RCN Education Forum 2023

Paul, Tom, and Tess from the MyKnowledgeMap team are back from a fantastic couple of days in Birmingham for the RCN Education Forum 2023. They were there to host the MyKnowledgeMap stand where they were demonstrating and discussing MyProgress; the UKs leading healthcare education assessment and ePortfolio tool.

There were lots of exciting sessions on improving and innovating nursing education throughout the conferece, two of which focused on MyProgress.

Dr Sian Shaw from Anglia Ruskin University ran a session titled ‘How an ePAD improved student placement support, engagement and retention’. Sian’s session started with some shocking statistics that explored the extent of the issue of nursing student attrition.

The mean number of student nurses who commenced nurse education over the last 4 years according to UCAS was 30,154 in the UK. An average attrition rate of 12% means 3,618 students a year are failing to complete the course. That’s equivalent to ALL the nurses staffing Cambridge University Hospital!

An institution with an intake of 1400 students (like Anglia Ruskin University) that has an attrition rate of 12% means that 168 students fail to complete the course. The cost to that institution is 125 x £9000 = £1.5m for each year lost.

One of the ways Anglia Ruskin University addressed this issue was to start using MyProgress as an electronic ongoing achievement record to:

• Provide secure sign off

• Gather analytics and data insights

• Track student progress and reduce/prevent attrition

• Get absolute governance of practice assessment

• Increase student support in placement

The results of using MyProgress are clear! The attrition rate dropped drastically when Anglia Ruskin University started using MyProgress , saving the university money and increasing the number of student nurses graduating and entering the workforce.

In a different session, Katherine Wilson and Justin McDermott from Middlesex University also spoke about their experiences of using MyProgress in their abstract ‘Maximising the potential of using an electronic practice assessment document to monitor and enhance the student experience in practice and develop digital literacy for all users: A collaborative pan London approach’.

Katherine started by explaining how important it is to have the right team in place to support rolling out and maintaining a digital solution to the practice assessment document (PAD) and assessments. She ran through how the Middlesex University and MyKnowledgeMap team work together and the kind of job roles involved.

Next, Katherine shared some feedback from staff using MyProgress :

“Implementing MyProgress has proven to be transformational for all users. By promoting ease of access through innovative and intuitive technology, MyProgress has improved transparency, accountability and processes in supporting learners through their journey to qualification”

“The Pan London ePAD system (MyProgress) helps remind us to be more proactive regarding setting dates and helps to clarify the roles between Practice Supervisor and Assessors, by restricting what can be completed through different account permissions. This helps smooth the assessment process. Having the outstanding placement requirements listed on the dashboard has also made planning much easier”

Middlesex University forms part of the Pan London Practice Learning Group (PLPLG); a consortium of 14 AEIs across London, who aim to standardise a London wide approach to practice learning and assessment for a range of learners. To get an overview of the scale of the PLPLG’s usage of MyProgress, Katherine shared some impressive stats.

The PLPLG has created lots of resources to support students and practice staff using MyProgress.

Justin McDermott gave some key reflections to takeaway.

“Game changer of seeing forms in real time and responding to struggling students as an early intervention, especially during Pandemic”

“MyProgress has evolved via strong partnership. Ongoing developments with MyKnowledgeMap e.g., reporting and Clinical Link access”.

All in all it was a busy couple of days, the MyKnowledgeMap team met so many wonderful people and had lots of thought-provoking conversations.