Flying Start NHS® programme at NHS Highland

Get started

The Turas platform hosts a suite of applications designed to support Scotland's health and social care workforce. Find out more about Turas and how to get support.

To get started with the Flying Start NHS® programme, practitioners should first sign in to, or register for, a Turas account.
Once the practitioner has created an account, they should access the Flying Start NHS Programme page on Turas Learn (requires Turas login), where they will find information and instructions on how to get started with the programme.
The NHS Highland Flying Start resource booklet (pdf) will support and navigate the practitioner through the programme in NHS Highland. Alongside this, practitioners will be supported by their line managers (e.g., senior charge nurses/ midwives/AHPs/team leaders/care home managers), their Flying Start Facilitator, and the Practice Education team.

All practitioners should be supported to undertake and complete the Flying Start NHS® programme and therefore be given time to learn. There are no notional hours ascribed to Flying Start NHS, as each practitioner and local area may use the programme differently.

At a minimum, it is recommended that the practitioner be allocated one day of protected learning time per outcome, of which there are four. NHS Highland intends to support NQPs to have 4 protected learning days (currently 7.2 hours) across the first year of practice so that they can attend the NHS Graduate programme/AHP preceptorship programme and work on completing reflections related to their practice. Practitioners outside of NHS Highland should discuss and negotiate time to learn with their manager or team lead, and Flying Start Facilitator.

Turas Professional Portfolio

Throughout the programme, practitioners may find it beneficial to record their evidence of learning in a portfolio. Turas Professional Portfolio is an electronic platform, developed to enable NHS Scotland staff to generate, record, reflect upon and share evidence of their learning and continuing professional development.

Evidence of learning from the Flying Start NHS® programme can then be used:

as part of the appraisal process
for career development
for regulatory purposes including the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) audit and the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) revalidation

Find out more about a Professional Portfolio associated with your field of practice:

Nurses and Midwives

NHS Highland offer a Graduate Programme which aims to support newly qualified, return to practice and internationally recruited nurses and midwives during their first year of working.

The programme complements the Flying Start programme as it is designed to follow the Four Pillars of Practice model and provides activities that facilitate reflection. It enables the graduate practitioner to reflect on their practice, which may support them with their annual appraisal and revalidation. The programme is facilitated by the Practice Education Facilitator/Care Home Education Facilitator (PEF/CHEF) team.

For more information, use the Flying Start contact email for nurses and midwives.

Allied Health Professionals

Newly qualified, return-to-practice and internationally recruited AHPs will be supported through a North of Scotland AHP Preceptorship programme during their first 12-18 months of practice.

The programme will connect to local and profession-specific support and induction processes and will be inclusive of the Flying Start NHS® programme. The programme is delivered on MS Teams and facilitated by the AHP Practice Education Leads (AHP PELs) across NHS Grampian, NHS Highland, NHS Orkney, NHS Shetland and NHS Western Isles.

All newly qualified AHPs in NHS Highland are encouraged to contact the AHP Practice Education Leads using their contact email.