Support for newly qualified clinical practitioners

We aim to design a framework that will help the newly qualified clinical staff self-assess their learning needs and access the relevant knowledge, behaviours and attributes they need through a developmental program. To generate data to inform this framework we are currently undertaking a scoping exercise by telephone survey, identifying case study sites for further exploration and will host a knowledge exchange conference where best practice can be shared and the proposed framework modified in light of information received.

The impact on practice will be through the production of the self-assessment preceptorship framework, generated from the data. The research process itself will also have an impact on the way people think and work with newly qualified staff.

Primarily, the framework will be designed for:

• Newly qualified staff wherever they are based in Health Education Kent, Surrey and Sussex that enables individual practitioners to evaluate and plan their own personal, professional and career development;
• Senior practitioners acting as supervisors/preceptors of newly qualified staff;
• Managers supporting newly qualified practitioner programs for their staff;
• Educational leads, trainers, developers, human resources specialists and career advisors in the planning and provision of support for clinical practitioners;
• Heath Education Training Boards in making decisions about their strategic approach for the development of newly qualified staff;
• Patients who can be assured that newly qualified staff are receiving appropriate and effective support and are competent and confident to provide safe patient care. 

The framework will also be of use for:

• Commissioners of preceptorship programs
• Employers who seek to induct and support clinical staff new to their Trust
• Students interested in undertaking a clinical career in health from other sectors
• The public with an interest in the development of newly qualified clinical practitioners. 

Impact through the knowledge exchange conference

The knowledge exchange conference is thought to be a useful strategy to bring people together and start them working collaboratively. Research into innovation among business communities has demonstrated that business ‘rivals’ are more likely to co-operate and work together in face-to-face meetings (Rush, 2013). The democratization of innovation, whereby practitioners invent, modify and freely exchange information creates an atmosphere that promotes creative thinking and working (Flowers, 2013). This will establish the ethos of creative communities and open access that will be characteristic throughout the entire project. Break-out sessions will use the Knowledge Café (KC) format, a well-used quality improvement technique to stimulate and create 'awakening and engaging collective intelligence through conversations about questions that matter' (NHS Scotland, 2013). A Knowledge Cafe can cross-pollinate ideas, and surface new insights into questions or issues that are collectively important. The KC method has pre-determined open-ended questions, which are posed to small groups working around tables. The whole group then re-assembles to share ideas. The KC will capture ways of working that link educational interventions with patient priorities. Core research team members will facilitate each table and collate the information. A plenary session will collate all the ideas, create a network of innovators and determine ways of working together in the future.

Download the HEKSS final report