Preceptorship

If you are a Children's Nurse then please contact the Children's Hospital Preceptorship Team for further information, the training and education that forms the preceptorship program and the range of specialities that they have. To summarise, the preceptorship program includes a minimum of 16 study days over the course of your first year, alongside access to their team for coaching and support. The study days include Acute Care Skills which is a four day course ran by the Paediatric Critical Care Outreach lead, your Paediatric Intermediate Life Support course which is nationally recognised, specialist study days for your area and a variety of study days within their team that focus on personal development of both skills and confidence in a supportive environment with your peers.

If you are interested in their rotation program, then this is a bespoke pathway, tailored to you, lasting around 18 months. You could either do three six month rotations or two nine month rotations. This however is flexible, as they ask you for your preferences of area for your next rotation throughout the program so you also have the option to request to extend your current rotation. As part of the rotation pathway, there is the opportunity to rotate to Children’s ED, Neonates, PICU or Theatre Recovery – as these are more specialised areas they allow you to consolidate your practice as a newly qualified nurse for the first six months and then offer the option of rotation to these areas. At the end of your rotation you simply submit your preferences for your permanent “home” ward and are not required to re-interview.

If you have your mind set on going to work permanently in one area then they can also accommodate this. The PICU offers a foundation program for newly qualified nurses who see their careers in intensive care, which runs over a year in addition to the preceptorship program. The PICU foundation program is often popular so you would need to express your interest in this on your application. For further down the line in your career at Nottingham Children's Hospital, they have the opportunity to undertake a transfer window to another area within the hospital without re-interviewing as they recognise the value of this development opportunity for staff.

Get in touch with Children's Hospital Preceptorship Team:

 0115 9249924 ext: 83838 or 07812275195

  childrenspreceptorship@nuh.nhs.uk

The Acute Care Skills Programme is designed to provide the start of a professional development career pathway in acute care nursing for all newly qualified nurses.

It aims to improve confidence in patient assessment using an ABCDE approach, and management skills caring for acutely ill patients in all clinical areas. Developing assertiveness and prioritisation skills, but also including the Chief Nursing Officer’s 6Cs and supporting the Trust values and behaviours initiative. 

Overview of the programme for adult nurses and ODPs : 

Day 1: Airway Assessment and management, including completion of AHLS training

Day 2: Breathing assessment and management, including oxygen therapies and suctioning

Day 3: Cardiovascular assessment, including use of EWS tool, appropriate escalation, AKI and care of the septic patient

Day 4: Disability and exposure - GCS in practice, care of the diabetic patient, including basic pain management training

Day 5: Assessed OSCEs using patient scenarios

We aim for new starters to attend the Medicines Safety Day within the first three months of being in the trust to ensure our new nurses and ODPs are receiving key messages and training around medications safety sooner. 

Included within the session:

• To explore some of the common key concerns around medication administrations and safety
• Develop knowledge of the impact of medications management on patients, public, finances and self
• Explore incidents across the organisation and through group work discuss the impact of human factors
• Apply ABCDE assessment skills to help identify physiological changes in a patient with anaphylaxis and understand the safe management of this patient
• Identify key issues with insulin administration and develop a broader understanding of safe insulin practice, including variable rate and fixed rate sliding scale
• Discuss clinical presentations of hyperkalaemia and the importance of recognising this. Develop an understanding of the treatment given and ongoing monitoring required
• Discuss strategies for safer medication administration

We offer various rotations across our divisions including medical, surgical and speciality areas.

All our nurses on rotations are provided with resilience-based group clinical supervision to support them through the additional challenges of a rotation every 8 weeks.

Our rotations are varied, including between 2 and 4 placements ranging from 6-9 months in length.

Our nurses on rotation are confident and find it easy to fit into new teams. They finish rotation with a wide range of skills and experiences that they take with them throughout their nursing career.

The preceptorship year is one of the most challenging times in a nurse's career, Resilience Focused Clinical Supervision (RFCS) helps develop resilience to cope with the challenges of being a new nurse. By sharing these challenges with a group of peers, colleagues can build up a support network - they see that they are not alone in this journey.

How does it work?

Colleagues are allocated to a supervision group of around 12 peers for a session lasting 1.5 hours. These sessions are provided every 8 weeks throughout the preceptorship year. 

The sessions are a facilitated discussion around the personal experiences, challenges and successes of the group members' preceptorship. It is about sharing experiences from practice and supporting staff to unpick situations they've been in at work. It encourages the group members to consider the different aspects to that situation and think differently about what has happened. It doesn't change what experiences people have faced, but encourages reflection on those experiences for future practice.