What is a Practical Educator?
A Practice Educator is a “registered professional who supports learners in the workplace and facilitates practice education alongside clinical and academic colleagues.”
What is a PA Clinical Practice Educator (CPE) role?
Our newly established Clinical Practice Educator (CPE) team has been introduced with a focus on delivering high-quality bedside teaching for student physician associates. The CPE team are all qualified physician associates and have at least 3-years post qualification clinical experience as a physician associate in secondary care.
The CPE team will play a valuable role in shaping the clinical skills and professional development of students through practical, hands-on learning experiences in secondary care environments.
Their role is to work collaboratively with clinical supervisors to enrich the students’ learning experience and ensure they meet the required clinical competencies.
The CPE team will offer structured bedside teaching and clinical observation, focusing on directly supervised:
- history taking
- physical examinations
- practical procedural skills (where indicated and appropriate, and only in line with the General Medical Council’s core diagnostic, therapeutic, and procedural skills expected of newly qualified Physician Associates).
They will provide both one-on-one and small group clinical observation during patient encounters and provide constructive feedback to PA students to enhance their learning and professional growth.
The team will also support and facilitate with the assessment of student’s clinical skills and competence through direct observation and completing student’s clinical assessments (where appropriate), such as Direct Observation of Practical Skills (DOPS) forms. Please note however that the CPE team are not able to complete Case Base Discussion (CBD) or end of placement sign off forms.
Currently we have 5 CPEs working across three NHS trusts in and around London. We hope to expand this provision in the future and will circulate opportunities as and when they arise.
It is important to note that the CPE team will only have responsibility for the teaching of PA students from City St George’s, University of London. We have issued the CPE team with City St George’s, University of London lanyards and name badges to ensure that they are visible to clinical teams and students.
We are excited to launch this new initiative and believe it will add significant value to the training of PA students. If you have any questions about the CPE role, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us at clinicalpracticeeducators@sgul.ac.uk.