is not. with the hospitals, schools and
Competition between universities for workplaces in which placements
placement positions is rife. occur
1 Swinburne Centre for the New Workforce, “Peak Human Potential: Preparing Australia’s workforce for the digital future.”
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/media/swinburneeduau/centre-for-the-new-workforce/cnew-national-survey-report.pdf
2 Prof. Melanie Birks, Camilla Burkot, Tracy Bagley, Prof. Jane Mills, Dr Tanya Park, “The impact of clinical placement model on
learning in nursing: A descriptive exploratory study.” http://www.ajan.com.au/Vol34/Issue3/2Birks.pdf
2
The cost of manually
managing student
work experience
Using nursing as an example, it’s clear that many universities struggle with the
task of placing students in work experience.
Within a typical nursing school, placement managers must try to coordinate
thousands of clinical placements every year, matching up individual students with
their requisite clinical placements in aged care, paediatrics, theatre and more –
across different wards and hospitals, and with different supervisors.
Without a centralised system for managing the process, these schools spend
excessive time on the task. Five overarching issues emerge.
It’s too complex An inefficient process A lack of visibility
Working out which student nurses Without a central system, placement Using a manual system, universities
need to go where, and then working managers set up their own lack real insights into the hospitals
out which hospitals have spots spreadsheets and documents to and facilities they are sending
available to suit the needs of each keep track of clinical placements. students to – which can have a
student, is complex. Even within the same Faculty, negative effect on their relationship.
different courses might manage
Placement managers must liaise things differently – be it Post it And, without the right data, it is very
with health providers, students notes, spreadsheets or untraceable hard to optimise the match of students
and university staff, trying to keep phone calls. to placements based on things like
everyone happy. They must also tick distance to travel, pre-requisites or
off a huge number of tasks, from This approach is ad-hoc and student requests – unless you spend
gathering student information and inefficient, laborious and time- a lot of time on the task.
calculating placement demand to consuming. With no way to co-
collating post-placement assessments ordinate placements centrally across
and reports. disciplines, the Faculty or university
experiences a drain on productivity.
3
Without the right
data, it is very hard to
optimise the match of
students to placements
based on things like
distance to travel,
pre-requisites or
student requests –
unless you spend a lot
of time on the task.
Missing out on placements Negative impact on partnerships
In the face of increased competition If an education provider is trying silos; their uncoordinated approach has
amongst universities – where there to develop partnerships with the potential to damage relationships
are more students competing for organisations who offer student work with employer partners.
fewer placements – manual systems placement opportunities, it’s vital
can really slow a university down. to ensure a consistently managed Conversely, if a centralised,
process so as not to frustrate those coordinated approach is adopted,
Placement managers may be slower organisations. partnerships flourish. Plus, at the
to respond to offers, potentially executive level, having access to
causing students to miss out on For example, a university may send a snapshot of all university-wide
the spot they want or need. This, in students from different courses – such interactions with major employer
turn, is damaging to the university’s as nursing and physiotherapy – to the partners is a valuable resource – which
reputation. same hospital. In many cases, staff is near impossible to achieve without
from the different courses operate in an integrated operational platform.
4
CASE STUDY:
AUSTRALIAN CATHOLIC
UNIVERSITY (ACU)
InPlace connects students
to clinical placements
The platform is also a critical enabler of growth
Australian Catholic University (ACU) documentation flying every which Students thrive with InPlace
prides itself on being a university with way – could have coped with such
a conscience, embedding empathy rapid growth. We needed a system ACU nursing students are actively
into every aspect of the learning that would streamline our existing engaging with InPlace. Before
environment. Its Faculty of Health placement process and grow with embarking on a placement, they can
Sciences is no exception, shaping us,” said Patrick Player, Associate log in and check that they have all the
students into citizens who improve the Director, Student Systems. documentation ready to go – things like
lives of others through the provision of immunisation records, police checks or
world-leading health care. Previously, the university’s placement working with children checks.
managers would handle placements
Giving them real-life experience in the using ad-hoc, paper-based systems. Then, when it’s time to start a
form of clinical placements is critical There was no central record; placement, students can check where
to students’ growth, and ACU places gathering any type of statistical data they need to go on their first day,
immense value on this component was “horrendous”. who to report to, and so on. This
of learning. In an increasively transparency instils confidence in the
competitive tertiary landscape, the To fix the problem and prepare the students and also helps them make a
ability to provide positive experiences university for growth, ACU chose great first impression with hospital staff.
in this area is also critical to the InPlace. It is used to not only handle
university’s growth. all student placements in one central “The students love the opportunities
system, but also to: module in InPlace – it’s where they go
to choose their own placement. For
• Generate reports for both
Just in time for rapid growth example, they may want to go to a
government and partner institutions hospital that’s close to home. For our
InPlace was implemented at ACU • Offer opportunity-based placement managers, it means that
in 2012, when there were 15,000 placements and reporting all student requests are housed in the
students. Since then, student
• Handle community engagements one spot, instead of juggling emails
numbers have doubled – there are
from all over the place,” said Player.
now 31,000 students. Its nursing
school is Australia’s largest, with over The university has plans to use
6,500 students and 12,000 clinical InPlace across more Faculties in the
experiences per year across four cities. near future, and Incorporate more
modules from the InPlace platform –
“There is no way that our old such as the log book which students
practices – where we managed can complete and submit after a day’s
student placements one by one, with placement – to drive further value.
5
With InPlace, we can confidently help In 2018, across the
thousands of students gain the correct whole university,
clinical experience every year, so both they there were 33,950
and we have the confidence that they are fully placements and 15,045
compliant to graduate into their career. students placed in work
experience positions.
Patrick Player,
Associate Director, Student Systems
InPlace gives ACU a competitive edge A bright future at ACU
The placement market is becoming InPlace also boosts ACU’s reputation With enrolments doubling in the last
increasingly competitive – universities as a reliable, professional university five years, the future of the Faculty
are growing fast, yet the number to partner with. “It’s important that the of Health Sciences at ACU is bright.
of placement positions in hospitals students we place are appropriate for Player and his team look forward to
isn’t. Universities need to be at the the position and the hospital. InPlace expanding the capacity of InPlace
top of their game if they want to give has checks and balances to ensure within the Faculty and introducing it to
students the best opportunities when this – which in turn ensures that we other faculties across the university so
it comes to clinical experience. don’t upset our hospital partners.” that more staff, students and partner
institutions can realise the efficiencies
ACU is certainly up there. In 2018, Using InPlace, all placement that it delivers.
across the whole university, there managers across ACU have the
were 33,950 placements and 15,045 same access and can see if the
students placed in work experience university is getting close to its quota
positions. for a particular hospital. With most
hospitals only allowing a certain
“InPlace helps us take up placements number of placements, this visibility
faster. Without it, we would struggle is not just useful, but important
to assign all of our students to for maintaining those positive
placements. Plus, it gives us an edge relationships with hospital partners.
– we can match students to suitable
placement opportunities before
other universities take the spots,”
Player said.
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WHY INPLACE?
Grow your placement
program, grow your
reputation
To remain competitive when it comes to workplace learning,
universities must replace ad-hoc approaches with a centralised
clinical placement system. By doing so, you will enhance the
student experience, boost your reputation and build stronger
relationships with the institutions you are placing students in.
Why InPlace is the preferred choice
InPlace – the web-based solution that connects students to workplaces – transforms
the way that universities manage placements. It provides a comprehensive end to
end solution for managing all clinical placement requirements, saving universities
huge amounts of time and money and providing a critical advantage in today’s
competitive environment.
Off the shelf, yet easily adaptable A better student experience Boost to productivity
With a flexible framework to meet the With InPlace, students can access The automative smarts of InPlace
exact requirements of each education personalised work experience significantly reduce the administrative
provider, InPlace can be used by information from a ‘mobile first’ burden, freeing up student services to
small schools through to large experience which automatically adjusts pursue more strategic, value-added
universities, for short placements to their device. Hosted on Microsoft tasks. Academic staff and supervisors
to longer ones. It integrates with Azure, InPlace is accessible securely, spend less time on admin, giving them
most student record systems, any time, anywhere – convenient for more time to focus on enhancing the
providing a direct and automated students locally and/or for those doing quality of the learning experience.
link with student enrolments. international work experience.
For example, at one university, the
InPlace can easily be modified if, From a single log-in, students can task of organising participants –
for example, you are expanding view all their current and planned work including emails to all involved to
courses or adding new ones. In placement details; they can easily book and reorganise placements –
fact, it supports the evolution of upload important documents like police has been automated with InPlace to
your courses with its powerful checks or immunisation records; they deliver time savings of up to 70%.
predictive modelling – helping to can preference particular opportunities
design programs based on at hospitals close to home; they can
placement availability, so as to submit online evaluations and keep a
maximise learning opportunities. log book of their clinical experiences;
they can even organise car pooling to
work settings. All this, with complete
confidence in the privacy of this
sensitive data.
7
One InPlace customer has saved 289 Using InPlace, they can respond
days of administrative work each year faster and more accurately when
in managing placements across all of managing placements – a win
its courses, an aggregate efficiency for the student, the hospitals and
gain of 52%. the university.
Invaluable feedback Data at your fingertips A more competitive footing
All the evaluations and feedback InPlace records vital information Ultimately, InPlace enables
coming back from a hospital, or even about each placement a student universities to get on the front foot
a ward, are stored centrally and undertakes – including experience with placements. Using InPlace,
digitally within InPlace. Universities and duration, exact attendance they can respond faster and
can look at any placement provider’s details, supervision, mandatory more accurately when managing
record in InPlace and see all historical training, fitness for practice referrals, placements – a win for the student,
and current placements, student theoretical achievements and more. the hospitals and the university.
feedback, associated personnel,
incidents and more. For supervisors, this ability to see Looking at this from the other side,
at-a-glance where a student is at without InPlace providing accurate
Armed with these insights, universities is vital to supporting their learning matches between students and
can look for trends about a hospital’s journey. It also helps to ensure that placement positions, there is a risk
performance as a placement provider, students are gaining all the necessary that the university could send students
which in turn helps to develop a skills they need to be successful in to inappropriate placements that they
stronger program and better outcomes the workplace. are perhaps not ready for. When this
for students. Ultimately, it leads to happens, hospitals may relegate the
enhanced quality of patient care. InPlace and Microsoft Azure work university to the bottom of the priority
tirelessly to ensure all data is hosted list, which increases the pressure on
safely and securely, a working the placement sourcing process.
combination that complies with and
exceeds the strict guidelines and data By overcoming all of the logistical
protection requirements mandated by and administrative challenges
institutes across the globe. with a central, secure, automated
system like InPlace, universities can
transform the way that placements
are managed. In the highly
competitive higher education sector,
such transformation is fundamental to
long-term success.
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InPlace, built by QuantumIT, is the market-leading clinical
placement system used by higher education institutes worldwide.
InPlace is a complete placement solution, designed to support all
placement models in tertiary education institutions with a highly automated,
productivity focussed solution that is used by coordinators, academics,
students and employers to collaborate online in the organisation of work
placements for all disciplines and faculties.
It is unique in the market in being able to cater for the varying requirements
of many disciplines in a single integrated database.
Oceania UK and Europe USA and Canada Asia & Middle East
Melbourne (Australia) London (United Kingdom) Denver, Colorado (USA) Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia)
T: +613 8650 9800 T: +44 (0)207 0962152 T: +1704 966 2100 T: +60 173507677
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VIC 3053 London, EC1V 2NX CO, 80205 No 8, Jalan Kerinchi
Bangsar South 59200
team@inplacesoftware.com
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