Nye Bevan, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, and Florence Nightingale. You may know them individually as: the founding father of the NHS, the first English woman to qualify as a physician and surgeon, and the instigator of modern nursing. They are also the names of three internal Leadership Academies within the NHS, which lead to an MSc qualification.
In 2013 we were part of a consortium that was chosen to run a section of the teaching on these Leadership Academy courses. We teamed up with KMPG, Manchester Business School and Birmingham Business School.
The section of the course run by LEXi (formerly RPfT) is entitled, ‘Self Awareness, Courage and Impact’ and the premise of the qualification is that better leadership results in better patient care. We designed and developed our contribution to the programme and run it with a participant group of 48 health care professionals. The groups are an amazing cross section of NHS workers; surgeons, oncologists, nurses, paramedics, midwives, care home managers, and GPs – all of them training for the same qualification. It’s incredible to watch such a diverse group, in terms of age, gender, race, and educational qualifications work together in such a harmonious and supportive way.
The content of our day is a combination of behavioural models, some psychometric tests and of course, interactive drama based training. We come out on a high every time. The reaction of the health care professionals is hugely appreciative, and being a part of this course leaves us feeling both heartened and humbled. The course is still up and running and many hundreds of people have now achieved the qualification.