FdSC Evaluation

The first year of the Foundation Degree in Healthcare Science

Dr Antonia Beringer & Dr Katherine Pollard

Contact: antonia.beringer@uwe.ac.uk

Aims• develop the evidence-base for the

contribution the FdSC can make to the development of the Associate Practitioner role in biomedical sciences

• evaluate the use of technology enhanced learning (TEL) in this context

• help to understand the process by which role development can become established and successful

Data sources

Source Type Timing

Students

 

 

 

 

Questionnaire 1 October 2013

Focus group and interviews 1 December 2013

Questionnaire 2 May 2014

Focus group 2 May 2014

Mentors

 

 

Interview 1 December 2013

Interview 2 May/June 2014

Project Advisory Group Interview June 2014

   

Questionnaire results

How confident you feel about meeting your learning objectives

Your level of knowledge about the scientific basis of life.

Your level of knowledge about principles in healthcare science.

Your level of knowledge about the pathophysiology of disease.

Your level of knowledge about anatomy and physiology.

How prepared you felt for first year/second year

How useful you think completing the degree will be for your work/practice.

0.00 2.00 4.00 6.00 8.00 10.00

Second questionnaire

First questionnaire

Programme set-up• Recruitment and selection “You couldn’t send everyone on this course. They’d have to be quite a specific type of learner.”(Workplace Mentor 1).

• Preparation “…the only thing I had to go on…was what the UWE website told me, and I was like ‘Scientific Basis of Life, what the hell’s that?’ and The Principles of Healthcare Science, I was like ‘what is that?”(Student Focus group 1)

• Expectations started high (9/10) and rose (9.83/10)

Programme deliveryModular structure: 4 week study blocks

plus fortnightly ‘collaborate’ sessions.

Time commitment

“When we first initially envisaged the degree we didn’t realise how much time out of the lab was needed” (workplace mentor)

IT issues

“We had software issues because our network can’t cope… we just haven’t got the bandwidth” (workplace mentor)

Content

“The bits I’ve seen are good, but it still puzzles me how they can fit so much in.” (workplace mentor)

Work-study balance

“I expect none of us thought it was going to be this much work to do it. I mean, I didn’t expect me being sat in every single Friday and Saturday for the last god knows how long.” (Student, Focus Group 2)

“I get home from work, I cook tea, bath the kids, seven o’clock they are all in bed and I sit down and study and I am just in a routine of Monday, Tuesday and Thursday night. That is what I do.” (Student, Focus Group 2).

Workplace factors

• Progression“They do want to progress the staff, they do want to give them extra education, they want them to stay in the department and one way of doing that is you know giving them an education.” (Workplace mentor)

• Funding“You might have put it [funding application] in in January but you won’t get an answer until like April.” (Student focus group 2)

Key messages

Timely information about the structure, timings and cost of the programme is important.

Smoothly functioning IT and appropriate use of technology enhanced learning (TEL) are vital for the blended learning approach to be successful.

Students have felt that their feedback has been listened to and acted on by academic staff.

Service colleagues value the programme as it helps to develop knowledge and confidence in staff who are already team members.

A student’s advice

“Just embrace it [the course]. Really, just embrace it, because if you don’t want to be here don’t come. Just be grateful for the knowledge that you are getting and what you are going to get at the end of it”.

(Student, Focus Group 2)