Nursing student takes part in national student leaders

Ian Unitt, Year 2 BNurs Learning Disability Nursing student

"Late last year I applied for a place on the Student Leadership Programme which is a partnership between the Council of Deans of Health and the Burdett Trust for Nursing aimed at developing and promoting student leadership. I am happy to say that my application was successful. The details are as follows'

The Student Leadership Programme offers ways for developing leadership in future healthcare professionals. Targeted at 150 students of nursing, midwifery and allied health professional courses across the UK, the programme offers exposure to leadership training, networking and mentoring.

Leadership is a key component of both the NMC and HCPC standards which means that all students have a role as future leaders in delivering the best possible care in partnership with service users. Many will go on to take up significant leadership positions across health and social care.

The Programme aims to promote and develop leadership skills among the future nursing, midwifery and AHP workforce by working with first and second-year pre-registration students. Using information from a student survey and the input of students on the project advisory group the programme has been co-designed with students to ensure it focuses on areas not covered in current pre-registration curricula.

Following a two-day residential programme including workshops, scenario-building activities and self-reflection exercises, participants will go on to be mentored by a leader from within the health and higher education sectors and form an online community to support their future leadership journey.

Sixty students are participating in the programme in 2017 and a further 90 students will be recruited for 2018. Brought together they form our #150Leaders. The programme in 2017 started with a welcome event in Birmingham followed by online networking through social media and an online community of practice. A personalised mentorship scheme over a period of three months was co-created with the students and the programme concludes with a final networking event in London at the end of November.

"I’m just happy to be given an opportunity to fly the LD Nursing flag (and the University of Wolverhampton flag of course!) during the programme and hope I can develop my skills and knowledge to help with my future nursing practice.

"I’ve got to admit I’m really excited by the prospect of being involved in the programme!"

Applications for the 2019 programme open in November 2018. More information can be found online here