Practice learning experience in the Borders General Hospital

As a board offering a district hospital and rural community care, a learning experience with NHS Borders is a learning experience with a wide range of opportunities through involvement with services which adopt a holistic approach to care and treatment. Close connections and good communication between teams facilitates additional opportunities to spend time within local specialist teams, allied health professionals, external agencies and the voluntary sector.

NHS Borders was delighted to be involved in piloting the coaching model and is now seeking to promote a coaching approach to student supervision wider. We encourage students to be proactive in planning their learning experience and promote a daily learning log to support students to meet their learning goals and gain regular feedback.

There may be opportunities to secure a post within NHS Borders while undertaking your training through contracted hours to help support the financial aspects of being a student whilst gaining valuable experience. Please keep an eye on NHS Scotland Recruitment and select Employer NHS Borders to filter. NHS Borders Nurse bank opportunities will be advertised under Employer NHS Lothian.

An opportunity to have your voice heard!

We are keen to hear about the practice learning experience from students. Don't forget to complete QMPLE as this feedback is regularly reviewed and informs development within practice learning environments.

We run regular peer support events. Please see Upcoming student events for more information

The Practice Education Facilitators (PEF) are contactable via a shared email so if you would like to contact them please email: PEFCHEFEnquiries@borders.scot.nhs.uk

The Borders General Hospital:

• is situated on the outskirts of Melrose
• opened in 1988 and is the only district general hospital servicing the Borders Region
• has approx. 284 beds and 1700 staff
• provides the full range of District General Hospital services
• is a short walk from Tweedbank rail station with direct trains to Edinburgh, bus links to Galashiels, Jedburgh, Kelso and Edinburgh
• Offers onsite canteen, library (not university library), free parking and changing facilities.

Primary & Community Services Primary and Community Services (PACS):

• includes all Primary Care and Community Services provided by NHS Borders and the Independent Primary Care Contractors (excluding mental health, learning disabilities and maternity services).
• employs approximately 675 staff, based in theHealth Centres, two GP owned premises and four community and day hospitals.
• includes community hospitals facilities in Hawick; Peebles; Duns and Kelso.
• provides community nursing services, therapy services, sexual health services and the community dental service, as well as the contracts for GPs, dental and optometry.

Women and Children’s Services

• We have a small special care baby unit and close links with the specialist unit in Edinburgh, Midwifery services covering hospital, home and community settings, health visiting services and support in patient.We provide a range of Paediatric services both inpatient and across the community.

Mental Health Service

• With approximately 350 staff, NHS Borders Mental Health Service works across all age groups to provide assessment and treatment in a variety of settings.
• Services include community mental health teams, specialist drug and alcohol team, child and adolescent and in-patient services. These services are based in the towns throughout the Scottish Borders.
• We work closely with partner agencies to deliver more integrated care to individuals, and several services are jointly managed with Scottish Borders Council.

Learning Disability Service

• The Scottish Borders Learning Disability Service is a joint Scottish Borders Council and NHS Borders service that provides a range of specialist social care and health services for people with a learning disability.
• The service is co-located within Scottish Borders Council’s Social Work Department and comprises of NHS led Community Learning Disability Team. Charity funded day services and inpatient support is also available in the borders.

Care Homes

The Care Homes that are located across the Scottish Borders provide vital practice learning experiences, with the opportunity to learn from skilled inter-professional care home teams. All learning opportunities link to platforms of proficiency within the NMC Standards, and learning outcomes to be achieved during the nursing programme as detailed within PAD/ePAD  including; holistic care, assessment, care planning, implementation and evaluation, medication management, infection prevention and control, clinical skills, promoting principles of human rights and the health and social care standards.

Key care home specialities includecare for older people, care for people living with long term conditions, dementia, learning disabilities, mental health conditions, physical disabilities, or sensory Impairments

For more information on the full range of clinical services provided by NHS Borders, visit our website www.nhsborders.scot.nhs.uk

A career with NHS Borders is a career in a beautiful setting, with a friendly and supportive community. NHS Borders is responsible for the health of a population of over 115,000 people across the Scottish Borders area.

The Scottish Borders covers a large and scenic area of the Southern Uplands of Scotland. The Scottish Borders offers all the benefits of rural life with very easy access to major cities such as Edinburgh (37 miles) Glasgow (75 miles) Newcastle (75 miles). There are rail links to the rest of the country at Berwick-Upon-Tweed, and Carlisle as well as easy access to Edinburgh Airport (approximately 1 hour 15 minutes) and Newcastle Airport (approximately 1 hour 30 minutes).

There are various bus routes from Edinburgh to reach different parts of the borders and buses to support local travel. Borders buses is the main transport provider and there are network maps and timetables available on their website (https://www.bordersbuses.co.uk/). The Berwickshire area has introduced a unique scheme known as PINGO Berwickshire to support local travel please see Borders Buses for more information.

REMEMBER TO APPLY FOR YOUR YOUNG SCOTS TRAVEL CARD IF YOU ARE LUCKY ENOUGH TO BE UNDER 22! Apply for an under 22s bus pass - mygov.scot

Predominately rural, the Scottish Borders is historically a unique part of the country. It is home of the Border Reivers, where annually each town maintains its links with the past during the season of Common Ridings and other festivals including the famous Beltane festival in Peebles. Seven-a-side rugby which originated in Melrose, and the annual book and music festivalsdraw particularly large crowds each year. The Scottish Borders has tremendous facilities for sport and leisure.

Glentress and Innerleithen mountain bike parks are world renowned for both cross country and downhill biking. The beautiful Berwickshire coast provides options for sea kayaking, surfing, diving and sea fishing. In addition, there are facilities for fishing, golf, swimming, horse riding, cricket, football, hiking and many other activities.

There are excellent cultural opportunities in terms of music and art societies, drama, and small theatres in Melrose, Peebles and Selkirk as well as amateur opera; there are excellent restaurants, cinemas and shops across the region. Each of the Scottish Borders towns have their own health and leisure facilities. There is a purpose-built nursery in the grounds of the hospital.

Edinburgh is renowned for its cultural activities in music, including opera and ballet, theatre, cinemas (including a film theatre) and visual arts, and of course every year there is the world-famous Edinburgh International Festival and Fringe Festival. Local transport links have improved greatly in the last year or so. After an absence of almost 50 years, the Borders Railway has now reopened, with train services to central Edinburgh running every thirty minutes (journey time 55 minutes approx.). Galashiels Railway Station is a few minutes’ walk from Galashiels Health Centre.

Useful websites:

NHS Borders -  http://www.nhsborders.co.uk

Scottish Borders Tourist Board - www.scot-borders.co.uk

Our Scottish Borders - www.ourscottishborders.com

Southern Reporter - www.borderstoday.co.uk

Borders buses - https://www.bordersbuses.co.uk/

Traveline - Plan Your Journey | Traveline

In a career with NHS Borders you will get…

• A friendly and supportive environment
• A commitment to staff engagement and effective team working
• A track record in creativity and innovation and our ability to successfully implement change and redesign
• A commitment to supporting staff’s learning, development and career aspirations from the introduction of contracts for 3^rd year nurses through to preceptorship support for newly qualified practitioners and development to advanced practice
• A commitment to supporting flexible working through a wide range of family friendly policies
• A commitment to support and improve our staff’s health, safety, wellbeing and resilience. We do this by implementing our person-centred Work and Wellbeing Framework which covers 2015 – 2020 which sets out how we will support our staff to keep them healthy, motivated and engaged. It includes a variety of proactive initiatives to support staff health and well-being and our work life balance policies.

We look forward to welcoming you soon!