Key messages
- The Best Practice Clinical Learning Environment (BPCLE) Framework is a guide for health and human services organisations, in partnership with education providers, to coordinate and deliver high-quality training for learners.
- BPCLEtool is the secure web-based system that assists organisations to implement the BPCLE Framework and to monitor continuous improvement in education and training.
- Implementation of the BPCLE Framework using BPCLEtool is expected to bring direct benefits to organisations by assisting in the identification of aspects of the learning environment where further improvement may be required, suggesting actions to promote improvement, and facilitating monitoring of performance against indicators.
- The BPCLE Framework and supplementary resources are available in the Downloads section below.
The Framework
The BPCLE Framework is a guide for health and human services organisations, in partnership with education providers, to coordinate and deliver high-quality training for learners.
The BPCLE Framework was developed to ensure positive education cultures are created and maintained and to help organisations improve the student experience through strategies and mechanisms that monitor the quality of the education environment.
The framework identifies six key characteristics of high-performing learning environments:
Implementation benefits
Ensuring consistently high-quality education opportunities across Victoria’s health and human services sector is essential to enhancing training capacity and making sure a skilled and competent workforce is developed.
Implementation of the BPCLE Framework is expected to bring direct benefits to organisations including:
- improvements to the learning environment, resulting in better experiences for all learners and for staff involved in delivering education and training
- efficiencies and improvements in educational activities and processes, resulting in less wasted effort by staff
- better relationships between organisations and their education provider partners, resulting in more support for staff and improved teaching programs that produce work-ready graduates
- enhancements of the organisational learning culture, contributing to improved patient care and health outcomes
- organisational learning across and within health and human services professions, leading to better relationships between disciplines and between staff
- evidence-based accountability for, and transparency of, training activity and investment.
BPCLEtool
BPCLEtool is the secure, web-based resource that guides organisations through implementation of the BPCLE Framework. Using BPCLEtool, an organisation can:
- undertake a self-assessment of its existing learning environment to identify learning areas requiring improvement
- develop an action plan with identified tasks that will assist in the development of the learning environment
- select indicators to monitor performance and improvements over time.
BPCLEtool is available at . The Department of Health and Human Services provides free access to BPCLEtool for all Victorian health and human services organisations. For access to BPCLEtool please email VICworkforce@dhhs.vic.gov.au.
Supplementary resources
The following documentation is available for download below, or via BPCLEtool:
- Stakeholder Guidelines
- Performance Monitoring Framework
- Indicator Specifications
BPCLE Resource Kit
The BPCLE Resource Kit, which can be downloaded from the BPCLEtool website, comprises a range of resources including a service provider-education provider agreement guide and template, a student orientation handbook guide, student orientation program template and orientation checklist template, and staff, education provider and learner survey questions for performance monitoring.
Project background
BPCLE Framework
The BPCLE Framework was first developed in 2008, based on data collected from health services, education providers, and learners across seven disciplines (medicine, nursing, physiotherapy, podiatry, social work, speech pathology and occupational therapy). The BPCLE Framework has subsequently progressed through a number of phases to build upon the initial foundation and create useful stakeholder resources to assist with implementation:
Framework development: A literature review and stakeholder consultation was used to identify the key elements of a best practice clinical learning environment, and the potential indicators to facilitate monitoring of these elements.
Framework validation: The BPCLE Framework was validated with additional health disciplines and clinical training settings to ensure the elements and indicators are relevant in all clinical placement environments. This stage also aimed to validate potential indicators with a view to refining these throughout the implementation process.
Resource development: A suite of practical resources was developed using existing resources provided by the sector and through further examination of the available literature.
BPCLE – Performance Monitoring Framework
The BPCLE Performance Monitoring Framework was developed to define each indicator within the BPCLE Framework to help stakeholders meaningfully measure and monitor the quality of education and training.
Piloting the BPCLE Framework
Selected clinical placement providers across different settings and organisational types piloted implementation of the BPCLE Framework to test the tools and inform its broader rollout. The pilot demonstrated that implementation is achievable on a whole-of-organisation basis, in a range of settings, and in a relatively short space of time using the tools developed specifically to support the process.
Developing BPCLEtool
The online BPCLEtool was developed in response to feedback collected as part of the evaluation of the pilot to improve the presentation, connectivity and user interaction with the tools. BPCLEtool development was also informed by stakeholder feedback collected through a series of user acceptability testing sessions.
Reviewed 09 September 2015