#ShareTheLove for 2-1 student placements campaign to end crisis

A #ShareTheLove Twitter campaign has been launched on Valentine's Day today to encourage occupational therapists to "step-up" and take a minimum of two students on every placement.

Last year, Glasgow Caledonian University researchers Professor of Occupational Therapy Katrina Bannigan and Allied Health Professions (AHP) Practice Placement Lead Anita Volkert called on the NHS to introduce a new 2-1 placement system for AHP students to end a growing crisis.

At the moment placements are one student to one member of NHS staff but the researchers insist that making it a minimum of two students to one staff member would address the shortage of placements available.

Professor Bannigan said national data suggests that occupational therapists have engaged less with the peer assisted learning (PAL) approach or practice-based learning placements, which prompted their latest campaign.

They have kicked off their Everyone Needs a P.A.L campaign by encouraging occupational therapists to #ShareTheLove on social media.

Professor Bannigan said: "We are asking occupational therapists to step up to get involved in PAL and take a minimum of two students on every placement.

"We need to get the message out to occupational therapists that for supervisors, having at least two students on placement can actually feel like less work than supervising one student.

"We launched this campaign on Valentine's Day because there are lots of 'relationship' messages associated with this initiative.

"We know that students work well together, they may have different skills sets from previous placements and life experiences which they can share and teach each other, they can offer each other informal support, and they can spend time with each other during any down-time they may have."

Get involved in the campaign by sharing your placement experiences and opinions using #ShareTheLove on Twitter.