Professional Experience Placement

It is recognised that clinical supervisors, facilitators or preceptors require peer support, advice and guidance from education providers. A paper about this topic in non-traditional settings by my colleagues Zournazis and Marlow (in press) describes an evaluation they undertook to develop a community of practice in this setting using video conferencing. This methodology was developed to provide another flexible method in addition to the audioteleconfering, blog and microblog strategies used to support students and supervisors in practice.

The authors provide background about methods to support preceptors in practice and recognised there has been a lack of strategies to support to preceptors in rural and remote settings. An adjunct to this pilot study funded by the Tasmanian Clinical Education Network through Health Workforce Australia also funded a range of projects of which some focused on supporting rural and remote practitioners. A summary of the projects including a tele-assistance method is available.

The monthly learning and teaching video conferencing sessions were evaluated by 27 respondents and analysed using Microsoft Excel. The main findings indicated that workload pressures prevented attendance. Compounding factors were accessibility and relevancy of discussion topics. Furthermore accessibility due to scheduling time and day of week of sessions impacted on attendance. Learning culture and support were also found to be of relevance where some participants noting that organisational culture and workload pressures precluded attendance. The authors also noted that participants were neutral in their responses regarding the networking opportunity the sessions offered. This pilot study provides a platform for further work regarding networking of healthcare workers. It seems from the findings of this study and the blog and microblog evaluations that learning to network could be an area of focus for the future!

Last weeks blog also alluded to the opportunity through @PEPCommunity to share experiences, ideas or information about clinical supervision. It is this networking that enables support, confirmation and growth of knowledge about topics of interest. Communities of practice of healthcare professionals with similar interests can enable a learning community. Whether the community of practice meets synchronously such as via videoconferencing or  asynchronously through a microblog, there are opportunities available for topics of interest about clinical supervision, preceptorship or facilitation to be discussed. In 2015 I urge you to grasp this opportunity, network with your colleagues and join the conversation.

If you have any comments or would like to share any insights about this blog or study, you are welcome to post them here. Join us @PEPCommunity.