BPACHS facilitated a discussion between the senior management team from Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust (CNWL) and Dr Mark Wareing, Department Director for Practice Education at Brunel, around the needs of pre-registration students, resulting in the creation of a pilot corporate placement to be launched in April 2024.
This four-week non-clinical placement will offer Brunel University healthcare professions students a unique opportunity to rotate between the quality improvement, safety, performance, information and business intelligence teams. The corporate placement will provide learners with a deep immersive experience of governance, patient safety, data and project management within a large and diverse Foundation NHS Trust serving London, Milton Keynes, Surrey and areas beyond.
Dr Wareing commented:
"The recent successful approval of our pre-registration MSc nursing programme has provided us with an opportunity to focus down on the career aspirations of students who maybe commencing their studies with a first post destination in mind, as well as other undergraduate students who may not be necessarily aware of the breadth of roles open to healthcare professionals within the corporate sphere. The success of corporate as well as non-traditional placements is contingent on a co-creation model, which has strengthened our partnership with CNWL; one of several door-step practice partners we are working with to expand and diversify practice education for all our students and apprentices".
The placement is to be offered initially to occupational therapy and nursing students with plans for expansion to other programmes such as Physiotherapy. Students allocated to the corporate placement will engage in a blended, virtual learning experience and will be fully supported by practice staff to successfully complete project work that showcases patient, client and service user quality enhancement.