Using Placement Pal professionally

Last updated July 2026

Placement Pal is designed to support healthcare students with placement organisation, reflective learning and professional development.

It supports your learning journey but does not replace university guidance, placement supervision, mentor feedback or professional judgement.

Your reflections remain your own

Placement Pal can help you structure and develop reflections, but your experiences, thoughts, learning and professional insight must come from you.

Students remain responsible for ensuring reflections accurately represent their own practice experiences.

Using AI responsibly

AI features within Placement Pal are designed to support reflective learning and organisation.

AI should not be used to create false experiences, invent clinical events or replace your own critical thinking.

Students should:

• ✓ Review AI suggestions carefully.
• ✓ Ensure reflections represent their own experience.
• ✓ Adapt suggestions using their own professional judgement.
• ✓ Follow university guidance regarding AI use.

Students should not:

• ✗ Submit AI-generated work as their own without review.
• ✗ Create fictional placement experiences.
• ✗ Use AI as a replacement for supervision or assessment guidance.

Protecting patient confidentiality

Healthcare students must never enter identifiable patient information into Placement Pal.

Examples of information that must not be entered:

• Patient names.
• NHS numbers.
• Dates of birth.
• Addresses.
• Contact details.
• Any information that could identify an individual.

Use anonymised descriptions instead.

Incorrect: “Mrs Jane Smith from 12 Green Street attended clinic.”

Correct: “A patient attending clinic discussed anxiety relating to their health condition.”

Your professional responsibility

Placement Pal is a learning support tool. Students remain responsible for following:

• Professional standards.
• University policies.
• Placement policies.
• Confidentiality requirements.
• Local information governance procedures.

How Placement Pal handles your information

Placement Pal is designed with privacy in mind.

• ✓ Patient-identifiable information detection before saving.
• ✓ Original raw dictation is not stored.
• ✓ Only approved anonymised content is saved.
• ✓ Students can export or delete their data.
• ✓ Voice recordings are transcribed and discarded.

Placement Pal is an educational support tool for healthcare students that encourages reflective learning, professional development and safe practice. It is not a replacement for educators, not a clinical decision tool, not a medical advice service, and it is not NMC-approved.