Three projects, aimed at directly benefiting London-based healthcare education with the potential to enhance the London healthcare economy, have been successful in receiving a grant from London Higher’s healthcare and medicine groups (LHEG and LMED).
Among the successful bids are London South Bank University (LSBU), King’s College London, City, University of London and NHS England.
These projects have been designed and delivered through a collaboration of two or more LHEG and/or LMED members, some with additional collaborators drawn from healthcare service providers or student placement providers.
Jolanta Edwards, Director of Strategy at London Higher and healthcare and medicine lead said:
“It is brilliant to see this funding going to projects that have the potential to positively impact London’s healthcare education. We hope that the funding awarded today will help our healthcare and medicine focused members address the future needs of this sector at a time when it is most crucial, and ensure that London’s healthcare education sector remains of the best quality that it can be.”
Professor Katherine Curtis, Interim Dean, Faculty of Health, Science, Social Care and Education at Kingston University and Chair of London Higher’s healthcare group said:
“The LHEG/LMED Project fund bids were a pleasure to read. We received 6 excellent bids showing creative and collaborative approaches to education innovation, and sadly could not fund them all. They demonstrated the potential to work across health disciplines and make a difference in London healthcare education.
We are nonetheless delighted to be able to give funding to three of these bids and look forward to watching how these projects develop.”
Dr Fran Smith Lecturer in the Department of Psychology, City, University of London and recipient of some of the funding said:
“Our teams from City, University of London’s ‘School of Health and Psychological Sciences’ and Health Education England GP specialist training at Guys and St Thomas’ trust are delighted to have been awarded the funding from LHEG/LMED’s annual grant. This funding will enable us to deliver, evaluate and hopefully expand our ‘Interprofessional Reflective Practice Project’ (IRPP). In the IRPP, trainees from the 3-year Professional Doctorate in Counselling Psychology facilitate regular reflective practice groups GP trainees across all years of their training providing both cohorts valuable training experiences.
We will ensure that this funding directly benefits these two trainee cohorts as well as actively promotes the culture of interdisciplinary working and reflective practice in London based healthcare education. We hope that effective evaluation and dissemination of this project will build a case for further expansion of the IRPP model, both to other GP specialist training schemes, as well as to other healthcare trainee groups across London.”
Associate Professor Danny Clegg, Institute of Health and Social Care, London South Bank University (LSBU), and recipient of some of the funding said:
“Our group of partners from LSBU, King’s college, and Guy’s St. Thomas Trust, are thrilled to have been awarded funding from the LHEG/LMED grant 2023. The funding will enable us to dedicate the time to develop the virtual environment “pre-preceptorship hub”, containing 6 specific zones, mapped to pre-preceptorship guidance for London. Each zone will contain information, engagement activities, training programmes, links to London NHSE resources, and other appropriately themed areas.
We are so excited to get to work building the hub, and hopefully produce something users gain benefit from, and ultimately enjoy engaging with. We focused on an equality, diversity and inclusivity theme throughout the project planning, and the zone structure/design plans for the hub and anticipate the outcome could be highly transferrable across other London HEI’s – although that step may require building a case for expanding the project at a later stage!”
Rachel Picton, Dean of Allied and Community Health, Institute of Health and Social Care, London South Bank University, and recipient of some of the funding said:
“We are delighted to receive funding for our project ‘Supporting an Inclusive Academic and Practice Learning Experience for Allied Health Students’. I believe this has the opportunity to really move forward our understanding of how to support disabled students both in the academic and practice settings and create more inclusive environments.”
Notes
- London Higher is the umbrella body promoting and supporting higher education in London. It comprises three divisions, including the London Healthcare Education Group (LHEG) for providers of higher education allied to health across the capital, and London Medicine (LMED) for London medicine schools.
- The successful projects are based at: London South Bank University (LSBU), King’s College London, and City, University of London.
- Further information about LHEG and its members can be found on our website.
- Further information about LMED and its members can be found on our website.
Details of the successful projects
Supporting an Inclusive Academic and Practice Learning Experience for Allied Health Students
The number of disabled learners entering higher education is trending steadily upwards as barriers to participation and achievement are reduced.
In order to improve the experience of allied health students across London, this project will consult with disabled students to find ways to be consistent across both academic and practice placement settings, provide choice of support that works for them and create a sense of certainty that staff in all settings know and understand their needs.
See more on the LSBU website.
Interprofessional Reflective Practice Project (IRPP) – looking at practice groups for GP trainees – looking at themes and feedback and helping them prepare.
The Interprofessional Reflective Practice Project started in 2020 to enable trainees from years 2 and 3 of the Professional Doctorate in Counselling Psychology (‘CP trainees’) facilitate reflective practice groups for GSTT GP trainees (‘GP trainees’) across all years of training. This project will undertake research, and use evidence gathered to date, to assess the effectiveness and impact of this work, including in areas of:
- wellbeing;
- professional identity;
- increased understanding between groups; and
- collaboration and communication.
If successful, the project can be rolled out to other London-based GP specialist training schemes and healthcare trainee groups.
Developing pre-preceptorship for allied healthcare through a virtual environment platform
Preceptorship is a period in which newly qualified practitioners are supported from student to autonomous practitioner. The stage before this, pre-preceptorship, supports undergraduate students. This project will look at how a newly acquired virtual environment platform can support this phase of training and development. It is an innovative use of technology creating an interactive world. Amongst other things, the virtual environment offers opportunities to develop in a number of areas, helping students be more proficient and confident when they graduate. The “pre-preceptorship hub” will be created using virtual environments with virtual reality capabilities, to ensure no specialist equipment is required, to interact fully with the hub.
Partner links
London South Bank University: https://www.lsbu.ac.uk/
King’s College London: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/
Guy’s and St. Thomas Trust (Preceptorship): https://www.guysandstthomaseducation.com/project/preceptorship-continuous-professional-development/
