Practice education facilitators (PEFs)
Practice education facilitators (PEFs) are a national network of nursing and midwifery registrants that support learning in practice by working with staff within the practice learning environments.
They work alongside other partners in practice education such as Care Home Education Facilitators (CHEFS) and Practice Education Leads. Practice education involves teaching and learning that happens in practice or work based settings. PEF’s work in partnership involving NHS Education Scotland (NES), National Health Service Boards (NHS) and Higher Education Institutions (HEI’s)
Being a PEF
As a registered nurse, midwife or health care support worker, evidence is required of continuing professional development. The PEFs help facilitate this for nursing staff by signposting them to learning and development resources available locally and nationally.
As part of their pre-registration university programme, every student nurse and midwife need opportunities and time to learn, practice their skills and build links between their theoretical knowledge and practice. The PEFs facilitate nurses, midwives and other suitably prepared staff to undertake student supervision and assessment as practice supervisors and/or practice assessors, which are the NMC designated roles in practice learning environments.
What we do
The principle aims of the PEF role are to:
- enhance the Quality Management of the Practice Learning Environment (QMPLE) through sign posting and supporting adherence to the NES Quality Standards of Practice Learning (QSPL) and educational audit
- identify and support the development of new PLEs, increasing capacity to effectively support nursing and midwifery students.
- in accordance with the NMC (2018) Standards for Student Supervision and Assessment, support the development of both new and experienced practice supervisors and practice assessors, and those in wider practice education support roles.
- contribute to, and enhance the quality of the practice learning experience through encouraging; evaluation, feedback and collaborative working with practice placement providers, university staff, students and service users and families.
- provide support, educational input and development activities for staff and students within practice learning environments and contribute to the development of pre-registration and post-registration education programmes - reflecting the needs of the future nursing/midwifery workforce.
- as a registered nurse, midwife or health care support worker, evidence is required of continuing professional development. The PEF helps facilitate this for staff, by signposting them to learning and development resources available locally and nationally, such as Flying Start.
- collaborate on various work streams to ultimately enhance the quality of the practice learning experience and positively contribute to the future nursing/midwifery workforce (e.g., development of a student resource to support digitally enhanced placements).
The PEF role includes providing support in accordance with policies and standards such as those below:
- NMC Realising professionalism: Standards for education and training Part 2: Standards for student supervision and assessment (2018)
- NES Quality Standards for Practice Learning (QSPL) [PDF]
- Turas Learn: Future nurse and midwife
NES PEF/CHEF National Priorities
Alongside this core PEF function, every year a number of national priorities and outcome measures are identified by NES, NHS Boards practice education leads and higher education institutions colleagues, to enable the correct response to regulatory and policy drivers.
Quality Management of the Practice learning environments QMPLE
The PEFs are required to establish, develop and co-ordinate audit and evaluation of placement learning, and to ensure systems are in place to resolve emerging issues.
The Quality Standards for Practice Learning (QSPL) have been created so that learners and those individuals and organisations who support them understand their responsibilities and expectations in relation to practice based learning. PEF’s support staff to ensure that these standards are met through completion of regular educational audits. This information is contained within The Quality Management of the Practice Learning Environment (QMPLE) web resource. The QMPLE web resource provides access to and reporting of data relating to the quality of nursing and midwifery practice learning experiences.
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Last updated: 25/09/2020