Developing Innovative Practice – enhancing your skills (QAA 1 2 3 4 5 6 7) #FEEUK

Objective

The purpose of the session was to support students to:

•        Explore innovation in midwifery practice and what it means to the students;
•        Provide a Framework to understand their enterprising competencies in order to be change leaders and innovators in the health sector;
•        Support students to self-analyse their competencies and existing skills;​
•        Allow time to reflect their experiences of midwifery practices and share thoughts
  

Introduction 

The conference is an all-day event with external speakers on change and leadership in the NHS and health sector.

The EntreComp Framework session was held during the middle of the conference and pulled together the change and leadership themes. It provided an opportunity for students to focus on themselves to reflect and consider the entrepreneurial skills and competence they may need to develop as leaders. 

Activity 

Students completed a series of activities individually and in groups. These were:

 -        rating their comfort levels for suggesting/making change in their current setting/workplace;

-        discussing in small groups one change that they would like to make in their current setting before sharing with the wider group;  

-        completing EntreComp Table 1 individually and providing examples for each competence; 

-        returning to their groups and referring back to the changes that they would like to make and choosing one to focus on from the group. They then identified the competencies from the EntreComp Framework that they might need as leaders to deliver the change; 

-        each group sharing with the wider group the change that they chose to focus on and the EntreComp competencies that they would need to deliver the change; 

-        rating their comfort levels again having explored their own competencies against competencies that they might need to deliver change; 

-        setting themselves 2 actions that they could take going forward that would help them with developing their competence. 

Personal Activity Sheets were designed for the group to use during the session. The Activity Sheets were accompanied by Table 1 of the EntreComp Framework which are the descriptors for each competence. 

Impact

• Students welcomed the opportunity to reflect and have discussions with their peers during the conference programme
• EntreComp supported discussions about practices that they would like to change within their own setting/workplace and enabled them to make a personal connection to the concept of innovation in midwifery practice
• Students remained engaged with the theme and activities through-out the session

• Grasped EntreComp quickly and could map their experiences to it
• Using EntreComp enabled them to identify leadership competencies that may be required to be innovators within maternity services
• Activity Sheets left students with a reflective guide on their experiences to date; the competencies that they have developed and skills gaps that they could work on fulfilling in preparation for future careers. 

Resources  

•        Pens, Highlighters
•        Powerpoint slides
•        EntreComp Table 1 Descriptors (version adapted for LSBU students)
•        Personal Activity Sheets  

References

Bacigalupo, M., Kampylis, P., Punie, Y., Van den Brande, G. (2016) EntreComp: The Entrepreneurship Competence Framework, Publication Office of the European Union; https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/bitstream/JRC101581/lfna27939enn.pdf