“As the end of September draws near we see ourselves working towards the final days of our Clinical Education Improvement Fellowship. This was extremely evident in the theme of this month’s face-to-face days which allowed space for reflection; reflection on personal growth, reflection on project progress as well as reflection on future goals.

Throughout the last 10 months you will have heard from the other incredibly inspiring healthcare professionals I have had the pleasure of working alongside. My individual experience and passion is a mere drop in the ocean compared to the collective drive of the group. This was magnified during the first fellowship day of the month where we gathered at the Royal College of Nursing building in London to focus on the big question of “what’s next?”. As always our wonderful facilitator Chris Burton guided us through a series of thought provoking tasks with the sole aim to support us to discover our core motivations for job satisfaction and our “must haves” when looking at a career pathway. This allowed us to acknowledge the skills and knowledge we have developed over the last year and how we anticipate utilising them moving forward. For some of us that may be educating the future workforce in universities, leading system wide teams to transform services or pursuing further academic milestones. For me? My passion lies within workforce development with a specific focus on retention and EDI (Equality, Diversity and Inclusion). Throughout this year I have managed to channel this enthusiasm into my project creating an EDI conversational template to empower staff and students to discuss learning needs and adjustments.

The longer-term vision of this is to improve retention rates within student placements which in turn will create a more diverse workforce which is more representative of the population we serve. I am hoping to capture these priorities as core values within my career moving forward.

At the beginning of October, we will be presenting our projects in London to celebrate all our achievements. This is an excellent opportunity to share our successes, reflections and project outcomes with a range of influential leaders within the South East. During our second fellowship day of the month we collated these ideas with the support of Paula Kersten and Chris Burton into the format of posters and snappy elevator pitches to share the impact we have made. Whilst listening to the group share their project journeys, I couldn’t help but be proud of all my other fellows and how far they’ve come as well as the lasting impact they have had during this short time. I don’t know what our next steps are, but one thing I know for certain is that we will be using what we’ve have learnt within this fellowship for years to come to create impactful change within the NHS. Watch this space.

And just like that the final month of our fellowship begins! Throughout this last year I have gained many new skills, vast networks and an increased knowledge base, but the main take away is the friendships I have forged and the new network for supervision that has been established within our cohort! I would also like to take a moment to thank our wonderful academic supervisors Chris Burton, Paula Kersten and Maria Birch for their unwavering support during the fellowship as well as #TeamFNF for the opportunities they have provided me.

Tune in next month for our final combined blog post where we all will share some take aways from the fellowship and maybe a sneak peak into our future plans!”