First Year Paramedic Passport Assessment Review
So in the first term of the first year at my university, we are required to complete a Skills Passport as part of our Preparation for Clinical Practice module. This was a pass/fail document which was required to pass for you to be able to pass the module alongside an essay and presentation. I do not know if every university completes this module in the same way, but feel free to comment below either way as it is interesting for me and other people!
So the passport included various basic skills assessed by peers, such as taking temperatures, manual blood pressures, blood glucose readings (BM) and various manual handling techniques. It also comprised of slightly more serious basic skills assessed by tutors, such as adult and paediatric airways, c-spine immobilisation and basic life support and automated external defibrillator (BLS and AED). There were also requirements to complete the online training modules for areas such as safeguarding and data protection.
There were lots of opportunities to get these skills signed off in university, so long as you turned up to lectures and labs! It is important to be organised in this module and be aware of what you have left to complete and how much time you have until the end of the year. Usually I am quite good with term dates (as my mum works in a school so we constantly have: x number of get-ups until the end of term), however it can be easy to lose track as in this instance, we finished a week before the schools did (although usually my terms are longer).
The best way to get it completed is to pair up for the peer-assessments and practice on each other to ensure everything gets signed off. Attend extra lab sessions early in the year if you need something signed off so you do not keep putting off your assessments and you can get it completed ASAP. It is also likely you will have other assessments due at the same time which are harder than this, so getting this over and done with leaves you more time to complete the scarier stuff! Make sure all the little boxes are ticked and write in everything necessary otherwise you will fail it. It was ridiculous as about 25% of my cohort failed as they could not be bothered to fill in their passport correctly. If it needs a signature, sign it! Go through the passport at least twice and then get someone else to look at it too to ensure nothing is missing. This is something totally not worth having the whole module capped at 40% for and having to redo it!
The Clinical Passport was clearly an introduction to the Practice Assessment Document (PAD) which I will go into more depth during another post. It is good practice as you have to receive formative and summative assessments to pass, along with some individual assessment and mentor assessment. Overall I found the Clinical Passport quite satisfying as you could check up on your progress each week and see how much you learnt. I learnt so much in my first trimester of university and I completely cherish all those skills. The main point from this post is to make sure you put effort into getting this done quickly and correctly so it does not mount up and cause you to fail (sorry for sounding harsh). It is important to note that even if it seems small (like one tick or signature), it may still potentially cause you to fail so do not think of such lightly! As I said earlier, please describe your first term module in the comments below and good luck!
So the passport included various basic skills assessed by peers, such as taking temperatures, manual blood pressures, blood glucose readings (BM) and various manual handling techniques. It also comprised of slightly more serious basic skills assessed by tutors, such as adult and paediatric airways, c-spine immobilisation and basic life support and automated external defibrillator (BLS and AED). There were also requirements to complete the online training modules for areas such as safeguarding and data protection.
There were lots of opportunities to get these skills signed off in university, so long as you turned up to lectures and labs! It is important to be organised in this module and be aware of what you have left to complete and how much time you have until the end of the year. Usually I am quite good with term dates (as my mum works in a school so we constantly have: x number of get-ups until the end of term), however it can be easy to lose track as in this instance, we finished a week before the schools did (although usually my terms are longer).
The best way to get it completed is to pair up for the peer-assessments and practice on each other to ensure everything gets signed off. Attend extra lab sessions early in the year if you need something signed off so you do not keep putting off your assessments and you can get it completed ASAP. It is also likely you will have other assessments due at the same time which are harder than this, so getting this over and done with leaves you more time to complete the scarier stuff! Make sure all the little boxes are ticked and write in everything necessary otherwise you will fail it. It was ridiculous as about 25% of my cohort failed as they could not be bothered to fill in their passport correctly. If it needs a signature, sign it! Go through the passport at least twice and then get someone else to look at it too to ensure nothing is missing. This is something totally not worth having the whole module capped at 40% for and having to redo it!
The Clinical Passport was clearly an introduction to the Practice Assessment Document (PAD) which I will go into more depth during another post. It is good practice as you have to receive formative and summative assessments to pass, along with some individual assessment and mentor assessment. Overall I found the Clinical Passport quite satisfying as you could check up on your progress each week and see how much you learnt. I learnt so much in my first trimester of university and I completely cherish all those skills. The main point from this post is to make sure you put effort into getting this done quickly and correctly so it does not mount up and cause you to fail (sorry for sounding harsh). It is important to note that even if it seems small (like one tick or signature), it may still potentially cause you to fail so do not think of such lightly! As I said earlier, please describe your first term module in the comments below and good luck!
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