Dave Evans - Practice Learning in the Caring Professions

First published 1999 by Ashgate Publishing

Published 2016 by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon 0X14 4RN

711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA

Copyright Dave Evans 1999

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Evans, Dave

Practice learning in the caring professions

1. Human services personnel - Great Britain - Training of

2. Human services personnel - Great Britain - Vocational guidance

3. Human services - Great Britain - Practice

4. Human services - Study and teaching - Great Britain

I. Title

361.0071

Evans, Dave

Practice learning in the caring profession / Dave Evans,

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 1-85742-422-0 (hardback)

1. Social work education. 2. Social service - Field work. 3. Nursing - Study and teaching. 4. Human services - Study and teaching. 5. Caregivers - Training of.

I. Title

HV11.E96 1999

361.3'071--dc21

98-52027 CIP

ISBN 13: 978-1-85742-422-5 (hbk)

ISBN 13: 978-1-138-26743-5 (pbk)

List of Figures

Acknowledgements

Foreword

Introduction

Part I

PART II PRACTICE LEARNING

PART III PRACTICE TEACHING

Part IV

Appendix

References

General Index

Index of Authors Cited

I would like to acknowledge the help, support and influence of a number of people in writing this book. First and foremost, I thank Lesley and Sarah not only for their tolerance and care whilst I have been busy writing but also for their practical contributions to producing the manuscript. I am gratefully aware that a considerable number of colleagues and students have stimulated the development of my thinking, not only in different work places but also within the National Organisation for Practice Teaching. I would also like to thank Jo Campling for her continuing encouragement to write and Kate Trew for her assistance in smoothing the path towards publication.

On 3rd July 1999 Dave died at the age of 54 from oesophageal cancer before seeing this book in print.

During his recent illness he was surprised and enormously comforted to learn just how much he was valued as a friend, as well as a colleague by those with whom he worked.

He spent a lifetime in social work, practising for 14 years before moving into education at Suffolk College, and working ceaselessly for national organisations such as CCETSW, NOPT, Journal of Practice Teaching in Health and Social Work, and BERA, as well as various programmes of learning to which he contributed.

Being part of the early pioneers of the eighties with CCETSW developing the practice teaching award, he wrote the key publications for CCETSW 26.1 'Accrediting Agencies' and 26.3 'Assessing Students Competence to Practice', which remains a mainstay to Practice Teachers.

His commitment to high standards of professional education, emphasising the importance of reflective practice in the curriculum, coupled with his integrity, good humoured support and warmth have helped many colleagues and students, and through them the users with whom they worked. Dave will be remembered as he did make a difference and for this the profession is grateful.

Whatever Dave undertook in life he approached with unstinting enthusiasm and unselfish commitment. He was a loving and encouraging husband and father who will always be much loved in return. Dave enjoyed music, playing the cello in orchestras and quartets, as well as singing bass in choirs. He also loved all sport - playing racket sports in early life and latterly golf.

We will miss him.

Learning to be a professional necessarily involves doing the work of a professional. Listening and watching will not suffice. But how does the aspiring professional gain access to opportunities for doing, appropriate to both their future practice and their current knowledge and experience? In what ways are clients protected from clumsy, ill-informed or insensitive novices; or novices helped to learn quickly from their experience, so that they can take more responsibility for their practice? These issues used to be resolved by the institution of apprenticeship. Todays solution is to require aspiring professionals to register as students of higher education and to undertake, concurrently or subsequent to their academic studies, a series of placements with organisations providing the relevant professional services. But who is responsible for the quality of these placement experiences, and what features of placements facilitate or constrain the learning of good practice? What kinds of learning are involved in the acquisition of competence and proficiency?

These are but some of the important issues tackled in David Evans timely review of Practice Learning in the Caring Professions. Whilst set in the context of practice learning in general, Evans focuses mainly on learning during the placement components of programmes leading to initial qualifications and professional registration. Greatest attention is given to nursing, school-teaching and social work, whose diverse approaches to placements suggest that many factors other than conditions for learning have shaped their historical development. It is also surprising how often the issues debated by one profession have been tackled quite differently or even ignored by another. The merits of Evans book derive both from his comprehensive review of the literature on learning in placements: descriptive, evaluative, policy-related, theoretical and empirically researched and from the way in which he makes this material accessible to a wide range of possible readers. Not only does he put practice learning on the map, but his own mapping of this relatively unexplored territory is of great help to those wanting to come to grips with the key issues, a springboard for the further development of practice and policy.

The culture, organisation and reward systems of higher education are not friendly towards practical knowledge. The recently strengthened research imperative has made it more difficult for university departments to recruit and employ significant numbers of staff with a prime interest in professional practice. Practice learning comes a poor third to research and academic teaching, increasingly handled by strategic alliances with organisations capable of providing placements. These organisations however, do not necessarily give practice learning any higher priority. Their priorities are first to meet the ever-increasing demands of their own clients and second to meet the growing demands for consultation with stakeholders and accountability to local or national government and/or government funded trusts and agencies. Their prime interest in providing placements is likely to be recruitment rather than the provision of learning: in the NHS they are regarded as purchasers of newly qualified professionals rather than providers. The consequence of this marginalisation is that practice teachers/ clinical tutors/mentors frequently find themselves saddled with considerable extra work, little support beyond their immediate line manager (who may or may not be interested in students and their progress) and little recognition or reward. Often it is their dedication and commitment, rather than that of their organisation, which gives the placement its quality, and the converse is equally true.