The correlation between enabling high-quality practice learning environments for health and care learners and their ability to deliver high-quality person-centred care is not a new concept. Indeed, Health Education England (HEE) (2017) has outlined the importance of improved clinical placement education systems, whereby healthcare education and training is well led, effectively managed and provides supportive learning environments.
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, in 2020 Greater Manchester embarked on an HEE-funded pioneering project, ‘Enabling Effective Learning Environments’, reviewing the complex factors surrounding sufficiency and effectiveness of practice learning environments. To start the project a period of extensive scoping took place by the four Greater Manchester universities, together with practice educators from their partner health and care organisations (March to September 2020). Initial scoping clearly demonstrated the pivotal role that educators in practice play in ensuring that the positive learning experience not just for student nurses but for all health and care learners.
An Enabling Effective Learning Environments project sub-group was therefore set up to focus on the key topic area of ‘Educating the Educators’. One of the project outcomes was to develop a Greater Manchester Professional Development Framework that for the first time identifies the knowledge, skills and behaviours required of practice educators to meet the health and wellbeing needs of the 2.8 million population of Greater Manchester. The framework identifies:
- Roles and responsibilities of educators from within diverse practice learning environments
- Knowledge, skills and behaviours required of an educator in practice
- The journey to becoming an educator in practice
- Trajectory for educator's professional development: including a gap analysis to ascertain any development and future needs.
The Framework is underpinned by a revised Greater Manchester Governance Framework for Education, providing support and resources for educators to progress, while also ensuring sustainability of the Enabling Effective Learning Environments project outcomes.
Integral to the framework is the Greater Manchester Educator Profile with its three levels, clearly identifying the knowledge, skills and behaviours required by the educator (see Table 1 for sample extracts from the profile). Level one is the minimum standard, which must be achieved by all those encountering learners.
Table 1. Examples taken from the Greater Manchester Educator Profile
| Level | Knowledge | Skills | Behaviours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Those supporting practice education/learning will have a sound knowledge of | Those supporting practice education/learning will demonstrate the skills to | Those supporting practice education/learning will display values and behaviours which will | |
| L1 | K1 Their own role and how that role supports the delivery of high-quality health and social care | S1 Demonstrate to learners the required skills within their role | B1 Encompass equality and diversity values within their role |
| L2 | K1 How to prepare the learning environment for learners | S1 Provide and deliver a robust local induction to ensure learners are practice ready and respective expectations are well managed | B1 Welcome learners into a caring, compassionate and supportive safe and effective learning environment |
| L3 | K1 Using innovative approaches in the creation of quality-assured environments for learning | S1 Use negotiation as a tool to open new, and maintain the quality of, existing learning environments | B1 Endorse creativity and flexibility for learning environments |
Subsequent levels of achievement are recognised as part of an individual's continuous professional development within their educator role. For example, Level 2 is a designated person who has responsibility for learners within a learning environment, whereas Level 3 applies to those in roles who lead, facilitate and manage health and care education from within the practice learning environment.
The development of the educator profile was informed by several sources including the Advance HE UK Professional Standards Framework (https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/fellowship). This has prompted further preliminary work focusing on the idea of recognising educators in practice and award them for their contribution towards excellent practice learning environments.
A consultation to review the educator profile and its content has been carried out with educators in practice. The 44 responses from an online questionnaire identified that the knowledge, skills and behaviours in the profile are indicative of those required by educators in practice in Greater Manchester. Highlighted were gaps around the current and ongoing education and development opportunities for educators. Ongoing work includes collating examples of career pathways across the diverse range of learning environments.
‘More targeted support is required for those educating our healthcare learners and for those who lead on setting the culture for practice learning’
Our consultation has particularly highlighted that educators in our metropolitan area are highly motivated and enthusiastic and are also highly qualified. All educators started their educator role journey from a firm clinical foundation and most reached their status through accidental encounters in health and care settings, often taking risks to progress their practice educator pathway.
The findings from the project have been valuable and, in many ways, have confirmed that more targeted support is required for those educating our healthcare learners and for those who lead on setting the culture for practice learning. The next steps in our project are to build on the development of the Professional Development Framework for Educators; this will use the Educator Profile as a benchmark whereby educators can self-assess their current knowledge, skills and behaviours, and inform quality assurance processes. In addition, a research-based Educator Career Pathway and the future development of a Practice Education Centre of Excellence will provide a practice-guided, university-informed partnership towards sustainable evidence-based practice education.
The first Greater Manchester Health and Care Learning Environment Strategy was launched in May 2021. More information about it can be found at https://sites.manchester.ac.uk/effective-learning-environments