The British Association of Prosthetists and Orthotists

News

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Second Victim Support

BAPO has endorsed an NIHR funded support resource for ‘Second Victims’.
 
A ‘second victim’ describes health professionals who suffer emotionally when the care they provide leads to harm.
 
The Second Victim Support website aims to:
 
– help those involved in a patient safety incident identify the types of support which they may need, and signposts them towards that help
 
– provide managers of staff involved in a patient safety incident with insight into the impact of patient safety incidents on them as individuals
 
– provide resources to help managers support staff to cope with patient safety incidents and signposts them to further sources of help and guidance
 
www.secondvictim.co.uk

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Social Prescribing

RSPH have just launched a new framework for social prescribing for AHPs

Social prescribing, sometimes referred to as community referral, is a means of enabling people to be referred to a range of local, non-medical services. 

Recognising that people’s health is determined primarily by a range of social, economic and environmental factors, social prescribing seeks to address people’s needs in a holistic way. It also aims to support people to take greater control of their own health.

Social prescribing can meet a wide range of needs, with many schemes aiming to improve mental health and physical wellbeing. It can be used to support adults, young people and children as well as people with learning disabilities or mental health problems. It can take place in primary and secondary care. Social prescribing can also help to address social issues such as debt, unemployment, gambling and loneliness.

Social prescribing and community-based support is part of the NHS Long-Term Plan’s commitment to make personalised care[i] business as usual across the health and care system in England. The NHS Long Term Plan[ii] published in January 2019 has a commitment to personalised care and increasing access to social prescribing for the whole population. 

This approach to holistic care is not new to allied health professionals who frequently have conversations and provide support related to the wider factors influencing the health of the people they work with. 

To illustrate the way AHPs already support this agenda and to provide a framework to support them to do more; a new social prescribing framework for AHPs[iii] has been developed by the Royal Society for Public Health, Public Health England, NHS Improvement and NHS England along with AHP professional bodies and voluntary sector partners.

The framework is divided into 4 sections to reflect the varying intensity of AHP interventions, these include:

  • Active signposting – a light-touch approach where staff provide information and choice to signpost people to services, using local knowledge and resource directories.  This works best for clients who are confident and skilled enough to find their own way to services after a brief conversation. 
  • Referral to a link worker – In cases where a person needs more support than active signposting can provide, it may be appropriate to refer them to non-medical link workers who can provide more time to understand what matters to the individual and connect them to relevant community groups and other agencies for practical and emotional support.
  • Undertaking social prescribing – AHPs are likely to undertake social prescribing themselves when they are already providing long-term intensive support to a person as part of their job role. It will involve supporting people to work out which local groups and services would be beneficial to them and helping them to access them in a variety of ways. You may need to work through multiple options with a client and accompany them on first visits. Some AHPs are likely to do this than others because of the nature of their role.
  • Supporting the development of social prescribing – for example by providing community groups and services and providing guidance, supervision and training to link workers.

Over 2500 AHPs engaged with the development of this framework by completing a survey, joining a twitter chat, providing feedback on early drafts and submitting case studies.  This shows the enthusiasm for this agenda amongst the professions.  We hope the framework will support all AHPs to articulate their current role in social prescribing and consider how they could do more.

Click here to access the site

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[i] https://www.england.nhs.uk/personalisedcare/

[ii] https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-term-plan/

[iii] https://www.rsph.org.uk/our-work/resources/ahp-social-prescribing-frameworks/ahps-promoting-growing-and-developing-social-prescribing.html

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MHRA Guidance

BAPO’s Professional Affairs Committee have prepared a resource to direct all BAPO members towards MHRA medical device legislation and guidance relevant in a P&O contex

This can be found in the Proffesional Affairs resources tab or downloadable below

MHRA Guidance 2019

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CAHPR Bursary Scheme

The CAHPR conference bursary scheme for 2019 is now open to support students and early career researchers throughout the UK in presenting their research at conferences. The scheme will provide funding to attend conferences using the model set up by the London hub last year, but is open UK-wide.

The bursary scheme is competitive and is primarily aimed at supporting student and early career researchers, who have abstracts accepted for poster or platform presentations at conferences.

AHP applicants may request £500 to support attendance at an international conference or £250 for a national conference. Awards will be made on a competitive basis and will be reviewed by volunteers from the hubs.

Deadline 14 August 2019. Further details via the link below. Please do circulate to your contacts.

Information is available on the CAHPR website at: https://cahpr.csp.org.uk/content/cahpr-conference-bursary-2019

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One Year On – The SIHED programme and I See The Difference campaign

                                      

The SIHED (Strategic Interventions in Health Education Disciplines) programme is a £3m, three-year initiative to help build the sustainability of the allied health professions (AHPs). A big part of the programme, the I See the Difference campaign, has been developed to include lots of helpful information about AHPs on the website, currently alongside social media channels such as @icthedifference Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. The digital campaign is also backed up by a large amount of outreach activities at schools and careers events across England.

More programme updates include:

  • The Challenge Fund – In year one, six higher education projects were funded which focus on supporting the recruitment and retention of existing and new students of podiatry and therapeutic radiography. Find out more about the providers and projects here. As we begin year two, we have launched a second challenge fund with a wider remit and a budget of £400,000. Successful bid winners will be announced in the coming months.
  • The British and Irish Orthoptic Society (BIOS) are working on a project to facilitate work shadowing opportunities in orthoptics.
  • A funded fixed-term role to increase capacity for prosthetics and orthotics work placements, allowing more students to study the subject.
  • Two research projects. The first report looked into the barriers to mature student engagementin healthcare, and how to address them. See report here
  • We are currently working with another research company who are completing a study of male participation in nursing and allied health (NMAH). The report will seek to understand current differences in male participation to different NMAH disciplines to help understand and overcome barriers.

Some of our achievements in Year One of the campaign and programme include:

  • More than 11,000 people visited the campaign website, 90% were new users. This equated to 19,637 page views
  • A direct email campaign to 2500 secondary schools was undertaken, with 772 emails opened, equated to an open rate of 30.9%
  • Attending more than 100 events including presentations to schools and smaller career fairs. Reaching 1700 students, families, teachers and careers advisors at large scale events and receiving 236 requests for school outreach at these events.

Also, visit the I See The Difference website for more information about the campaign.

Get in touch with the team, info@iseethedifference.co.uk, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook

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HCPC Visitor

We are seeking Prosthetists/Orthotists to undertake the role of Visitor.

What do Visitors do?
Tracey Samuel-Smith, HCPC Education Manager explains ‘Visitors are responsible for visiting and assessing existing and proposed education and training programmes delivered by education providers.
Visitors make a real difference to the work we do. There is the opportunity to get involved and help to safeguard people using our registrant’s services by ensuring education and training programmes meet our standards. Visitors also provide recommendations to the HCPC’s Education and Training Committee regarding the approval of programmes.’

Visitors must be current registrants and should have an understanding of Quality Assurance in Higher/Further Education or a clinical environment, as well as teaching, learning and assessment in an educational or clinical environment. We in particular invite those who are currently experienced in supervising students in their current workplace to apply for this role.

We pay a rate of £202 per day and £81 for a review. Any travel and accommodation expenses are paid in accordance with the HCPC Expenses Policy.

We expect visitors to commit to around 5 days per year. The length and notice for providing services are variable and can fit most diary commitments and working patterns.

If you are successful, you will be required to attend mandatory training prior to commencing your role.

The HCPC is committed to equality of opportunity and actively guards against unfair discrimination on any grounds (including sexual orientation, religion or beliefs, race, sex, age, gender reassignment, marriage, civil partnership, pregnancy, maternity or disability).

Closing date for applications: 05 June at 10am
Tentative interview dates: 15 and 16 July, and w/c 22 July
Compulsory training day:: 28 and 29 November 2019

Advert for P/O VisitorDownload

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AHP Public Health Strategy

Today marks the publication of two new strategy documents for AHPs.

The first is a Public Health Impact Report, this report is a joint publication by Public Health England and the AHP Federation.  It is available on the AHPF web site: http://www.ahpf.org.uk/Publications_and_Speeches.htm or downloadable below:

AHP Public Health Strategy_Impact ReportDownload

The second is the strategic Framework which goes with this document and is downloadable here:

UK AHP Public Health Strategic Framework 2019-2024Download

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NICE Opportunity

NICE are recruiting for members to join the Osteoarthritis update guideline committee. All the information about the role including how to apply can be found at the link below:

https://www.nice.org.uk/get-involved/our-committees/join-a-committee/member–osteoarthritis-guideline-update-committee

The following roles are being advertised:

  • a GP
  • a consultant rheumatologist
  • 2 physiotherapists
  • an orthopaedic surgeon
  • an occupational therapist
  • a geriatrician/general physician with an interest in osteoarthritis
  • a musculoskeletal service commissioner
  • a clinical pharmacist
  • an orthotist or podiatrist

Please note the closing date for applications is 31st May 5pm.

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Doctoral School Opportunities

Up to 10 fully funded, four-year PhD studentships are available in the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Prosthetics and Orthotics, commencing in October 2019. The CDT in Prosthetics and Orthotics will build a world leading engineering and physical science workforce to help ensure that “no one is left behind”.

The CDT provides training that supports exciting careers in a global healthcare industry that meets the needs of diverse user groups and stakeholders. The CDT combines expertise from the University of Salford, Imperial College London, University of Strathclyde and the University of Southampton, with more than 25 industry partners and national facilities. Our industry partners estimate a demand for our graduates is measured in the hundreds.

Key elements of the EPSRC CDT in Prosthetics & Orthotics include:

•             Ambitious PhD projects that blend high quality training with practical experiences that enhance employability.

•             Training in research skills relevant to prosthetics, orthotics and the wider healthcare technology industry.

•             Integrated training in engineering, physical, medical and clinical sciences, as well as business, entrepreneurial and other professional skills.

•             Opportunities to work on research projects directly with industry and users, and understand the journey from user need to product or service implementation. Interested? For more information of this exciting opportunity please visit https://www.salford.ac.uk/research/doctoral-training-in-prosthetics-and-orthotic/home or email CDT@Salford.ac.uk. Applications close at 4pm 20th May 2019.

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CAPHR / Research

CAPHR helps promote research at all levels and is currently advertising two schemes which may be useful for new professors or post-doctoral researchers.

Academy of Medical Science Professorship Scheme.
The Academy of Medical Sciences is delighted to announce the inaugural call for applications to its Professorship Scheme. Working in partnership with UK Higher Education Institutions, we will be providing an attractive package of support to biomedical and healthcare researchers taking up their first full Professorship. Deadline 17 May 2019.

https://acmedsci.ac.uk/grants-and-schemes/grant-schemes/academy-of-medical-sciences-professorship-scheme

NIHR Advanced Fellowship
The Advanced Fellowship is for those at a post-doctoral level and aimed at several specific points of a researcher’s career development. The fellowship is between 2 and 5 years and can be completed on full-time or part-time basis. Between 50% and 100% whole time equivalent (WTE).
Advanced Fellowships will be available with a ‘clinical academic’ option whereby clinical applicants will have the option to request up to 40% of their time be dedicated to clinical service/development which would be covered by the Fellowship. Deadline 4 June 2019.

https://www.nihr.ac.uk/our-research-community/NIHR-academy/nihr-training-programmes/fellowship-programme/nihr-advanced-fellowship.htm