Development and evaluation of theprocess for final placement application: a reviewof the new student led allocation system

Background A process to facilitate nursing students to have more ownership of their final placement was introduced for this academic year by inviting them to apply for a specific placement they felt most appropriate. Whilst there has been significant research into preparing students for practice (Woods et al, 2015) and to explore the transition from student to graduate nurse (Kumaran and Carney, 2014), there is little to explore the effect of gaining preference for their final placement or for the development of employability skills. Morrell and Ridgway (2014) explored student’s views on their preparedness for final placement finding 8 themes, one of which was ‘Lack of support, and stress’. They suggested a “factor that can inhibit transition include a lack of support from the university with job applications...”. Aim The aim of this study is for students to work within the ‘student as producer’ ethos and evaluate the new process to explore its effectiveness and review the perceived benefits of the students. With this information, they are refining and developing the process for their cohort. It is vital that we are evaluating its outcomes to enable a positive impact on the student experience. Partners are supportive of this project and the possible impact it may have on their recruitment process and rates. The process will help embed graduate attributes into our students which aims to increase their employability including application skills and CV building. With students producing an application form, they are reflecting on their learning and experiences, increasing their awareness of the skills they have gained and articulating this to the placements team. Implementation This project will be implemented by 1. Creating a robust application process that has been trialled, evaluated and developed by students 2. Engaging partners with the process and to help aid the transition to registered nurse 3. Using the results to inform and shape future developments in placement allocation and rolling the process out toi the next cohort. Methods Evaluation is being conducted by distributing a questionnaire (co-designed by students) to the current final year students which is then collated by the students. 3 focus groups or interviews (preference of students) are to be held with 5 people from 3 categories (gained their chosen placement, gained a chosen preference, gained a placement outside of their preferences). These groups will focus on their perceived advantages and disadvantages of the process and suggestions for improvement. Quantitative data (from the applications and questionnaires) is being conducted using SPSS. Qualitative data from the focus groups will be evaluated using the framework methods whereby transcripts are coded and themes identified. Key findings All research and analysing of data in terms of the benefit of this process will be completed and written ready for presenting at the conference. We will have a research paper outlining the findings of the evaluation and perceived benefits including possible future developments.