November 2023
What is your current role?
I'm the head of clinical education at Evelina London.
I'm responsible for the education of nurses, midwives, allied health professionals (AHPs), psychologists, healthcare scientists, play specialists, and the pre-registered clinical workforce.
What do you love about it?
I've always enjoyed supporting people to develop their knowledge. This passion started when junior nurses and students were assigned to work with me. I undertook a secondment which involved some work in management, some clinical work and some work in education. I found that education energised me the most. After completing the secondment, I trained for a postgraduate certificate in education and then had a job that was split between being a clinical educator at Evelina London and a lecturer at King’s College London.
I love seeing people develop and reach their potential.
What’s special about the training available at Evelina London?
The thing that is special about the training programmes at Evelina London is the passion the clinical education team has for helping people develop, and the way we can use the expertise in our clinical groups to provide excellent education.
The clinical education team is full of brave people who are prepared to try new things to excite and engage people in education. For example, some of our educators have recently become Lego 'serious play' facilitators. They encourage people to use Lego to model ideas and tell stories, which can help them think creatively and improve their communication.
We provide courses to help people develop throughout their career. In nursing particularly we have a large portfolio of modules that can support nurses to gain speciality qualifications. There is also a network of educators who can make sure people get a good start in their career at Evelina London. They can equip people with the knowledge and skills they need to excel at their job and provide the pastoral support they need for transitioning into new roles.
We're constantly developing learning opportunities for our colleagues. Some of our courses can help staff to develop the specific skill sets they need for their role, and some help teams develop professionally together.
We don't just care about developing our colleagues at Evelina London. We also play an important role in helping to train staff at every other hospital in the region. As a dedicated children’s hospital, with services across a wide range of specialties, we recognise the role we can play in helping to make sure that patients access high quality care wherever they live. I encourage people outside of the Trust to see our courses on the Eventbrite website.
How do you make sure you offer education for all?
We're always evaluating the training we offer to make sure it continues to be dynamic, interesting and engaging. A big focus for us is how we can support staff with neuro-diversity and learning differences in a 'classroom' setting and help them to develop in their roles.
I'm most proud of the energy and bravery there is in the clinical education team. The 'never settled' approach that we take allows us to improve patient care by being responsive to the needs of our colleagues.
What would you say to anybody considering working at Evelina London?
To anybody who is considering working at Evelina London I say: we want to develop you, we want you to reach your potential and we want you to be excellent at what you do. The clinical education team is dedicated to making that happen.
Find out more on our education and training page.
Thank you to the children and young people who have so brilliantly illustrated our blog pages.