Health Education England (HEE) recently announced that education providers can access funding for placement activity delivered via simulation-based learning. We welcome this annoucement as an important measure to support education providers and employers exploring innovative ways to deliver practice based learning (PBL).
Funding will be provided for activity which meets the criteria HEE they have set, which includes the requirement that any PBL simulation activity is compliant with regulatory requirements and guidance. As we do not prescribe how and where practice must take place, or specify a core number of hours, education providers have flexibility to consider using simulation where they feel it can be meaningfully applied to deliver a quality practice-based learning experience. When considering its use, education providers must ensure quality can be maintained, particularly in relation to these requirements within our standards:
- The learning and teaching methods used must be appropriate to the effective delivery of learning outcomes.
- The assessment strategy and design must ensure that those who successfully complete a programme meet the standards of proficiency for the relevant part of the Register.
- Assessment throughout the programme must ensure that learners demonstrate they are able to meet the expectations of professional behaviour, including the standards of conduct, performance and ethics.
- Assessments must also provide an objective, fair and reliable measure of learners’ progression and achievement.
- Assessments must provide an objective, fair and reliable measure of learners’ progression and achievement.
- The structure, duration and range of practice-based learning must support the achievement of the learning outcomes and the standards of proficiency.
It is important that you are able to explain any simulation you have used to deliver practice-based learning, and can provide support evidence of this. We will be asking all education providers to reflect on their use of simulation as part of the next monitoring submission.