Staff Roles
at Chesterfield Royal Hospital
There are many roles within the Trust that you will come into contact with during your clinical placement. Each role will have its own responsibilities in terms of how they will be able to support you. Please bear in mind that some of the roles within this list are CRH-specific and others will be found nationally.
PLE
The Practice Learning Educators are based within the CPL team and will be introduced to you during your Trust induction.
Their responsibilities are to support staff and students during placements and are based at point of care out in clinical practice. They keep in direct contact with the ward LEMs, PA's ,PS's, Matrons and ward staff.
The PLE's deliver the PS and PA training to staff and will deliver some of the clinical skills training to students (e.g. BM training, medicines administration, MYEPAD).
If you have any questions, concerns, feedback or worries, do not hesitate to come and speak with any of them - the team operates 7am - 7pm Monday - Fri excluding BH.
LEM
At least one Learning Environment Manager is allocated to each clinical placement area.
They are responsible for maintaining the overall quality of learning environment in their area.
This is an additional role, therefore have sound clinical experience in the area they are allocated.
Specific duties include the allocation of shifts and staff to students, regular update meetings with the CPL team and creation of learning resources for their area. If there are any issues you have with your placement, the LEM should be made aware.
Practice Assessor
When you are allocated to a placement area, the LEM, in addition to shifts, will also allocate you a Practice Assessor. This person will be responsible for tracking your overall progression through placement. The time spent working alongside this person must be strictly limited (flexibility afforded in very small teams). It is their responsibility to carry out your mid-point/final interviews and to verify your achievement at the end of placement.
To do so, as they will not be working alongside you, they require evidence of your achievement (e.g. direct feedback a PS, written testimony or (predominantly) through your reflections.
Although you will not work directly with this person very often, it is best practice to keep in close contact with them and keep them aware of any issues you may be having.
Practice Supervisor
Practice Supervisors are any professionally registered member of staff within the Trust and are responsible for working alongside students to ensure that they achieve the proficiencies set by university.
Students do not need to be allocated a PS for their whole placement but will more likely be allocated to them for a shorter period of time (e.g. allocated at the start of each shift).
There is no maximum/minimum set number of PSs that a student can work with on placement. Who a student works with must depend on what they specifically need to achieve. The PS will be responsible for working with, teaching, observing and ultimately helping the student gather evidence to prove their achievement.
Coach
When on placement, there will be members of staff that you will encounter that do not hold a professional registration (e.g. HCA, AP). At CRH, these individuals are referred to as Coaches.
There are many skills to learn and proficiencies that can be achieved through working alongside coaches, however, they will not have access to your documentation.
If you require evidence from the time spent with a coach, they are required to feed this back (verbally or written) to your PS for this day who will then be responsible for adding this to your documentation officially.
LF
The Learning Facilitator is a qualified Nursing Associate and supports the practice learning educators out at point of care.
They are the lead on Moving and Handling for students and will be the contact for point of care moving and handing support and guidance.
They are also the lead for Direct Entry Trainee Nursing Associates (DETNA's)
Academic Assessor
Prior to starting placement, you should already be aware of your Academic Assessor, who will be allocated to you for each Part of the programme.
The AA is responsible for tracking your progress throughout the year and must keep in close contact with your PA to ensure this.
If there are any concerns with your progression, the AA will be informed and will come to support you alongside the PA. It will be your AA that verifies your overall achievement at the end of the year.
Link
Tutor
Whilst on placement, you may be visited by a Link Tutor. This person will be a member of university faculty that carries out regular visits across all of the placement areas. Rather than being allocated to specific students, the Link Tutor is allocated to the Trust and is responsible, alongside the CPL team, for ensuring student progression and wellbeing. The ward visits give both students and staff the opportunity to highlight any issues/concerns that may have arisen.
Students
At CRH there are a variety of students that will be present on clinical placements, with differing backgrounds, professions, levels of experience and universities. It is the responsibility of each student to evidence their achievement during placement. We would encourage, if beneficial for your learning, getting alongside other more-experienced students for a period of time. Doing so will add to your learning and will also develop the teaching skills of others.