Increasing GP Capacity in the Region

Embedding work placements.

Since 2021 we have seconded a member of staff to NHS England (South East) to be a Project Lead for Placement Expansion for Nursing and Allied undergraduate health professionals across the Wessex Region.

This role involves liaising with health professionals with GP surgeries to encourage them to host undergraduate student placements within primary care. One of the main aims from this is to promote health and social care students to consider roles within primary care as future career opportunities. There have been a number of alumni students from HEI’s, including the University of Portsmouth, who have now secured posts as practice nurses within their previous primary care placement area.

In addition this role supports the quality assurance processes, undertaking Learning Environment Audits for any surgery that is currently or is planning to host students. This ensures that students are being exposed to high quality placement areas where patient care is both safe and effective.

From 2023 onwards the role has expanded for the secondee to become an overarching ‘Super Assessor’. This role has enabled them to act as a long arm Practice Assessor to support any Registered Nurse who is coaching students for the first time. This additional support has meant that many surgeries have felt more comfortable to host students with the knowledge that they can escalate any concerns or guidance that they require from the seconded member of staff.