Students as Partners: The development of a Professionalism Toolkit

Students of professionally regulated programmes must demonstrate professionalism but often have difficulty understanding the requirements1. Three themes emerged from our student focus groups, which were; fear, particularly amongst 1st years; uncertainty due to vagueness; and a lack of diversity. Students recommended the development of a ‘toolkit’ to address these concerns2.

Through collaboration with stakeholders and co-creation with students, we have developed student-centred guidance and student–friendly resources including awareness videos and the requested toolkit to support students’ understanding of professionalism. The toolkit (developed by final year pharmacy students) has been piloted with students (first and final year) (and staff) across several programmes within the Faculty and findings from the pilot will be presented at a national educational conference in 20243.

We have also devised a Professionalism Development Checklist that can be used to support conversations around professionalism between students, and their academic advisors/placement supervisors.

Our UPP (University of Manchester Professionalism Partnership) website will provide a ‘one-stop-shop' for all the Professionalism resources we co-create and develop. It comprises of two main areas: 1) a publicly accessible site for external partners such as clinical placement providers and, 2) secure access for University of Manchester students and staff to access professionalism-themed learning assets (videos, quizzes, interactive scenario-based resources etc.)

We continue to offer students co-creation opportunities, to establish stronger relationships with academic colleagues and clinical placement providers to promote best practice and enhance student understanding of the concept of professionalism.
Students of professionally regulated programmes must demonstrate professionalism but often have difficulty understanding the requirements1. Three themes emerged from our student focus groups, which were; fear, particularly amongst 1st years; uncertainty due to vagueness; and a lack of diversity. Students recommended the development of a ‘toolkit’ to address these concerns2.

Through collaboration with stakeholders and co-creation with students, we have developed student-centred guidance and student–friendly resources including awareness videos and the requested toolkit to support students’ understanding of professionalism. The toolkit (developed by final year pharmacy students) has been piloted with students (first and final year) (and staff) across several programmes within the Faculty and findings from the pilot will be presented at a national educational conference in 2024.