Compassion heads for Holland

The Leadership in Compassionate Care Team joined colleagues from all over the world at the 8th International Practice Development Conference on 8, 9 and 10 October 2008. The conference was hosted by Fontys University of Applied Sciences School of Nursing, Eindhoven, Holland and the International Practice Development Collaborative. This event was described as “a global expert platform for innovation, creativity, care and professionalism and encouraged active participation in aspects of practice development”.
The event was primarily aimed at practitioners, practice developers and those in facilitation roles and provided a forum for:
• Sharing of innovative strategies currently utilised to improve practice (e.g. action research, practice development and reflective practice).
• Workshops on innovative methods for challenging and improving practice (e.g. Forum Interactive Theatre, music, dance and reflective writing).

The key themes for this years event were

• Working collectively
• Developing an effective culture
• Learning strategies
• Using and developing knowledge and policy
• Evaluating practice
• Facilitation methodologies

Who went?

The Leadership in Compassionate Care team were joined by 2 Charge Nurses participating in the beacon strand of the project Richard Mackay from ward 50 at the Western General and Annette Mohadeb from Ground Floor, Ellens Glen House also presented with the team at the conference. (Pic of all of us)

The team presented 3 pieces of work and used this as an opportunity to explore different and creative ways to present the project so far.

Too much to bear or a golden opportunity

The first presentation was facilitated by Stephen and explored the relationship of the intensive model of practice development within the project in relation to the beacon sites and the senior nurses. In turn each of the team stood up in the audience and reflected on a certain aspect of the project so far in relation to an image that was shown to the audience.

Accessible methods that get at the heart of complex concepts in practice development

In the second presentation Ria, Belinda, Annette and Richard explored methods that helped to get at the heart of what it felt like to give and receive compassionate care. Their presentation included human sculpting that portrayed the feelings of using a method of appreciative enquiry within the beacon wards along with a practical demonstration of how the use of emotional touch points tapped into the emotions and feelings that are central to a patient’s story.

Changing places, changing faces.

In the third and final presentation Billie and Simon presented a reflective piece and used the metaphor of a journey to represent their experiences of moving from nurse management positions to working in practice development. Using T shirts to represent their skills, these were packed into a suitcase for their journey, on arrival to practice development land they found that the skills they had packed no longer fitted and looked different. They continued with the journey metaphor by sending postcards back to their colleagues from their management days to inform the audience of the presenter’s reflections and learning from their journey. One skill for example which looked different was that of facilitation.