A new apprenticeship has been launched to help change the future of rehabilitation training.
The National Rehabilitation Centre (NRC), in partnership with Birmingham City University, has launched a bespoke apprenticeship course which aims to change the future of rehabilitation training in the country.
The Rehabilitation Assistant Practitioner Apprenticeship course is the first of its kind and combines academic lectures delivered by the university with three six-month placements with the therapies teams at Nottingham University Hospitals in order to develop a wide variety of skills.
The NRC programme recently received formal Government approval for the £105million plans and work is now progressing to create the 70-bed, purpose-built new centre.
The specialist NHS facility will be built on the Stanford Hall Rehabilitation Estate near Loughborough, home to the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre which opened in 2018.
On completing the 18-month apprenticeship, students will leave with the skills they need to work as an Assistant Practitioner (AP) at the state-of-the-art NRC and other healthcare rehabilitation settings.
The role of the Rehab AP was devised to support and enable the NRC to provide an intensive level of rehabilitation, to improve patient outcomes and in-line with international best practice.
This intensive model of care will require the APs to work across physiotherapy, occupational therapy and nursing, bringing therapy into every interaction with the patient and truly embedding the 24-hour rehab model.
This new apprenticeship is part of a ‘skills escalator’ developed by the NRC team, which will provide staff with education and training at all levels, enabling an individual to join the NHS as a Band 2 therapy assistant and work all the way up to an Allied Health Professionals consultant if they wish.
Alison Wildt, service improvement lead for the NRC, said: “This bespoke Rehab AP apprenticeship has the potential to change the way we train professionals coming into the field of rehabilitation – not just those who want to come and work at the NRC, but for healthcare workers in rehabilitation settings across the UK.
“We know that training not only nurtures and develops our own workforce, it also demonstrates our commitment to our staff and the value that we see in them and what they can deliver, which ultimately supports with the retention of staff.
“We want to enable continued professional development and for all members of the team to be working to the top of their licence.”
The first cohort of the Rehab AP apprenticeship embarked on the inaugural course in September, and the six individuals are now eight weeks into their first placement.
James Tague, aged 22, is one of these apprentices and is currently on placement with the Daybrook Unit at Nottingham City Hospital, which supports with the rehabilitation of stroke patients.
He said: “If someone has suffered an injury then it can affect their physical, mental, and social functions, and our role is to help them find that new normal.
“The key thing is that everyone is different, and so everyone will recover differently and will have different goals.
“It’s a privilege to be part of someone’s rehab and you get to make such a positive difference in helping them to reach their goals. It’s especially rewarding to visually see the progress of their rehab.”
The second cohort of apprentices will be recruited in Spring 2024.
