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)
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.
The principle aims of the PEF role are to:
The PEF role includes providing support in accordance with policies and standards such as those below:
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.
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.
Last updated: 25/09/2020