10.04.13
Leadership course for frontline nurses and midwives
A new eight-day leadership course is helping frontline staff become better role models for their colleagues and provide excellent patient care across primary, community and secondary healthcare settings.
Around 1,200 nurses and midwives should complete the course, developed and delivered by the NHS Leadership Academy, by March 2014.
The programme focuses on the approach and behaviours of frontline nurses and midwives with leadership responsibilities, such as team leaders, ward sisters and supervisors, and the environment they create for their colleagues and patients.
It was developed with input from nursing and midwifery leaders from across the country.
In October 2012, the Government pledged £46m toward NHE leadership development in the name of better patient care.
One attendee, Sam Carman, emergency assessment manager from South Tyneside NHS Foundation Trust, said: “If I’m being honest, over the last six months the things I have read in the media about nurses has had me quite disheartened but after the first day on this course, my faith in my colleagues was completely restored.
“Every single person I met really cared about what they do – after all, it is our patients that bring us in to work every day. The opportunity this course has given me to reflect on my role has made me even more geared up to prove what a positive effect we can have as an individual, as a team and as an organisation as a whole.”
Dr Nicholas Bradbury, the academy’s nursing and midwifery programme lead, said: “Part of our core programmes, the frontline leadership course focuses on those nurses and midwives who not only directly deliver patient care but are responsible for their own teams in whichever setting they work, whether it be in public health, a GP practice, hospital or community setting.
“At the NHS Leadership Academy we are absolutely committed to the view that leadership really does start on the frontline – and our frontline leadership course is designed to help our band 6 and 7 nurses and midwives understand their approach and supports them to understand the impact that they can make on patient care as an individual and as part of a team.”
The course follows the Senior Operational Leaders Nursing and Midwifery programme and includes elements of the NHS Top Leaders programme.
It includes a three-day residential and consists of practical group work on understanding the culture of the NHS and each individual’s approach within that.
From September, the Leadership Academy will be running a multi-disciplinary foundation, mid and senior level leadership core programmes.
Tell us what you think – have your say below or email [email protected]