Category: Blogs

As a brand new and fresh faced first year student, leadership wasn’t something I had consciously pursued amidst all of the learning and getting to grips with new placements and environments but I quickly came to find myself in leadership positions. I recall listening to people’s stories about their journey to begin the nursing course and the different obstacles they had faced and being concerned about issues facing the cohort that might present a barrier to their learning and, ultimately, their goal of being successful nurses. I decided to apply for the position of class rep and set about trying to represent the views of over 200 students, which has been incredibly challenging at times.

Along the way I have gained a great many insights into the obstacles facing not just students, but educational establishments, mentors and health and social care as a whole at an educational level. With each new dimension of experience I gain, I feel all the more compelled to learn more and to talk about it. But I hadn’t really considered myself a leader; for me, leadership has been about the talking that takes place behind the scenes – the listening to my peers. It’s been writing about my experiences and talking about contentious issues in order to gain the best possible understanding of how to help make realistic change a possibility. It’s been about highlighting where the problems are and whilst it has involved being a little bold at times, it hadn’t felt like leadership. I’m a helper, and saw myself as simply trying to help where I could. But, with the help of the Student Leadership Programme, I have come to see that leadership is exactly what I have been doing and the importance of recognising this within myself.

In March of this year I was invited by my university to complete a survey created by the Council of Deans of Health which asked questions about what I felt the ideal student leadership programme would look like. In May I was invited to apply to be a part of the programme, developed by the council but shaped by student responses. I hadn’t expected to be successful, but I applied with the hope that they might teach me to become a leader; having figured the best leaders make the best helpers. I was delighted to be chosen, but apprehensive about what to expect. I doubted myself, did I have what it takes to become a leader?

The opening event in Birmingham set the tone of the programme from the earliest moments. We were there not to learn how to become leaders, but because each of us had demonstrated leadership already. We were there to recognise that in ourselves, to develop those existing skills and to learn how to be good leaders capable of caring for ourselves and inspiring others.

We collaborated, debated, discussed and learned from each other. I felt incredibly inspired to be sharing a room with a group of confident and compassionate people with similar values and hopes for the future of health and social care. In this environment, surrounded by individuals who may well be the leaders and influencers of the future – all things seemed possible.

Over the two days we spent together, we heard from current leaders; their journeys, their passions, their achievements and their regrets. We listened to inspiring and motivating talks on self care, resilience, courage and learning to be authentic.

Hearing from Yvonne Sawbridge was the highlight for me. Yvonne is currently a senior fellow and The University of Birmingham, TEDx talker and spent 10 years as a Director of Nursing in a number of PCTs including South Staffs PCT which commissioned from Mid Staffs Hospital. Listening to Yvonne Speak about the Mid staffs enquiry and pose the question “Why might good people deliver bad care?” fuelled a fire within me that has been burning since the start of my course. As she discussed the concept of emotional labour, the humanity of the staff at the heart of the mid staffs enquiry and the sense of shame that so many have carried and continue to carry I became antsy in my seat. I wanted to get up, to learn as much as I could about emotional labour in health and social care and to do something!

As the event drew to a close, I left feeling energized and motivated. I hurried home to bury myself in books and articles on emotional labour and I applied to the Nursing Times to be a student editor, which I was recently shortlisted for. But I will continue to write for them and for other publications if I am not successful. My focus now is learning more, sharing far and wide the concept of emotional labour and addressing the obstacles good staff face in delivering good care.

The next stage of the programme involves mentorship and I am enthusiastic about learning from a current leader about what it means to be a leader on a day to day basis. But already, I feel like my journey has begun and that I have been given the support and tools required to develop my skills as the programme progresses and beyond, into my future career. I’m excited about what comes next.

Leanne Patrick

Earlier this month I was fortunate enough to be chosen to participate in the leadership programme run by The Council of Deans. The programme was set out to provide 150 healthcare students the opportunity to further develop their leadership skills through a 3-4 month long learning programme providing training in the essential knowledge and skills required for future healthcare leaders.

Prior to starting the programme, I was looking forward to meeting likeminded students who have a passion for improving care across all healthcare specialities, which included student Midwives, Nurses (adult, mental health and children’s), Radiographers, Physiotherapists and Occupational Therapists.

The beginning of the programme included icebreaking activities, writing a letter to my future self about my career and personal goals and a task which involved gathering into small groups of 5 and looking at individual case studies and feeding back to the group. Our group scenario considered the advantages and disadvantages of a leader being too engaged or too disengaged. We concluded that the perfect leader would be able to master the art of both; being engaged enough to be able to provide compassionate support to staff but exercise an element of disengagement in order to be objective.

The weekend involved several presentations from inspiring leaders. Ismalia De Sousa, a clinical nurse specialist in stroke, provided us with an inspiring talk about her journey into a leadership role and also discussed the importance of resilience. This involves developing confidence, having effective social support, being able to adapt and having a sense of purpose such as setting and striving for personal and professional goals.

Adele Nightingale, a senior lecturer in healthcare leadership practice discussed the need for health care practitioners to have a ‘bounce back ability’ and made the group consider our own emotional intelligence and personal resilience.

Yvonne Sawbridge, another inspirational leader discussed managing burnout within the profession which made me recognise that a profession within healthcare can be emotionally challenging at times and therefore as human beings we need to top up our own ‘emotional bank’. We need to care for ourselves before we can effectively care for others; this may lead to increased staff wellbeing.

The leadership programme so far has provided me with the opportunity to network, collaborate with other students and inspire each other. It has also given me an insight into what a leadership role entails and has provided me with in-depth knowledge which is needed for a career as a future leader in which I can begin to build on over the course of the leadership programme. I have also learnt to seize every opportunity that comes my way as a student and always take a proactive approach in my learning.

To be a leader, you do not have to be within a management role as I now understand that every practitioner requires leadership skills such as prioritising care, acting as an advocate for women and their families and collaborating within the MDT.

I am looking forward to being assigned and meeting my leadership mentor who could be a current leader within healthcare, policy maker or within a governing body such as the NMC or RCM. I am greatly appreciative for this opportunity and look forward to what the rest of the programme will entail.

Amy Reid

At the beginning of July I was lucky enough to have been invited to be one of the #150Leaders, a new campaign run by The Council of Deans to develop and encourage healthcare students with leadership potential. I was excited to meet students across the entire sphere of healthcare professionals, and as we ate dainty pastries and sipped coffee from fine china cups, overlooking the Birmingham Skyline, I met student OTs, physios, mental health nurses and adult and children’s nurses, student midwives were also well represented.

We settled down into our seats around tables of ten and enjoyed an afternoon of presentations about what it means to be a leader, taking part in some exercises about a case study we were given: a nurse who had started out on her career path full of energy and vitality, had climbed the career ladder and had become a leader, but then felt she had run out steam and enthusiasm for the job – how could she tackle this? We were given gorgeous fat marker pens and a large piece of paper and we created a beautiful (courtesy of an artistic student physio) career progression chart.

A key attribute of a leader is to step back, take stock and re-adjust, seeking help when required. Just because you are a leader doesn’t mean you don’t need help, in fact you need more help and support than ever! It was inspiring listening to student’s and leader’s perspectives and stories and we all learned something new. My favourite part was the realisation that leaders are present in all aspects of the workforce, in and amongst each level of the hierarchy.

Resilience

We had a delicious evening meal and the highlight of the programme for me was  meeting Ismalia De Sousa, an incredibly inspiring adult nurse specialising in stroke care, and an inspirational leader. The focus of her talk was on resilience, something that you need as a healthcare professional and also as a leader. Personal resilience has many facets including:

Confidence: recognise your strengths (and weaknesses!), challenge yourself and master skills, maintain your physical well being.

Social support: network effectively, distinguish between people being empathetic and sympathetic, use your support network (#SoMe, family, friends, colleagues)

Purposefulness: Strive for and achieve your goals, be aware and maintain your own personal moral compass, use positive mental time travel (where do I want to be in 1 year’s time?)

Adaptability: Mindfulness, resilient thinking, work smart (ask questions, ask for support, be efficient and a good time keeper)

I just love this slide that Ismalia used, sometimes you have to make the leap on your own, but it will be worth it!

The second day consisted of a wonderful breakfast with more networking, and some inspiring and honest talks by Dr Nigel Harrison and Adele Nightingale, learning about ‘bouncebackability’ and managing anxiety and burn-out with Yvonne Sawbridge. Being in a room with so many leaders has made me consider my own future, my passion lies with working with women, supporting and caring for them and their families through their pregnancy, birth and beyond. The #150Leaders programme has made me realise that leadership isn’t always about being a manager, but making the right decisions at the right times and most of all, working to the best of your ability and supporting and encouraging those around you to do the same.

Charlene Cole

I have just come back from two hugely generous events with 60 nursing, midwifery and allied health professional students. They are part of the Council of Deans and Burdett Trust for Nursing Student Leadership Programme and alongside 90 more students that will join us next year, they form our #150Leaders. As we spent time listening to inspiring leadership talks, sketch noting, scenario building, presenting, dancing and making pledges on social media I concluded that there is one ingredient that makes good leadership and that is generosity.

Generosity is all about sharing: our experience to inspire others, our creative ideas to build a joint vision, our feedback to build that emotional intelligence and our reflections to shape our stories together.

Inspirational leadership: sharing our experience to inspire others

The first lens of generosity in leadership is that of sharing our experience to inspire others. In our programme, we were joined by generous leaders who shared not just their easy rides but mostly their most difficult moments in their lives that made them stronger. We reflected it is those hard times that shape our thinking and it is our own story that brings the authenticity in us.

Ismalia De Sousa spoke to us about her life experience as a black, Portuguese and EU nurse in London, Nigel Harrison shared his life experience from a young enthusiastic twin all the way up to being Executive Dean in a large organisation, Steve Hams shared his dream of becoming a Chief Nurse and Brendan McCormack taught us that getting to the top of the research podium is possible no matter your background. They all demonstrated generosity in leadership by being open to share the most personal and difficult moments of their leadership journey. Incidentally their generosity was also framed by how they embraced their protected characteristics in their leadership in terms of their gender, ethnicity and sexual orientation.

Distributive leadership: sharing ideas to build a joint vision

Undoubtedly, there is no better generosity in leadership than that of the person who is keen to be part of a network, sharing ideas and building a joint vision. Distributive leadership emerged from our #150Leaders ‘thinking pairs’ discussions all the way to building a poster and presenting it as a team, interestingly amongst… strangers. Working together, building a future and networking are powerful tools to strengthen leadership and our #150Leaders generously shared their creative skills from drawing and presenting to dancing and clapping.

Emotionally intelligent leadership: keep that feedback coming

The emotionally intelligent leader is generous with seeking and providing feedback as she is committed to her self-awareness and recognises her moments of resilience. She is generous because she is not afraid to share the positives she sees in others and is bold enough to ask others back for feedback on her own development. Our #150Leaders filled each other’s feedback boxes with most generous messages demonstrating that it is possible to strengthen our own emotional intelligence by sharing what we see in others. And they followed Adele Nightingale with enthusiasm all the way to #bouncebackbilly.

Reflective leadership: playing back our thoughts to tell that common story

Good leaders tell good stories and good stories build good visions. Thinking together and shaping the future as part of the team got our #150Leaders talking and playing back their thoughts on each topic we touched upon. Reflecting in an open and safe environment allows generosity to flourish. We were so lucky to have with us Beryl Mansel and Sophie Garrat offering their reflections back to our #150Leaders and I so much enjoyed our joint reflective practice.

My final point on generosity in leadership is about being happy to be bold and share my vision with the world, whether it is an authenticity pledge, or a borrowed quote that has inspired me. And thanks to social media we have so many more generous ways to share.