21st October 2021
Welcome to the first in our series of Professional Development and Training blog posts.
In the lead up to our Professional Development and Training week – starting Monday 15 November – we would like to give you a flavour of how learning with the Professional Development and Training can support you to develop new skills and improve your practice.
In this first post, we give you a whistle-stop tour of what Education for Health has to offer, and share our five ‘top tips’ for getting involved in education and training.
Training and education portfolio
At Education for Health we provide high quality education, training, and support to help you gain the most relevant knowledge and know-how to impact health outcomes and improve wellbeing. As an organisation, we have over three decades of experience delivering education, training and support to busy health and care professionals: you may already be aware of our accredited course portfolio, which focuses on long term conditions and includes short courses at Level 5, 6, and 7 accredited by the University of Hertfordshire.
We also offer several postgraduate programmes, including the MSc Long Term Conditions and PG Cert Learning and Teaching in Clinical Practice, for those learners who are looking to complete a full programme of study.
Bite size resources
We realise however, that some learners working on the frontline may not wish to immediately undertake a longer, formally accredited course.
As the home of our workshops, webinars, and bite size education resources, the Professional Development and Training is therefore ideal for people who are looking for easily accessible high quality support, without the commitment of an academic course. All of the Professional Development and Training resources are designed to help you develop knowledge and know-how, and build confidence and competence, at the time, pace and place that suits your individual needs.
The Professional Development and Training portfolio is constantly evolving. Last year we introduced our Online Refresher workshops: designed for healthcare professionals wishing to refresh their clinical skills and implement quality improvement initiatives, these courses have recently received CPD accreditation and are currently offered in Asthma, COPD, Diabetes, and Heart Failure. For those learners who are new to a clinical area, or have recently been redeployed, our ‘Essentials’ workshops are also now available to book here.
To develop and deliver our courses, we work with a team of clinical and non-clinical associates, many of whom continue to work in frontline roles; this helps us to ensure that the training we provide offers the very best of current practice. We also stay ahead of developments by getting actively involved with best practice groups including the Spirometry Task Force and National Breathlessness Group, and participating in cutting edge research such as the IMP2ART programme, which aims to help general practices embed supported self-management into routine asthma care.
To continue and extend this innovative approach to education and training, the Professional Development and Training Launch Week will celebrate the new portfolio areas we are developing in response to identified priorities in health and care.
- ‘Finding the Leader Within’ marks the beginning of an exciting new professional development offer that will include a bite size Leadership programme for health and care professionals;
- ‘NIV: An Introduction’ will explore the questions learners have around non-invasive ventilation and will pave the way for an upcoming blended learning package; and
- In her talk about patient-centred care, our Assistant Director of Clinical Learning, Preeti Minhas, will be exploring how multi-disciplinary team working can improve practice.
So, that’s who we are, but what about you? Here are our five top tips for using education and training and enhance your career and improve your practice:
Five top tips…
- Take every opportunity that comes your way, no matter how big or small, because every experience will enable you to develop and grow.
- Start from grass roots – your experience on the frontline, from meeting patients and being part of a team through to implementing change and managing service improvement, will be invaluable in shaping your learning experience.
- Don’t always expect a linear path. Your career may take side steps or move back and forth between clinical areas, and the level of training you need at any point may vary.
- Take every opportunity to enhance your clinical knowledge and don’t wait for others to tell you what you need to know. If you feel that increasing your knowledge and know-how will improve your practice, go for it!
- Use every opportunity to use your knowledge and skills, both existing and new, to deliver innovative service and exceptional patient care.
We hope that you now have a good idea of who we are, what we can offer, and how learning with us can benefit you.
Look out for next week’s post which will explore ‘Finding the Leader Within’ and why Leadership training is so important right now.
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