1. Megan, from your experience as a nursing student representative, would you support student representation from other disciplines as the project extends beyond nursing?

Yes

2. What is your recommended ratio of students to supervisors?

ANMAC doesn’t specify a ratio, and there is no mandate, but we would expect students to be properly supervised all shift by appropriately prepared and qualified supervisors. We mostly work on one hour of supervision per student per day. So, if a placement had 8 students, there would be a full time facilitator.

3. Is there a question in the questionnaire related to whether a specific model is used to guide preceptorship of students?

No, there is no such question currently.

4. I think that preceptors should be provided an opportunity to give feedback if they are also supported to be a preceptor/mentor. Is this built into the tool?

Good point – we will consider this for the future.

5. I commend the efforts in developing this program which will be invaluable in supporting students while holding our organisations/facilitators/universities accountable for their role in clinical education. Do you think this program will support a wider variety of placement opportunities for nursing students?

This may be possible in the future as we begin to gain an overview of all current placements

6. Where students identify inadequate supervision, how quickly will this be addressed?

If students rate a placement poorly, the NPEC will send the corresponding University co-ordinator(s) an alert to enable them to take action.

7. Has there been feedback from the data that students want more clinical placement time?

We have not asked this question directly and have no such reports as yet.

8. There has been some discussion regarding student supervisor preparation, do you think we need to improve student preparation for placement?

Yes, possibly – we will be able to make a decision on this as evaluations are received.

9. Can I please confirm midwifery students are included?

Yes

1. Can PET be used for Allied Health students?

The Centre will start with Nursing and Midwifery professions and move into Allied Health in the future.

2. Will there be evaluation tools for Nurse Practitioner student clinical placements in the future? 

This may be a possibility in the future.

3. Any thoughts of extending the evaluation tool to new graduates 12 months out in the workforce of how the course and clinical placements prepared them for the workforce?

This may be a possibility in the future.

4. Where are the trials in NZ?

Trials are currently under discussion with various parties.  

5. Is there any thought about extending the evaluation tool to the VET industry?

In the near future we expect the PET to be rolled out to Enrolled Nurse students.

1. How have the findings of the evaluations been translated into recommendations for improving the student experience on clinical placement & how are these communicated to the industry - Specifically, in the hospital environment for RNs. Furthermore, is there a possibility of a standardised national clinical assessment tool for all RNs on placement, so this can be benchmarked and more streamlined for assessments?

Evaluation outcomes will be considered in light of the context and situation. As such, it is likely that we will need to design interventions that meet the needs of different organisational settings.

2. Is it intended that non-clinical coordinators will be able to see the reviews/results of their students? This may be beneficial when providing support to students or if asked to act as a referee.

Designated individuals from all organisations will be able to review their own student/staff data only.

3. When are we likely to have access to local, regional and national data on student experience on placement and which will be the restrictions around this?  It would be excellent if potential and actual students could see this and also for placement providers to benchmark themselves against others.

The Governance Committee is currently reviewing plans for national reporting. It is likely that de-identified reports will be available to all to enable benchmarking across the country.

4. Is there a vision to utilise the data to inform national training packages/modules for preceptors and clinical facilitators?

Yes definitely – the plan is to commence the evaluations and use this evidence to inform best practice educational interventions in the future . 

5. Has there been any discussion about retrospective analysis linking quality clinical placement to competency in practice once registered?

This will be the sort of things we will be able to investigate as the data comes in.

6. I think Megan makes an excellent point in that it is important for students to be able to reiterate what is being covered in university studies in the real world environment (such as placement) - In the future, would it be possible to tie in what is being found from these placement evaluations to the nursing education curriculum?

A great point here and yes, we will consider this.

7. What processes are in place when areas of poor / dangerous, etc practice are reported?

Where reported, University clinical co-ordinators will be able to discuss/action with providers.

8. Has consideration been given to how anonymity in the survey results may be maintained in primary health care placement settings where there is a lower volume of students?

Yes, we have considered this in detail. Reports will only be released to the provider where seven or more students have attended a placement with a calendar year.  

1. Can a clinical provider be a partner? I.e., Clinical placement office that coordinates placement between education providers and clinical areas. We survey and review clinical placements from provider side as well as the education partners evaluating placement experiences from their side. We would like to be able to benchmark our territory wide placement experiences with national averages.

Yes

2. What evaluation results will be accessible at the university level versus the hospital? At a hospital level, does the tool allow evaluation from all university providers?

Yes, all providers will have the option to be included in a national evaluation using the PET tool – for supervisors.

3. Will we as facilitators be able to look at the question or parameters on placement assessment? 

Yes 

4. What are the ongoing governance arrangements for the NPEC?

The Centre is managed by a Governance Committee – details of which are available on the NPEC website.