Abstract
The shortage of clinical placements for undergraduate students from the professions allied to medicine has been a longstanding problem. A research project was commissioned by the National Health Service Executive (North West) and the Lancashire and South Cumbria Education and Training Consortium to explore the issues around the present clinical placement provision and to identify alternative models of clinical education that could be used in North-West England. A combination of quatitative and quantitative research methods was used to explore the clinical placement difficulties and to identify potential solutions.
The report highlighted the complexity of the clinical placement issues and concluded that a combination of strategies needs to be used in tandem in order to address the difficulties. The problem is multifaceted and, consequently, there is no one single solution. The way forward lies in the cooperation and collaboration of education and training consortia, education providers and service providers in implementing the recommendations, which have the potential to increase the numbers of fieldwork education placements that prepare students not only for current but also for future practice.
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