Who are we and most importantly what do we do all day
The role of the Practice Placement Coordinator (PPC) within the Trust is an integral to the smooth management of the students from our partner Universities during their practice placements with us.
There are four Coordinators who work to support both the Practice Educators (previously known as Mentors) and the Student Paramedics on placement within the Trust.
In total SWASFT provides placements for over 560 paramedic students at present, rising to 630 from 1st April 2020, studying across four Universities – UWE, Gloucester, Plymouth and Bournemouth. This is in addition to our own internal HE Diploma students who also require the skills and knowledge of Placement Educators.
Our aim is to support and develop both our Practice Educators and Students to help promote a sustainable workforce of the future, which in the long run benefits our service users.
Our remit includes-
- Supporting Practice Educators (PEs) during & outside of placement time
- Encouraging Paramedics to complete a mentorship course and attend the update days
- Delivering PE update days
- Supporting our students in preparation for placements – arranging manual handling days, meds/kit and vehicle familiarisation days, corporate induction days, and station inductions
- Providing a placement link between the Universities, their academic advisors (tutors), programme teams and their support services
- Supporting both PEs and students with all placement concerns
- Attending local operational meetings and University update meetings
- Arranging external observer requests
However, this list is not exhaustive and each day throws up new challenges.
We are also very fortunate to have Jennings Mitchell within the team who is the University Liaison Officer for the Trust. He works hand in hand with the PPC’s and Universities ensuring all student paramedics are prepared for their placements on the road by setting up their honorary contracts, sorting out the ESR numbers and arranging for them to be added on to GRS. This enables students to book on to the vehicles each shift (a really important safety feature as we know where students are in case of an incident, helps plan placements more effectively, and provides an accurate record of hours). He also arranges access to be granted for each student to use the new JRCALC app.
Jennings is always available to help with any careers advice throughout the students’ journey to becoming an NQP, and plays a key role in their recruitment. He is responsible for organising our very important yearly student conference which is growing in popularity each year.
You can find out more about each of us in the ‘Meet the Practice Placement Coordination team’ section below