In Northumberland we have 38 GP practices, and currently less than 10 of these regularly host student nurses. My practice – Netherfield House Surgery – is looking at new ways to host students and it seems to be working. We are a mid-sized GP practice with 7000 patients. Our latest student intake included two adult nursing and two children's nursing students. They were on placement for 97 hours per week in total. My nursing team equate to 80 hours per week. We are outnumbered by students, and it works incredibly well. In the last 3 years we have supported over 20 student nurses.
Putting students at the centre of the team
We work very closely with Northumbria University and Health Education England and their Effective Learning Environments Team to ensure that we can offer the maximum number of student placements. We put students at the centre of our nursing team and as such can host multiple students at the same time. I am incredibly passionate about making sure that students know primary care is an option for them when they qualify; we will only attract newly qualified nurses to general practice if they get the right experience as students.
Student-led projects are vital
When hosting multiple students, it is vital that they be given a project to work on. Recently our four students held a diabetes prevention day and saw 65 patients in one day. The students provided patients with health checks, education and onward referrals if needed.
‘If we continue to think of students as a burden to our clinics, that is all they will continue to be. If we can change our mindset to reflect the incredible skills that our students have, we can begin to incorporate them into our own practices.’
The students devised the event. They created literature, handouts and produced posters and interactive displays. We hosted adult, children's and mental health student nurses and the unique perspective that each brought to the event contributed to its success. Students often begin their placement not seeing the relevance of it to their training, and concerned that there will not be enough learning opportunities. Projects such as this enable them to apply the knowledge they have to improve patient care, which is very rewarding for them.
Using a coaching model
We adopt a coaching model, enabling the more senior students to take on a supervising role. We encourage them to manage their own case load of patients. We take 10 minutes every morning to coordinate the session. The students can work alongside a nurse, or manage the student-led clinic. By letting the students work more independently we are all reaping the benefits. The students link into all members of the practice as needed, including our GPs, pharmacy team and link workers.
Hosting multiple students
I am very grateful to have a practice manager who supports our goal to host multiple students. The current tariff means many practices do not consider hosting students. We received £1950 to host 4 part-time students. We have used some of this tariff to pay for teaching equipment, and to allow me 1 hour per week to support the students. We have found that the impact on my clinics is lessened when there are more students, as they are able to offer peer support to each other.
Changing mindsets
If we continue to think of students as a burden to our clinics, that is all they will continue to be. If we can change our mindset to reflect the incredible skills that our students have, we can begin to incorporate them into our own practices. Students need to learn from us, to see how we work autonomously, and how to delegate and seek advice as needed. To do this we need to allow them to experience that first hand. Our latest students saw almost 500 patients in their student led clinics over 10 weeks. Each encounter was an opportunity for them to learn and develop and hopefully inspire them to aim for practice nursing as their first choice career. Hosting student nurses is such a rewarding part of my role and I would encourage all practices to look at ways to incorporate them into their teams after they qualify.