The EquATE programme was not something I had heard of until I got an e-mail earlier this year asking if I would be interested in taking part.  Once I had read the flyer though there were a number of reasons why I was interested in taking part in this course.  I found it interesting as the course was sold as an opportunity to network with other academic staff throughout the university.  I thought participation in such network would be useful because it looked like it would build on some of the work I’ve done on my education master’s course.  One module on that course was about becoming a ‘networked practitioner’ so I thought could utilise some of what I learnt there within the EquATE network, and maybe work on a project in that area.

Some of the themes mentioned in the EquATE flyer were are also of interest, such as technology.  Part of my aims in my role in the school are to add more online and technology based content to the teaching that I do, so I thought being on this course and in this network would aid that objective as well.  Finally, I thought the course would be really helpful as part developing my pedagogical research through providing me with reserved time to develop this research.

Since being on the course it has been good to meet new people and discuss ideas around education and research in education.  After the initial introductory session we were straight into planning and discussing projects with an aim to get some initial planning and research done ready to present a poster to the group early in the new year.  It has been great to be able to have time to sit down to discuss and develop a project.  The main challenge though has been to find something that will start to generate useful information in a short time frame.

As it happens the project I am working on is in the field of becoming a networked practitioner.  Having an online presence as an academic is becoming increasingly important for dissemination of work, improving impact, and career progression.  I am therefore working with Sarah Lockey and Sonia Bussey on a project to look at what extent academics in Newcastle are utilising online networks and social media and their academic/research career.  The project hopes to establish if staff are aware of and use online networking in their practice and to see if they understand what alternative impact metrics are (termed ‘altmetrics’), such as online article views, social media mentions, publication downloads etc., and how/if they can be utilised to further career progression.

Dr Paul Hubbard, School of Medical Education

Fantastic news that the following projects have been funded by the Faculty via the ERDP.

‘Clinical teaching styles and student satisfaction.’ Dr James Field & team.

‘A study visit to gather information about the methodology for developing software application to enhance the learning of tooth morphology for dental students.’ Dr Bana Abdulmohsen & team.

‘Identifying ways to enhance the active involvement of real patients in undergraduate medical education’
Dr Gill Vance & team.

‘Identification and evaluation of optimal strategies for delivery of learning and teaching through social media in order to maximise impacts on student learning, engagement and experience [includes study visits]’
Dr Iain Keenan & team.

‘An investigation into the value of PeerWise as an educational and development tool for medical students’ Dr Clare Guilding & team.

‘Developing the learning and teaching of practical clinical skills using desktop capture and video playback technology to enhance the student experience and incorporate self-assessment and peer assessment into the feedback process.’ Dr Jo Matthan & team.

‘Student Induction to the University – does it work?’ Dr Ruth Valentine, Dr Luisa Wakeling, Dr Alina Schartner  & team.

2-3rd November 2015, Dublin

Dr Ellen Tullo presented on a multidisciplinary module about ageing that involves older people and was able to exchange ideas with other other academics that use intergenerational learning as an approach.

Full abstract: As the numbers of older people in society increase, gaining an awareness of the needs of an ageing population is important for university students from all academic backgrounds. Using a multi-disciplinary approach to ageing, we developed a new teaching module (NU-AGE) aimed at undergraduate students from any academic background. In acknowledgement of the important role that members of the public can play in higher education, we recruited a team of older adults to help design and deliver the module. The NU-AGE curriculum was constructed through collaboration between students and members of the public to outline both the pertinent challenges facing an ageing society, and the positive aspects of ageing. The team of older adults helped us to develop and deliver a series of interactive teaching sessions for a cohort of undergraduate students from diverse academic backgrounds, designed to encourage inter-generational discussion and debate. Involvement of older adults throughout the development, delivery and evaluation stages of the NU-AGE module has proved to be feasible, and early analysis of evaluation data suggests that students and members of the public highly value the opportunity to interact and exchange ideas about the importance of ageing in society.

Dr Ellen Tullo, Biomedical Research Centre for Ageing and Chronic Disease

Dr Laura Greaves, Newcastle University Institute for Ageing

Dr Luisa Wakeling, School of Dental Sciences

The Rev Bryan Vernon presented a pre-conference workshop at AMEE in Glasgow in September on “The artist inside us all: creative tools for reflection on personal growth towards professionalism” with two Dutch colleagues – Veronica Selleger and Benno Bonke. This experiential workshop enabled participants to reflect on their own professional practice while using methods that they could adopt for facilitating reflection in their own contexts. Among other exercises participants were asked to select a postcard which touched them in some way, preferably in a way that highlighted something uncomfortable in professional or even personal life. Because such an exercise can feel voyeuristic on the part of the facilitators, I modelled this: there were three cards which I had not seen in advance and I chose one which evoked an occasion where I had felt very alone and empty when preparing to teach. We also used singing, polymer clay, drawing and poetry, and showed that these were very effective vehicles for helping people reflect in greater depth, while highlighting the importance of creating a space that feels safe. Feedback was excellent. “This MUST be offered again in future AMEE conferences”, said one comment.

The Rev Bryan Vernon, School of Medical Education

Bateman, H. L., Ellis, J. S. and Thomason, J. M. (2015), Virtual courses: enhancing a curriculum. European Journal of Dental Education. doi: 10.1111/eje.12170.

This article outlines one of the innovations the School of Dental Sciences have implemented to provide clear signposting for students and staff of key themes running throughout the undergraduate curriculum.

A virtual course incorporates elements from across the current programme which are related to a specific theme.  Examples of themes include ‘Working as a Dental Team’ and ‘Study Skills’.  Elements are incorporated from a range of academic and clinical courses and are repackaged to permit demonstration of where that specific theme is taught, experienced and assessed within the 5 year programme of study.

We believe use of these ‘virtual courses’ promote a range of benefits including enhancement of programme transparency, and in already comprehensive programmes, allows a response to new requirements and initiatives of external regulatory bodies without major curriculum restructuring.

Miss Heidi Bateman, School of Dental Sciences

Peter Donaldson , Ann Daly, Luca Ermini and Debra Bevitt August 2015: Genetics of Complex Disease.  This book is for the 3^rd (final) year Biomedical Science UG Degree and Biochemistry and Genetic in Medicine UG Degree modules (BMS3010, BGM3061) and the MRES module (MMB8014). Garland Science are a major publisher and part of the Taylor Francis Group. The Medical School has published many books with this publishing group authors of other books with Garland include: Tom Strachan, Lyle Armstrong, Patrick Chinnery and Judith Goodship.

We are a GP Clinical Teaching Fellow, GP ITP and Primary Care Subdean currently working in the School of Medical Education and are currently involved in a project which will be looking at GP trainees’ experience of expressed opinions from clinical teachers and whether these had any influence on their decision to train as a GP.

Currently there is a significant problem in GP training recruitment due to low filling of training posts.  One factor which is thought to potentially influence career choice is expressed opinions from clinical teachers about their chose specialities. A recent survey by the RCGP (Royal College of General Practitioners) of GP Heads at medical schools and medical students suggested there exists hostility from some clinical teachers towards training in certain specialities such as general practice. Anecdotal evidence from GP trainees similarly suggests that their a high prevalence of negativity from under graduate tutors and consultants towards general practice as a career choice.

We would like to find out more about the experiences of GP trainees of comments from clinical teachers about general practice. We are currently awaiting ethics approval to run a pilot study which will test the feasibility of using focus groups to interview GP trainees regarding any positive and negative comments made about their career choice to them by clinical teachers, and whether this had any influence on their decision to train as a GP.

New GP trainees from two training programmes within the North, where the recruitment crisis is particularly acute, will be invited to participate in focus groups. Trainees will then be asked using a semi-structured question framework about their experiences of comments made to them, both positive and negative, from clinical teachers during medical school, foundation training and GP training as well as if this had any influence on their decision to train as a GP. Interviews will be recorded and then professionally transcribed. Thematic qualitative analysis will then be performed and the results used to inform interested parties locally and nationally. If successful we would then hope to expand the project to interview larger students numbers.

We are additionally hoping in future to extend our project by interviewing non-GP speciality trainees regarding their experience of expressed opinions about GP as well as their own chosen speciality and whether this had any bearing on their decision to train in non-GP specialities.

We recently presented an outline of our proposed project in the form of a poster presentation at the Society of Academic Primary Care North conference in the Lake District which generated a good amount of interest.

Dr Joanna Hall, Dr Kym Merritt and Dr Hugh Alberti, School of Medical Education

BACKGROUND

Patient safety is a key priority in the NHS and crucial for this is effective multidisciplinary teamworking. Thus, preparing students for collaborative teamwork in the clinical environment is essential. Interprofessional education, when two or more professions learn with, from and about each other to improve collaboration and quality of care, is seen as an effective mechanism to prepare professionals for teamwork in the clinical environment. This approach has become integrated into the MBBS degree programme at Newcastle University through strong collaborative links with the Pharmacy degree programme at the University of Sunderland.

We aim to further our students’ interprofessional education (IPE) experience with the development and delivery of a day-long conference for Stage 2 MBBS and Pharmacy degree students (~420 student in total). The conference will take the form of series of stimulating and innovative interprofessional workshops focused on key NHS priority areas, designed to strengthen learning around patient safety, antibiotic prescribing, surviving sepsis and safe interprofessional working practice. The conference format will be realised through the production of conference packs, stands from affiliated organisations and charities, lanyards, pre-reading material, an art exhibition produced on the conference theme by the students, lunch and refreshments. We will use a range of cutting edge teaching techniques to deliver the interprofessional sessions, such as use of high fidelity mannequins to simulate acute medical emergencies and team based learning exercises. A summary of the plan of work for the day is below.

PLAN OF WORK

This conference will run on the 11^th March 2016 at Newcastle University Medical School.

The theme for the conference is effective management of infection and patient safety. We will use a range of educational tools to deliver 4 strands of work for the day:

1) Keynote lectures

We will start the day with a series of short keynote presentations from senior NHS staff highlighting the importance of effective interprofessional working for the management of infection and patient safety.

2) Choosing the right antibiotic seminar

This was our flagship IPE seminar developed for Stage 2 students and piloted and evaluated successfully in 2014. Students work in interdisciplinary teams to solve clinical problems around the selection and administration of antibiotics for meningitis and urinary tract infections.

3) Surviving sepsis

We have developed a team based learning exercise using SimMan (a high-fidelity virtual patient simulator), exploring the management of acute sepsis. The use of this virtual patient allows students to apply their shared knowledge to a simulated real-life emergency scenario and see the effects their treatment has on the patient in real time.

4) Patient safety incident analysis

This exercise collates information about patient safety incidents, which students will analyse in interprofessional teams to determine the human and other factors contributing to the incidents.

METHODOLOGY

I have set up an IPE Conference steering group that has met three times so far since July. The steering group consists of key Newcastle and Sunderland staff involved in organising the conference. Sunderland colleagues include Louise Statham, Alan Green and Lesley Scott. Newcastle colleagues include Elsa Randles, Jo Matthan and Andy Teodorczuk. We have identified a number of streams of work, and sub-groups are meeting outside of the main meetings to further these streams.

All sessions are interprofessional with medical and pharmacy students working through the tasks and scenarios together. Each session will be facilitated by one doctor and one pharmacist, except for the SimMan sepsis session which will additionally have a nurse facilitator. Students start and end the day together in the RB Green lecture theatre for the keynote lectures, and between are rotated around the three sessions of work (choosing the right antibiotic, surviving sepsis and patient safety incident analysis). We have 19 rooms running at once throughout the morning and afternoon sessions. Below is a summary of progress of some of the streams of work.

 1) Recruit academic staff

We require 46 members of staff (half doctors, half pharmacists) to facilitate the teaching on the day (more if some tutors only do half a day). Elsa Randles is organising recruitment of the medical tutors and Louise Statham is coordinating recruitment of the pharmacy tutors.

2)  Develop SimMan sepsis case + patient safety incident analysis

Jo Matthan is taking the lead in organising the SimMan sepsis case. She is working with Louise Statham and Alan Green on the materials. We piloted the session earlier this year with MBBS and Pharmacy students. This session will consist of a simulation of an elderly man who presents acutely unwell to the A and E department. Students need to work in interprofessional groups to identify whether the man is presenting with sepsis. They will need to work with national guidelines and the British National Formulary to decide on the most appropriate treatment and then prescribe this accurately.

Elsa Randles is taking the lead on organising the patient safety incident analysis session. Students will analyse the records of the elderly man who ends up in A and E with sepsis to identify a range of errors (human and other) which result in the man’s sepsis being missed at an earlier stage. This session will highlight the importance of good interprofessional working in the reduction of errors.

The bulk of the materials for these cases has been produced. Between now and January we are looking to collate all materials required (instructions, hospital admissions chart, prescription forms etc) ready for insertion into our workbooks for the day. Briefing notes and materials for the tutors are being produced alongside these.

3) Recruit keynote speakers + outside organisations to run stands

We have identified and approached pharmacy and medic keynote speakers who work within the NHS to speak on the importance of good interprofessional working practice and how this can impact on the outcome for a patient. We are awaiting confirmation.

We have approached a number of organisations about running stands on the day, to add to the verisimilitude of the conference approach. So far the Medical Protection Society (MPS) and the British Pharmacological Society (who co-manage the Prescribing Safety Assessment that Stage 5 MBBS students must take) have agreed to participate in the day and we are waiting to hear back from other organisations.

4) Art competition

All conferences materials will be contained in cloth bags and we are running a competition to designs the logo for the conference which will be printed on all conference bags. All participating Stage 2 students (Newcastle and Sunderland) have been emailed and invited to submit designs. The winning design will be decided by a panel of students and tutors from Newcastle and Sunderland universities and will be printed on all bags. In addition the winning entrant will get £50 and two runners up will get £25, courtesy of MPS. A selection of the best remaining artwork will be displayed in the exhibition area of the conference.

5) Administrative organisation

As part of the conference we are providing lunch and refreshments for students and rotating them around 20 teaching rooms. All students will be provided with lanyards detailing their timetable and marking them as either a medic or pharmacist so they can easily self-organise into interprofessional groups. Students will be provided with a conference pack containing the workbooks and materials needed for each session. Organisation of all the above is a large administrative task.

I worked with central timetabling earlier in the year and with the Faculty Office to book rooms for teaching and rooms for staff and students to have their lunch in. I’m now working with the (much appreciated) support of the Medical Student Office to organise things like the timetables, lunch, conference bag collation and collection.

I’ve had meetings with MedSoc and put them in contact with the student society for Pharmacy at Sunderland to organise a social after event. The desire for more social contact outside the IPE teaching sessions was something which has been fed back after pervious IPE work.

6) Evaluation

A mixed methods approach to evaluation will be undertaken. We are producing a set of qualitative and quantitative questions to evaluate the event. This includes evaluation of the teaching sessions as well as an evaluation of the added benefit of the conference approach (as opposed to running a series of teaching sessions). We will run this evaluation on the day (forms will be present in the conference packs) and we will employ a Newcastle Work Experience student intern in March to assist in inputting and analysing the data. We aim to hold a post event focus group to explore the themes within the free text.

Dr Clare Guilding, Project Lead, School of Medical Education

On the 30^th September 12 enthusiastic educational researchers met for the inaugural meeting of DERG – the Dental Education Research Group.

The meeting started with everyone introducing themselves and giving a summary of their previous experience within educational research. It very quickly became apparent that whilst the nature and experience of our research varied enormously, there was a considerable amount of activity within the School of Dental Sciences and a real enthusiasm and passion within the staff present. The meeting then went on to describe our mission and define our objectives.

DERG’s mission is to establish the School of Dental Sciences as a leading contributor to dental educational research whilst also informing the enhancement, development and delivery of high quality dental education.

In so doing DERG aspires to improve our own students’ learners experience and the quality of dental graduates.

In order to achieve this aim the following objectives have been identified;

• To create a ‘forum’ for educational research within the School of Dental Sciences, Newcastle University that will promote, support and facilitate the delivery of high quality educational research in the context of the study of dentistry.
• To identify strategic research priorities, funding opportunities and complimentary collaborations.
• To nurture ‘dental educators’ who are new to educational research through shared experience.

The Dental Education Research Group initially aims to embrace three very broad themes – in order to be as inclusive as possible;

The Individual Learner & Teacher; including learner wellbeing, peer learning & team working, developing and assessing professional qualities, educational transitions, developing the teacher

The Curriculum; including integration, theory, development, delivery and assessment

The Wider World; including internationalisation, patient involvement in assessment, feedback and selection.

In order to establish these aims we have set up a Virtual Research Environment and arranged a session were we can all meet to upload our individual profiles and understand how best to use this facility. We are arranging local workshops on ethical considerations and educational research guidelines and are already providing mentoring and support to junior colleagues setting out on their first educational research.

Key to our objectives is our wish to establish complimentary collaborations and to build on the good practice and experience of colleagues within the Faculty, the ERDP and the University.

We would very much welcome contact from anyone interested in collaborative working in the future.

Professor Janice Ellis, School of Dental Sciences