Leadership

The programme supports the development of leadership skills in compassionate, person centred care. The first cohort of the programme commenced on 1 May 2008 a second cohort comenced in March 2009 and our current cohort commenced on the 29 March 2010.

This development opportunity is offered to Staff Nurses, Charge Nurses, Allied Health Professionals and Doctors within NHS Lothian. This involves support in leading compassionate and relationship-centred practice development initiatives within their practice area. Examples of support include attendance at study days, participation in action learning and regular on site coaching from mentors.

For the second and third cohort of this programme we have linked with another NHS Lothian leadership programme titled ‘Leading into the Future’. These projects are similar; however, by joining them together there is an opportunity for compassionate care to be highlighted to a wider group of people and the project activity that flows from this will have compassion as a key focus. This is an exciting development as compassionate care becomes a central focus for NHS Lothian’s Leadership programme.

Other developments have been in response to the experiences of the participants from the previous courses. Following feedback from the first cohort we have created the opportunity to reflect and act on issues through action learning within the study days rather than having separate action learning sessions. There is also a greater emphasis on working with a group in clinical areas rather than working in isolation to promote and support taking changes forward.

The programme supports the development of leadership skills for NHS Lothian staff based on compassionate, relationship-centred care initiatives. Cohort three of this programme has 55 participants.