Student nurses to get first-hand experience of working in general practice
Student nurses in North Kirklees now have the opportunity to undertake work placements within a GP practice setting through an accredited training programme as well as continuing to be able to access placements in other healthcare settings such as the local hospitals and community nursing.
The Advanced Training Practice (ATP) project has been successfully operating across
Yorkshire and Humber for the last five years. ATP’s are practices accredited to provide undergraduate training placements. The project aims to increase the number of undergraduate nurses experiencing general practice and therefore the number who may consider practice nursing as a career option. 90% of students have said that they would consider a career in primary care as a result of the placement.
A Nursing and Midwifery (NMC) qualified Nurse Mentor in the practice supervises and tutors the student nurses. This gives student nurses the experience and knowledge of a variety of conditions that they wouldn’t usually encounter in community or hospital placements.
Benefits of the ATP project for the student nurses include being supported by the whole practice team and having an opportunity to learn from a range of professionals within the practice.
Dr Andrew Cameron, a local GP involved in this project and a Governing Body member of NHS North Kirklees Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) said: “We hope this new model will further improve and modernise the education that student nurses receive and contribute to the quality of care for the patient. We also hope that more student nurses will consider a career as a general practice nurse.”
Student nurses will benefit from this new way of working through focused one-to-one mentoring support and gain a better understanding of health promotion messages in preventing or managing long-term conditions so that hospital admissions can be reduced.
Locally, the hub contract is funded by NHS North Kirklees CCG in partnership with Health Education Yorkshire and the Humber who established the ATP scheme within the region.
In North Kirklees, there are currently 10 qualified nurse mentors, one nurse training to be a mentor and six nurses waiting to commence mentor training as part of this project.