As a larger group practice we decided many years ago to become a training practice to benefit patients and staff alike from the training experience. We are fortunate to have a lot of experienced and highly qualified clinicians working in this practice and superb support staff.
In 2005 we joined the government funded workplace training schemes for administration staff so they could all complete their ECDL’s and NVQs in customer service. Because this went so well we decided to expand our scope and introduced in-house training for all clinicians. This takes place every other month and enables clinicians to receive additional regular training which is course and case specific and often covers specialist areas of clinical practice. We are pleased to welcome external speakers as well as receiving peer review presentations and case studies. Undergraduate and post-graduate students on placement with us are expected to join in and contribute to these sessions.
Our clinicians also attend regular external courses and conferences which ensures they exceed the legal requirements of continuing professional development and bring knowledge back to the practice for the benefit of colleagues.
In 2013 we became a work placement employer for 16 to 24 year olds via Job Centre Plus. This means we allow young people who struggle to find employment, either due to a lack of job experience or because of the recession, to come to us for job share experience for 8 weeks alongside our front desk and back office staff. This is a really excellent way of giving these youngsters confidence, skills and experience whilst still being able to apply for work. They receive training and mentoring from colleagues who are in the jobs they want to gain whilst being expected to achieve the same standards and give the same level of service our employees are expected to give. Whilst you may see a slight difference in their appearance (they don’t wear our uniforms) we hope you won’t notice any other other difference (well, certainly not after a few weeks with us….!).
In 2010 Mr Head became a registered Mentor for the Society of Chiropodists & Podiatrists (now called College of Podiatry) which means he mentors undergraduate students (usually final year students) in clinic, post graduate students needing to gain specific experience in a specialist area of clinical practice and he also supervises Podiatrists who are regaining their registration following a period of absence from the profession, usually a career break to start a family or a change in career which they decided to return from (known as “return to workers” or Mentees).
What does this mean in practice?
This means you may see more than person on reception when you arrive (one will be on work placement with us) and you may meet and be treated by more than one clinician at your appointment.
You may be asked to receive treatment from any students we are mentoring (both undergraduate and postgraduate) and return to workers. Supervised clinical practice and training is a vital part of all medical professionals development and enables skills to be gained and perfected in the real world on real people.
The professionals who treat you (whether students or not) have all received many years of training both at universities and in clinical settings before coming to us and will only be allowed to perform tasks that are well within their capabilities and scope of practice.
You should not be concerned at all by this, you will always be asked if you are happy to be treated by undergraduate students and will be informed if you are to receive treatment by a Mentee or return to worker (these are already qualified professionals who are with us for post graduate training and so you are seeing someone who has many years of post graduate experience and so are not the same as an undergraduate student).
Can I refuse to be treated by a student or a Mentee?
Yes, you do not have to be treated by a student or a Mentee if you do not wish to be and your refusal will not affect the quality of your care or treatment plan in any way. In our experience patients really like having a student or Mentee present as they get to learn a lot more about their condition, sometimes receive longer appointments where more is done for them (at no extra charge) and will always receive the same (or better) standard of care as they would receive had the student not been present.
Because we train others we have to keep up to date and be better than average ourselves so you will gain from our continual learning and development, we also have a lot of up to date equipment and technology that many practices don’t have because we use it for student training and Mentoring.
Please do not feel embarrassed or concerned if you have any questions about or would rather not be part of student training, just mention to the supervising clinician your concerns and they will treat you themselves.
“Practice does not make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect…..”