Celebrating our first Allied Health Professionals preceptors

The preceptees collecting their certificates

Last week, University Hospitals of Northamptonshire celebrated the very first cohort of Allied Health Professionals (AHP) preceptors at Northampton General Hospital (NGH) with a graduation ceremony at the hospital.

The AHP Preceptorship is a structured six-to-twelve month program to provide structured support to those newly qualified professionals as they begin their career path as AHPs. During program AHP preceptees have workshops with preceptors who are experienced staff members in relevant areas. During these workshops the preceptors use their knowledge and skills to support the preceptees in their training, resulting in a portfolio of learning and support.

In total 17 preceptees graduated from the course at NGH including Physiotherapists, Radiographers, Operating Department Practitioners and Occupational Therapists.

Hannah Sunter, Therapies Practice Development Lead at NGH, runs the workshops. She explained “We've ran workshops on communication, leadership, and having difficult conversations. As a part of this we have been able to utilise role play and actors to practice managing different scenarios.’”

She added “It’s so rewarding to see those taking part be able to finally receive their certificates. All the hard work has been worth it. All our preceptees have worked hard to put together a CPD portfolio, the idea of this is that they will be supported in a meaningful way to instil good habits of CPD for the future. They've all put in a lot of time and effort, so it'll be great to see them presented with certificates”.

You can watch some video highlights from the day below.