Intellectual Output 1

The aim of this Intellectual Output was to develop a robust mechanism to benchmark placement quality and support for a broader range of health professional students across health facilities and universities in different countries. Building on the previous HEALINT project, which focused on nursing and midwifery, this project and output specifically extended and expanded the exploration of wider healthcare professions metrics and benchmarks to develop a single robust mechanism to meet the needs of varied healthcare professional disciplines accessing clinical learning environments. This also potentially benefited shared learning and working and promoted inter-professional learning and collaboration. This was the first stage in establishing a set of benchmarks in a protocol, which would then be used to create a monitoring process to assure the quality of the clinical learning environments.

This intellectual output drew on published and grey literature, policy documents, and professional regulations as well as focus groups and interviews with healthcare professionals, educators, and students in medicine and physiotherapy. These disciplinary areas provided a broad base for including medicine and allied health professional student placements. The literature and data were distilled and combined and contained criteria to ensure that when a healthcare professional student required an international placement, the home organisation would be able to check and assure the quality of the placement offered by a host, despite differences in national regulations. Finally, this output was also subject to alignment with International Standards Organization (ISO) terminology for ease of use and understanding internationally.