The UK's SMARTAL Project: St MARTin's College health students Access to Learning resources whilst on placement

Abstract

BACKGROUND: St Martin's College pre-registration health students spend up to half their course on periods of placement, during which times they need to be able to access learning resources. The project aimed to replicate the Health and Education Northumbria Students Access to Learning resources (HENSAL) project. OBJECTIVE: To look at patterns of use and access to learning resources for health students on placement. METHODS: Questionnaires were distributed to students who had recently returned from a placement. Five Practice Placement Facilitators were interviewed to gain their views. RESULTS: There was a 60% return rate (n = 268) for the questionnaire. Most students thought access to learning resources was important yet these were not always available and varied according to placement type. Students still made regular use of the College library while they were on placement but had some difficulties. Students used electronic resources, tending to access them from home. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicated that there were issues which needed to be addressed by the College's Faculty of Health and Social Care, Library and IT services, the local NHS Trust libraries and the local Strategic Health Authority to improve access to and use of learning resources. The findings proved to be very similar to those of the HENSAL project.

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