Supporting and developing the role of the Clinical Nurse Educator Chair: Liz Allibone, Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Foundation Trust Welcome to our FIRST CNEnet newsletter Secretary: Bill Whitehead, University of Derby How to network with us; Complete our membership form -see our website derby.ac.uk/cnenet Follow us on Twitter @NurseEdUK Join our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/cnenet/ Message from Liz Allibone, Chair and Bill Whitehead, Secretary of CNEnet The Clinical Nurse Educator (CNE) is going to be at the centre of major developments in healthcare in the coming years. The demands for ever-improving knowledge, skills and standards are putting the spotlight on the CNE as never before. CNEnet, launched last October, is here to provide a national forum to share experience, best practice and offer support. The response has been amazing. Already we have around 500 followers on twitter, over 150 Facebook members and 170 members on the mailing list. We have a dedicated website and now our own newsletter too. We're on the NMC radar too, having been asked to play a role in the Standards for Learning in Practice evaluation and CNEnet already features in many LETB reports. We re also linking to other regional health professional networks and CNEnet will also have a presence at the NET 2015 health education networking conference in Cambridge. We started out with the remit to enable CNEs to network and this is certainly being accomplished through our Facebook and Twitter activity in particular. Our next faceto-face event will be in London on July 13th. We'll start at 1100am ish and close by 1630. Thanks to UCLH for offering to host this meeting. It would be great to see you there. We continue to pursue greater recognition for the role of the CNE as a career in its own right supported by a national framework. This network is a great first step in this direction and we hope you ll join us on the journey. Questions for CNEs from other CNEs How do you evaluate the effectiveness of your role? How do other CNEs manage accessibility in terms of inclusive education? How do you prove that you are value for money and worth the investment?
Supporting and developing the role of the Clinical Nurse Educator Hot off the Press: Social Media NMC publication http://www.nmcuk.org/publications/guidance/ The NMC have recently published guidance for using social media, which is supported by the new Code. Are YOU tweeting yet? Don t be scared of Twitter it s an excellent resource for educators; from networking, to debates, to links to professional development and teaching materials. How else would you be able to directly contact Jackie Smith, Health Education England and its LETBs or thousands of other nurses? Social media is here to stay don t be left out. If you can t beat it, join it! Did you know? The debate about job titles for the role of the Clinical Nurse Educator continues and was recently debated on our Facebook page. Out of our 170 members who ve completed membership forms we have over 25 different job titles! Do you think we should just have one approved title for this post? We want to have an easily recognisable and meaningful CNEnet logo. Liz thought something to do with arrows maybe?? If you can come up with a suitable image we will judge the best one and award the winner a CNEnet certificate of achievement and maybe a gift voucher at our next workshop. Just send your entry to w.whitehead@derby.ac.uk Clinical Nurse Educator Activity: what You told us Clinical Supervision Training at Great Ormond Street Hospital, London At Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, the clinical educators organise a Clinical Supervision training day. They feel that Clinical Supervision supports nurses and can help them to reflect on their practice and how clinical education supports practice. They re also involved in the organisation of various study days for all grades of staff, as well as the usual orientation of new staff For more information contact Clinical Educator Heather Hatter: Heather.Hatter@gosh.nhs.uk
Introducing the Faculty of Education at Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust The Faculty of Education at HEFT, launched in 2010, is the first of its kind in the UK and aims to be a one-stop-shop for all learning and development needs for 11,000 staff. A faculty Team of 100+ staff incorporates many interpretations of Clinical Educators to support bands1-9 under and post graduates. For example; Lecturer Practitioner roles Traditional Practice Development roles Focused Clinical Education projects in Practice Undergraduate specific roles Ward based Clinical Educators Recent courses developed include Cannulation for HCAs, Anaphylactic shock for community services, Examination of the newborn and 2 week nurse induction. Please see link below. http://www.heftfaculty.co.uk/ Follow @HEFTFaculty https://twitter.com/heftfaculty and for more information contact Catherine on Catherine.Wilson@heartofengland.nhs.uk. Catherine is keen to network. Catherine Wilson, Principal Educator for Nursing and Midwifery who supports the post registration portfolio, says Our current main challenges are : Keeping Education high profile in times of Winter Pressures. Educating practitioners that can't be released from Practice. Managing resources to sustain assessment related workloads.
Research findings from Qatar: online learning Siobhan Whitney, Nurse Educator, is currently working in Qatar and working on the challenge of revamping the nurse education programmes. Siobhan is keen to develop online learning and is currently doing her MEd & Tech. research dissertation. Siobhan is about to collect the data looking at barriers to online CPD courses for nurses who have English as a 2nd or 3rd language. Siobhan says lots of interesting things coming out so far such as cultural attitudes to learning, both face to face and online. Also, linguistic issues when courses are not in their native language. So far, there doesn t appear to be anything on this in relation to post reg. nurse education so it s very exciting to see what may be revealed from the research. We re currently using Blackboard as a learning management system for annual mandatory competencies (alongside face to face sessions) which is working very nicely but took some getting used to! Please let me know if you need any further info! Siobhan Whitney Nurse Educator Aspetar Office: +(974) 44132164 Mobile: +(974) 30294654 P.O. Box 29222 www.aspetar.com siobhan.whitney@aspetar.com
Revalidation and Nursing Times article from Guys and St Thomas NHS Foundation Trust Colin Ramage, Placement Development Facilitator, Education, Training & Development colin.ramage@gstt.nhs.uk From Colin Ramage, Practice Development Facilitator Revalidation GSTFT is one of the sites that has been chosen by the NMC to pilot the new revalidation process. Myself and my colleague Rachel Brown will be having firsthand experience of this process as we are two of the volunteers that are to test out the new process. We are hoping this will provide us with invaluable information and top-tips on how to support colleagues through the final revalidation pathway Forthcoming NT article As part of the Health Education South London (HESL) the GSTFT clinical education team carried out an audit, asking 100 preregistration nurses what they believed made a good quality placement. The results, improvements and innovations that GSTFT have created to compliment this work will be published soon in the Nursing Times under the title Listening to the Workforce of the Future. Tracheostomy education initiatives; Royal Brompton Hospital, London Led by Ian Naldrett, Practice Educator, Adult Intensive Care Unit Ian has established mini workshops on tracheostomy care that last about 1.5 hours covering the basic safety and care of tracheostomy which have been well evaluated. Ian designed them to be deliverable to large groups of staff at team events to cover the basic standards regarding the recommendations of the NCEPOD report. Ian says I also planned them in a way where they teach themselves in an interactive manner using lots of problem solving and utilising the knowledge of staff so that experienced staff don t feel patronised and can support junior colleagues to complete tasks as a team. I m happy to share the learning materials that I created for the workshops and anything else you need in regards to it. I will be putting in an abstract on our response as a trust to NCEPOD report for the British Association of Critical Care Nurses conference in London this year. Ian Naldrett i.naldrett@rbht.nhs.uk
Practice Education Facilitator; new national study New Evidence Shows that Practice Education Facilitators are the Single Most Important Factor in Enabling Mentors to Fail Underperforming Student Nurses in Practical Assessments Dr. Louise A Hunt Lead Nurse Practice, Faculty of Health, Education and Life Sciences, Birmingham City University, Nothing is as good as a Practice Education Facilitator (PEF) is the key message from mentors in a new national study which has investigated what helps mentors to manage failing students. Mentors expressed deep affection for their PEFs because they had supported them during a difficult experience and a level of mutual trust had developed. Well I just love my [PEFs], I ve got a really good working relationship with them. They re reliable, available, very, very supportive and fair. (MA01) The god-send! [laughs] Without her we wouldn t have [failed the student]. She s very approachable and sort of down to earth, the fact that you could just contact her. So it s sort of relaxing that you could just sit down over a cup of tea and discuss things. (MA04) They ve always been there and been the best thing ever. (MA09) Mentors identified that supportive Practice Education Facilitators had four key attributes: approachability, accessibility, authoritative knowledge about practical assessment and the willingness to be an emotional anchor. These qualities are termed the 4 As and are illustrated below. The 4 A s: The attributes of PEFs who supported mentors during challenging practical assessment experiences Approachability Supportive PEFs were seen as friendly and encouraging; they were not intimidating and understood the reality of the mentor s role. Mentors were relaxed about approaching them and confident they would respond with helpful, practical advice. Regular visual sightings of the PEF helped the mentor to feel secure about approaching them for help. PEFs recognised how important it was that mentors knew and trusted them. I know that if I wanted her if I needed her to come up in a second she d be there. (MA11)
Accessibility When a problem arose the mentor knew who to contact, and that this was expected of them. In most situations the mentor had easy access to the PEF s phone number and e-mail address, which were clearly and accessibly displayed in the practice environment. The speed of response was a key aspect in reassuring the mentor, and a prompt physical presence in the practical area showed support and commitment. The visible presence of the PEF during ad hoc visits could also remind the mentor about an issue they had been too busy to action, eliciting an, Oh, I m glad I ve seen you (PE01) reaction. Authoritative Knowledge When mentors did need to follow processes meticulously they sought an expert guide, to lead them through practical assessment procedures which they found convoluted and tortuous. PEFs were also used as a quick reference resource because they could answer queries much more expediently than a document or website. They were usually able to contextualise NMC competencies and demystify complex academic jargon, although they too noted they could sometimes have difficulty with this. They had a sound knowledge of where processes most often went astray, and could keep the mentor on track. Willingness to be an Emotional Anchor Much of the difficulty in failing a student occurred at an emotional level. Here the PEF acted as a stabilising force, providing the mentor with the opportunity to vent feelings safely, and seek comfort and reassurance. The better the mentor knew the PEF and the more comfortable they felt with them, the more likely they were to disclose their feelings and ask for support. PEFs likened this role to acting as a comfort blanket (LT03). This term was not used in a derogatory sense, but rather to indicate the depths of insecurity from which mentors needed to be liberated. In an era of virtual resources and information technology it was a notable finding of this study that the human touch was valued so highly above any paper or electronic resources. PEFS who embodied the 4 A s acted to stabilise and secure mentors so that they had the self-possession to, grasp the nettle (PE02) and fail an underperforming student. Reference: Hunt L.A. (2014) Failing Securely: Enabling Mentors to Fail Underperforming Student Nurses In Practical Assessments. PhD Thesis, Birmingham City University. Dr Louise Hunt, Lead Nurse Practice, Faculty of Health, Education and Life Sciences, Birmingham City University, Louise.hunt@bcu.ac.uk 0121 331 6166
Networking beyond CNEnet Welcome to the London Association of Mental Health Practitioners and the Pan London network of Paediatric Educators nice to link with you! Shape of Caring tweetchat Karen Hill, Senior Nurse, Professional Development, Derby Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and Liz Allibone participated in a very active tweetchat with Lord Willis, Jackie Smith. Lisa Bayliss-Pratt (Chief Nurse, HEE) on 29 th March. We hope our transcript will be released as it was a fascinating debate and also helped to raise profile of CNEs. How do we raise the bar? Health Education East Midlands (HEEM) nursing and midwifery summit report From Karen Hill, Senior Nurse, Professional Development, Derby Teaching Hospitals NS Foundation Trust and Ruth Auton, Strategic Workforce Development Manager, Health Education East Midlands. During Health Education East Midlands (HEEM) nursing & midwifery summit in February 2015, Professor Lisa Bayliss Pratt, director of nursing from Health Education England (HEE) called for action from clinical educators to support work streams from the Shape of Caring review. Lisa was clear in her messaging that HEE, do not have all the answers; however, recognised there is a tremendous amount of knowledge, ideas and great practice in our local areas and she wants us all to help support her by influencing and steering the national education agenda, while 'cherishing our workforce.' Are you engaging with the workforce planning process in your organisation or with your Local Education and Training Council (LET C)? Lisa challenged the audience to share best practice and consider how we could work differently and creatively. Working in partnership is a key driver, so how can we do this to ensure future education, training & development is fit for purpose to support nurses, midwives and care assistants in delivering high quality, safe care during the next 10-15 years? This is a big ask! However, it is achievable. Sharing our creative ideas, resources and stretching ourselves is a good start and will support Lisa in her quest.
How can we embrace and promote technology to support the learning agenda? What are the barriers? What can we do to support our learners and others overcome these? Are we maximising the use of social media? What can we do differently? How are we using e-learning to maximise opportunities? Lisa wants us to share our savvy ways of thinking and working with each other. How can each of us commit to getting at least one person from our organisation signed up to the CNEnet? What are you able to do to share the message? How can you lead by example? What support do you need from the network to enable you? We need to make greater use of bursaries, grants and scholarships: do you know where to look for them and encourage our clinical staff to take up these opportunities? Lisa talked candidly about the challenges of mentorship; she said this is the 'most unreliable aspect of student nurse education.' Have we got mentorship right? Should everyone be a mentor? What does mentorship preparation and ongoing mentorship support look and feel like? Using our expertise, how can we influence and shape the future direction? How creative and innovative are we as educators? Where are great examples of mentorship? How can we work with the NMC in ensuring mentorship standards are current and do what is we need? Are we making best use of our existing mentors and mentorship provision at our Universities? Lisa also talked about NMC revalidation and the new code. How prepared are we for this? What are you doing about this? What is your organisation doing about this? Use of more distant learning and blended approaches to education could be the future. What strategies can we put in place to enable independent learning? Where are examples of good practice we can share and disseminate? What do our learners need and want? How do we celebrate our successes and learn from what we do? Lisa left us with future challenges to reflect on, she said 'education funding is not likely to rise,' so how are we going to develop our workforce and continually improve the quality of learners experiences? How are we able to spot talent and enable them to progress through their careers? What are we doing to 'grow our own workforce?' Where are we
leading on and promoting research and clinical academic careers.' Funding must be used to grow capacity and capability of our current and future workforce, embracing multidisciplinary learning and working. Learning and education opportunities must be viewed through a new lens: facilitation and opportunities for shadowing, mentoring and coaching provide excellent learning that must be valued by individuals, teams and organisations. Placements for our workforce need to look up and out of our current pool of employers. There is a need to embrace the any qualified provider agenda and consider primary / community care as true partners in growing our workforce. So it s over to you, as clinical educators how are you going to 'raise the bar? How can you engage in this network to enable you to share what you do which is great? How can you share your ideas and knowledge with others and seek advice and steer?. Collectively we can do it; we can raise the bar. For more information contact Karen Hill ; Senior Nurse, Professional Development, Derby Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust karen.hill18@nhs.net