Changing the landscape of physiotherapy practice education: students' experiences of a rotational placement pilot initiative in England

Purpose: Not least as a consequence of the NHS staffing shortages exposed by the Covid-19 pandemic, UK higher education institutions (HEIs) have been charged with increasing the numbers of allied healthcare professionals trained across-the-board. In physiotherapy, enlarging core student numbers within universities themselves has proven considerably less challenging than finding sufficient practice placements for these students during their degrees. Finding creative solutions to this problem - and evidencing their efficacy in terms consistency, quality and student experience - has, thus, become a key priority in contemporary physiotherapy education. This paper addresses one prospective solution: the use of ‘placement rotation’. Therein, students complete several rotations in different clinical areas within a single trust as one ostensibly ongoing placement, with a single induction and a consistent group of peers and educators. Rotational placements have been a routine feature of nurse training for some time, with robust research underscoring their value, but remain largely untested in physiotherapy. Focusing on a three-rotation pilot initiative run by the authors’ HEI and a single NHS trust in northwest England, findings qualitatively address the nuances of student experiences.