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Innovative Health & Social Care Forums Continue at BGU
The Health & Social Care Team at Bishop Grosseteste University (BGU) in collaboration with Terry Vine, Deputy Chief Nurse at West Lincs CCG, continued their programme of monthly forums for General Practice Nurses (GPNs) with a session focusing on ‘Urgent and Emergency Care in General Practice’. The need for an understanding of urgent and emergency care is being seen more often in General Practice due to increases in condition complexity, access to services and general frailty of the populations served. Central to the forum was a workshop session led by David Hickman from ‘Lives’, which focused on many of the skills for prehospital care and condition deterioration. Supported by over 700 volunteers, doctors, nurses and paramedics, the team at ‘Lives’ are dedicated to being there for the people of Lincolnshire in time of greatest need; delivering immediate high quality care regardless of the location or time of day. In support of the need to enhance the education of General Practice and Primary Care, a consequence of the changing nature of healthcare delivery towards “Care Closer to Home”, BGU plans to launch a new MSc in Primary/Community Care from next year. The course is designed to enhance the nature and quality of provision of care within the Primary/Community care setting in addition to facilitating a wider understanding for professionals currently in the sector as well as those considering a career within Primary/Community provision. Nicki Walsh, Senior Lecturer and Programme Leader for Health & Social Care at BGU, explains why the forums and new course are so important: “Healthcare cannot stand still; as society’s health and social needs continue to evolve, effective education is critical. Continuing professional development is a vital part of this, especially for practitioners who are isolated from their clinical colleagues by virtue of their practice environment. “The monthly forum, established at BGU, is seen as a means to promote knowledge enhancement and exchange around best practice and to provide regular and relevant educational updates. “The new MSc is an exciting opportunity to take the lessons of the forums a step further providing practitioners with a wealth of essential knowledge as well as breaking new ground in the teaching of Health & Social Care.” The forums are an opportunity for often-isolated practice nurses from across Lincoln and surrounding villages to share experiences and develop and enhance skills. Each forum examines a range of General Practice related issues, whilst the latest focused on urgent and emergency care, previous forums looked at issues around Asthma Management, COPD and Mental Health support. If you would like more information on the forums, or on the upcoming MSc you can contact Nicki Walsh or our Enquiries Team who will be happy to answer any questions you may have. -
Wellbeing of cancer carers seminar series continues
A seminar series co-hosted by Bishop Grosseteste University (BGU) continues this July with: ‘The psychological and physical wellbeing of cancer carers: how much do we (not) care?’ The seminar, the second in a British Psychological Society (BPS) funded series, will be held at Loughborough University on 11 July 2018 and will look at how carers manage stress and fatigue along with how they balance caring responsibilities with significant others. Attendees will further explore ways in which caring responsibilities can be negotiated, so that stress and fatigue among carers can be prevented at different developmental stages. The BPS backed seminars offer the opportunity to identify and discuss current issues relating to how a diagnosis of cancer might affect carers’ physical and psychological wellbeing and to translate research knowledge into policy and practice (broadly defined). Their aim is to explore current challenges and implications for improving carers’ situations and provide recommendations for service provision. By bringing together experts (researchers, academics, healthcare policy makers, representatives of patient organisations and family practitioners), diagnosed patients and carers, the seminars aim to build up a network that would facilitate the exchange of ideas and expertise. The first seminar took place at BGU in January 2018 and brought together healthcare professionals, carers, people diagnosed with cancer and researchers. Its focus was on three strands: (i) identifying gaps in our current knowledge of cancer survivorship that hinder moving quickly from research to practical action; (ii) better understanding of the interplay between work, health and wellbeing of cancer carers and (iii) exploration of challenges, decisions and knowledge gaps in how families support the treatment process and balance care and work responsibilities. All interested researchers, students, practitioners, policy makers and cancer carers are invited to attend. Should you be interested in attending, please register via the following link. If you’d like to learn about health and wellbeing our Health & Social Care and Psychology courses are the perfect place to start. Contact our Enquiries Team today for more information. -
BGU Showcases Health & Social Care Innovation to Health Education England
Last week representatives from Bishop Grosseteste University’s (BGU) Health & Social Care Team had the opportunity to showcase their innovative work to Sir Keith Pearson and Ian Cummings; Chair and Chief Exec of Health Education England as part of an event with United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust. Held at Lincoln County Hospital, the purpose of the event was to discuss health and social care developments in the county. Key organisations and providers from across Lincolnshire were invited to demonstrate workforce transformation and partnership working across the county whilst Education Partners, including BGU, had the opportunity to showcase new course developments for the health and social care sector. BGU has been working hard to forge innovative new paths within Health & Social Care education, from new trailblazing courses to exciting studies, making this event an excellent opportunity to bring all those efforts to the public eye, as Dr Graham Basten, Head of School of Social Sciences at BGU, explains: "Having the opportunity to outline the journey that BGU has been on to grow our Health & Social Care provision was fantastic. Being able to showcase the incredible work in diabetes done by Nicki Walsh (PL for HSC), cancer care work done by Gianina Postăvaru and blood interpretation in clinical practice by myself was a real privilege. “We outlined our BA and MA in Health & Social Care and the foundation degrees available at Grantham and New College Stamford, along with our two new MSc programmes in Primary Care (info.bishopg.ac.uk/msc-primary-community-care) and Mental Health in Learning & Teaching (info.bishopg.ac.uk/msc-in-wellbeing-in-learning-and-teaching). We also discussed our role with LORIC and the new Centre for Rural Health and Care (roseregeneration.co.uk/national-centre-for-rural-health-and-care) based in Lincoln in partnership with UHLT. “The positive feedback from all the guests suggested that BGU is certainly providing a significant role in improving the complex health and social care outcomes in Lincolnshire and the wider East Midlands" You can find more information about our suite of Health & Social Care courses on our website or by contacting our Enquiries Team. -
BGU seminar aims to revolutionise Health & Social Care
The final session in a series of Health & Social Care seminars in conjunction with United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust will take place at Bishop Grosseteste University (BGU) tomorrow afternoon. Led by BGU’s own Lincolnshire Open Research & Innovation Centre (LORIC) and titled “Are you prepared for the 4th Industrial Revolution?”, the session will examine current and upcoming changes to technology and industry before opening up for discussion on how these innovations could be applied within the Health & Social Care sector. Previous sessions have covered a wide spectrum of topics including ‘Collaborative Leadership in a Complex World’ and supporting evidence-based Health & Social Care in Lincolnshire. The final seminar will utilise LORIC’s unique viewpoint as a centre of innovation to encourage discussions around how to enhance the Health & Social Care sector. The event will be held in Room 1 of BGU’s Hardy Building at 5.30pm tomorrow Wednesday 9 May and will be attended by a broad spectrum of professionals and students from across Health & Social Care attended the seminar including representatives from charities, acute and community health trusts as well as students from BGU's undergraduate and postgraduate Health & Social Care programmes. Attendance is free with light refreshments provided, for further information and to book please contact: Simone.Seychell@ULH.nhs.uk -
BGU Courses celebrate graduation of their first cohorts
Graduation is always a special time at Bishop Grosseteste University (BGU), offering an opportunity to celebrate the hard-earned achievements of students and staff. -
BGU Lecturer Leading Innovation in Health & Social Care
During the Summer Nicki Walsh, Programme Leader for Health & Social Care at Bishop Grosseteste University (BGU), presented at a number of international conferences showcasing the work being undertaken in Lincolnshire to support improvements in General Practice. Changing health and social needs, due in part to longer lifespans and rapidly ageing populations around the world, mean that many causes of ill health are chronic and more complex due to comorbidities (e.g. Diabetes, respiratory disease). This therefore requires the providers of Health and Social care to respond in a dynamic, flexible and sustainable way to these pressures and challenges. While adapting, the focus of practitioners must be on the delivery of safe, effective and appropriate care. General Practice (in the UK) is well placed to respond to these pressures (NHS England 2013 and NHS England 2015). At the heart of this response is the General Practice Nurse (GPN) however workforce demographics and years of underinvestment in the workforce will see the number of skilled nurses needed reduce considerably in the next 10 years (QNI, 2015), causing what can be termed a “knowledge haemorrhage”, where practice experience and intuitive practice are lost. Therefore, investment in pre-registration and post registration professional education along with creative solutions which respond to this knowledge loss are needed (Walsh, 2017). This is particularly true of recruitment and retention both of which are key to ensuring that provision is fit for purpose. In August, Nicki presented at the 2nd International Conference on Nursing Science & Practice (United Scientific Group) in London. Her paper looked at a number of interventions and activities which are occurring locally to support the GPN agenda. This included the work with Lincs West CCG, which sees a monthly GPN Educational Forum held at BGU. It also looked at the data from the evaluation of a project with the University of Lincoln, which explored getting newly qualified nurses into General Practice. In addition Nicki presented her preliminary findings from her PhD, which is using a diabetes lens to look at the value and effectiveness of continuing professional development (CPD) for GPNs. At the beginning of September Nicki was in Cambridge presenting at the 29th International Networking for Education in Healthcare Conference (Advance HE). Delivering her preliminary findings of her PhD to an audience of peers she was well received and was able to establish some important networking opportunities. Finally, at the end of September a Nicki’s collaborative work with Rachel Mason (from the University of Lincoln) was presented at the Queen’s Nursing Institute Conference at the Royal College of GPs. This showcased work which saw undergraduate student nurses undertake their final management placement within General Practice. This was again well received and work is currently being carried out to prepare a case study for the Atlas of Shared Learning at the request of NHS England, which is designed to showcase examples of good practice designed to lead change across the NHS. All of this work leads to the new BGU Master's Programme for Primary and Community Care which will see BGU enter the evolving field of Practitioner education with a focus on Advance Practice. You can find out more information on this course along with all the Health & Social Care opportunities at BGU by visiting our website or contacting our Enquiries Team. -
Punk Women: Exploring Underground Music Scenes
Laura Way, Associate Tutor for Sociology and Health & Social Care at Bishop Grosseteste University (BGU), had the opportunity to attend the KISMIF international conference in July. Now in its fourth year, KISMIF is organised by the University of Porto and stands for ‘Keep it Simple, Make it Fast’. With a focus on underground music scenes and ‘do-it-yourself’ culture, this year’s specialist theme was ‘Gender, Differences, Identities and DIY Cultures’. KISMIF prides itself on being the opposite of a ‘run of the mill’ conference, instead going above and beyond to offer an experience to attendees. To encourage diverse and innovative discussions the conference programme was packed full of talks, musical showcases, documentary screenings, gigs and DJ sets, parallel paper sessions, book launches and cultural activities stretching until the early hours. As part of the vibrant programme Laura presented a paper which drew upon elements of her doctoral research: “My PhD research more broadly concerns older punk women’s construction and maintenance of identity, exploring issues concerning gender, subcultural identification and ageing. "My conference paper focused specifically on gig attendance amongst my sample of older punk women and explored the push/pull factors which were reflexively considered in the context of attending live music shows. I was able to gain peer feedback and overall the conference provided a valuable international platform in which to share my research” The paper will be published in a special issue of the Punk & Post Punk journal in 2019. Staff and students at BGU are regularly invited to present at conferences around the world, you can follow all their travels on our news page and find out how you can start your own adventures on our course pages. -
From unemployment to full time study at BGU
How the MOVE project helped one woman achieve her goals. The MOVE project is an ESF and Big Lottery funded project and Bishop Grosseteste University (BGU) is one of 24 partners across Lincolnshire. The project aims to work with people who have been out of work for a long time or who are economically inactive. The project began in 2016 and the first participant was Mandy. Mandy came to the project after many years of unemployment and ill health; she had ideas about what she wanted for her future but no idea about how to get there or if she could. Mandy’s background had involved a difficult childhood and involvement in drug misuse. When she came on to the project she was very anxious and a little bit afraid of what would happen next. Thankfully, she was able to put her trust in the team at BG Futures and with their ongoing support and structured inputs, she was able to make progress. These inputs included in-depth careers advice and guidance to help explore and develop career aims, psychometric tests to identify work strengths and abilities, life coaching to deal with social anxiety and ongoing regular support. They were also able to find her a suitable volunteering placement with Addaction and Mandy has been volunteering with the Amy Winehouse Foundation for 18 months. This involves going into secondary school in Lincolnshire to help educate young people about drugs and their effects. Through her time on the MOVE project Mandy has added to her qualifications and studied an Access course at Lincoln College, ultimately applying to BGU and securing a place to study for a degree in Health and Social Care. A year and 10 months after starting her MOVE journey, in September 2018, Mandy enrolled at BGU. She is now well into her first year, enjoying the course and even the challenge of assignments. Not all MOVE participants end up in Higher Education. The point of the project is to help people to identify and achieve their goals towards employment and learning through a tailored one: one approach that helps with self-confidence, motivation and wellbeing alongside employability skills and goal setting. Seeking support from MOVE is voluntary and therefore will not impact any benefit claim and there is also the opportunity for financial help to cover expenses including child care, respite care and travel. If you want to find out more for yourself or for someone you know: contact the MOVE team on 01522 583900 or email moveproject@bishopg.ac.uk -
Lecturer’s Collaborative Research Published in Healthcare Journal
Nicki Walsh, Senior lecturer (and Programme Lead for Health and Social Care) in the School of Social Science at Bishop Grosseteste University (BGU), has been published alongside Rachael Mason, Practice Placement Development Worker at the University of Lincoln, for their collaborative evaluation of management placements for nursing students in UK general practice. General Practice is facing a shortage of nurses and it can be difficult to recruit and retain staff. Nursing students need exposure to Primary Care nursing roles if they are to consider them in their future career and to develop the skills needed for this environment. To help combat this shortage and boost opportunities a study was designed to explore the experiences and perceptions of students on their final placement in general practice. The collected data was then thematically analysed and three themes were derived from the data: myth busting, the teaching and learning environment, and attaining competency. This work continues with the local Primary Care services with a Health Education England funded project with Lincs West CCG and Lincolnshire STP which is piloting training posts for Nurses new to General Practice. This will be supported by BGU in terms of Educational provision, consultation and advice as well as evaluation. The evaluation can be found in the journal ‘Primary Healthcare’ volume 28, issue 7 (34-41. doi: 10.7748/phc.2018.e1443). For registered healthcare professionals looking to pursue a career in Primary Care, BGU’s new MSc Primary and Community Care (along with the forth coming PGCert in General Practice Nursing) is the ideal way to learn and perfect the Fundamental skills required to start in roles dedicated to Primary Health Care. For more information on our range of Health & Social Care courses – including our BA in Health & Social Care, and MA in Health & Social Care Leadership visit our website, contact our Enquiries Team or sign up for one of our Open Days. -
New Qualification to Keep General Practice Nursing ‘Fit for Purpose’
Bishop Grosseteste University (BGU) is excited to announce the launch of a new qualification to help healthcare professionals broaden their skills and keep General Practice Nursing ‘fit for purpose’ in the constantly evolving environment of the National Health Service (NHS).
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