Joe Wick’s ‘The Body Coach App’ are offering FREE 3 months for all NHS workers. This app includes workout plans, live workouts, meal plans and recipes and much more.
To learn more and register, click the link below:
The Body Coach app: free access for NHS Workers / The Body Coach
Moral distress is the feeling we experience when we cannot carry out what we believe is the right course of action due to real or perceived limitations on that action.
The ongoing impact on health and care workers of responding to unlimited need with limited resources can lead to “moral distress”. This can be especially difficult when we feel that our personal and professional values are being compromised.
At Keeping Well NCL, we are increasingly aware of how this may be experienced by managers who often occupy a singular position on the boundary between their staff, service users and the wider organisation. For example, they may find themselves defending unacceptable situations for staff and service users, stepping in to fill gaps at a cost to their own wellbeing and generally carrying the burden of trying to keep services running safely, often without recourse to the peer support available to their team members.
In this 75-minute workshop we will create a safe space in which to explore how the concept of moral distress may help managers to make sense of their experiences. This will be an opportunity to connect with peers and to think together about what might enhance coping.
Monday 20th March – 1pm-2:15pm online
All our events are free but some of them are limited availability.’
We are acutely aware of the competing demands of your roles, however, if you have booked an event but find you cannot attend, please cancel your place so that your place can be offered to someone else.
To cancel your ticket, you can log in to your Eventbrite account, go to ‘tickets’, choose the order, and select cancel. Alternatively, you can email us at keepingwell.ncl@nhs.net or chat to us online via our website https://keepingwellncl.nhs.uk/ to let us know you’d like to cancel.
Who is it for?
This is of interest to everyone (working in health and social care or third sector mental health charities in NCL) but especially for people who are working with and supporting colleagues with Long Covid or those with lived experience of Long Covid.
This webinar explores the profound effects of living and working with Long Covid and what we can do to support and advocate for our colleagues.
Introduction
As of November 2022, there are approximately 2.1 million people living in the UK with Long Covid. There are now several studies which suggest that healthcare staff are overrepresented in these statistics, perhaps due to high levels of exposure in the workplace. Long Covid is a debilitating, chronic physical illness affecting multiple organs. It manifests with a myriad of potential complications, including damage to the heart, lungs, or brain; disorders of the nervous system; blood clots; impaired memory; and disabling levels of fatigue.
Many staff who have acquired the illness (some whilst in service to the NHS or Social Care Sector) now require support to return to or to remain in work safely. Without understanding and support they risk a decline in their health and loss of their jobs and income.
Workforce retention is a key priority across the health and care sector and this project seeks to explore experiences and draw attention to the challenges faced by our colleagues who have experienced Long Covid, the impact it has had and how to support them return to work and thrive in the workplace. We recognise that work has a psychological function as well as a practical one. Long Covid has the potential to have a prolonged systemic and profound personal impact.
The Event Features:
Reflective Practice Facilitator Training
Having space to stop and think is a critical part of being able care effectively and safely. Reflective practice is one evidence-based approach for achieving this.
At KeepingWell NCL
Reflective Practice is of significant support for the service/system receiving your intervention and thought. However, we know from experience, that it is often not best practice to tackle reflective practice sessions within your own team. We hope that by developing and training a Community of Practice we can create greater capacity across the system to support and strengthen reflective practice in teams and services across NCL.
Reflective Practice Facilitator Training is an important way of engaging in live learning about the impact of team, organisational and service dynamics on providing care and services. In particular, Reflective Practice creates opportunities where we can learn more about how best to support colleagues and lead teams in challenging times.
Research continues to highlight that space to think and reflect is key to safer practice. The HCPC, RCN and CQC all highlight the importance of reflective space and learning from experience. Reflective Practice is also recognised in supporting issues of wellbeing, staff retention and safety.
From May 2023 we will be delivering a 6 week online Reflective Practice Facilitator Training, to support participants to facilitate their own RP groups and to encourage development of a Community of Practice within NCL Health and Care settings.
Groups will run on a Tuesday morning from 9.30am – 1.00pm on the following dates:
This short course is adapted from and delivered in partnership with Tavistock & Portman’s CPD training and is designed to equip you with the knowledge and skills to establish and facilitate RP groups.
A key aspect of this the course is a Learning Partnership Agreement between Keeping Well NCL, participants and their managers to enable protected time and support for course attendance and supervision.
To build our NCL RP Community of Practice, we will provide follow up supervision-work discussion groups for 3 months following completion of the programme. These will take place monthly online. Following the completion of the 3 supervision sessions, peer supervision groups will be self directed.
This training is delivered by experienced facilitators from KeepingWell NCL. Our online training is designed to be both engaging and reflective. We will use a combination of presentations, live discussion, experiential reflective practice groups and small group work.
We will ensure that all participants have key experiences of both facilitating and being a member of a reflective practice group.
The Reflective Practice Facilitator Training will provide:
Who is this course for?
All staff members working in NCL in social care and health, who are leading staff, developing practice and keen to learn about and implement reflective practice.
Prior RP experience is not required and there will be regular sessions to support group members to bring key aspects of their work (planning, interactions, and reviews) and to experience reflective practice for themselves.
Interested?
If you are interested, please complete our online form by clicking the button below.
If you have any questions, please email us at keepingwell.ncl@nhs.net
The closing date for the Reflective Practice Course is Friday 7th April at 5pm and we will let successful applicants know by Friday 14th April. We have 20 places to allocate on this course and places will be allocated according to the application guidance, particularly your ideas and plans for how you might use the reflective practice training in your work. There will be a waiting list once we are fully subscribed.
In allocating places, we will bear in mind the broad range of roles across NCL, and the needs of colleagues who have not previously had access to Reflective Practice training.
In these 90-minute workshops, the group will be invited into a shared online space, with an ethos of collaborative learning, where we will co-create shared responsibility for our learning together about this important and often under-explored issue. Participants will be invited to consider their own individual identity and position in relation to power, white privilege and black and ethnic minority empowerment and develop their own personal position in relation to anti-racism.
Our approach holds relationship-based, anti-racist practice at its heart and is based on a model for achieving emotionally intelligent, critically reflective, curious conversations, in a safe space. Participants will experience a blend of learning approaches, including material for self-reflection and self-directed learning and an online face to face facilitated reflective group discussion space.
These workshops will be running on the following dates:
31st January 2023, 9.30-11am
28th February 2023, 9.30-11am
28th March 2023, 9.30-11am
Learning Outcomes
These sessions will provide an opportunity for participants to:
Facilitator Biographies
Dr Sylvia B Smith is an independent social work consultant and Course Lead at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust. Sylvia has research interests in compassionate leadership approaches with particular interests in anti-racist practice and leadership. She is a coaching practitioner for health and social care professionals and hosts her popular podcast ‘Social Workers Matter’.
Jo Williams is an independent social work consultant and Deputy Head of the Interprofessional Portfolio at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust. She is also a PhD student with the University of Sussex and visiting lecturer with the University of Bedfordshire. Jo has a personal and professional interest in anti-racist leadership and practice and is part of an Anti-Racist Activism group for social workers. She provides reflective coaching, learning and teaching spaces to individuals and groups from a range of disciplines within health, education and social care.
“I really enjoyed the workshops. I have lots to think about now and things I want to do to move forward. Before this workshop I felt like there was a raincloud above me, feeling overwhelmed by the mention of racism and not knowing what to do about it. Now I feel brighter, I have a way forward, I have the words to use and I have ways to build up my knowledge and understanding. Thank you both so much”
Date: 10th January 2023, 11am-12pm
This 60-minute interactive online webinar aims to share theoretical and research informed knowledge in relation to racism and the notion of becoming anti-racist allies, from a number of perspectives, using a range of materials. It is aimed to invite participants to think about anti-racism within their individual role, organisation and team context. Our approach holds relationship-based, anti-racist practice at its heart and is based on a model for achieving emotionally intelligent, critically reflective, curious conversations, in a safe space.
Learning outcomes
Participants were invited to:
Facilitator Biographies
Dr Sylvia B Smith is an independent social work consultant and Course Lead at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust. Sylvia has research interests in compassionate leadership approaches with particular interests in anti-racist practice and leadership. She is a coaching practitioner for health and social care professionals and hosts her popular podcast ‘Social Workers Matter’.
Jo Williams is an independent social work consultant and Deputy Head of the Interprofessional Portfolio at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust. She is also a PhD student with the University of Sussex and visiting lecturer with the University of Bedfordshire. Jo has a personal and professional interest in anti-racist leadership and practice and is part of an Anti-Racist Activism group for social workers. She provides reflective coaching, learning and teaching spaces to individuals and groups from a range of disciplines within health, education and social care.
Participant testimonies:
“The facilitators had such a friendly approach to such a serious topic, although they were speaking in a light-hearted manner, they managed to tackle some hard topics and made it easier to have those difficult conversations”
“Totally enjoyed it and has made me reflect on changes that I can make personally and to share the message and change others’ views and opinions in my personal and work life”
Friday 31st March at 1:00-2:00pm – online
‘Finding Meaning in the Impossible: My Work and Me’
Schwartz Rounds are a multidisciplinary forum designed for staff to come together once a month to discuss and reflect on the emotional and social challenges associated with working in health and social care. Rounds provide a confidential space to reflect on and share experiences, and are open to all health, social care and voluntary sector staff on NCL.
For more information, visit pointofcarefoundation.org.uk
We know that not all standard sleep advice will apply to health and social care workers who are doing shift work. This resource details some top tips from Dr Michael Farquhar, consultant in sleep medicine at Evelina London Children’s Hospital, specifically designed for shift workers.
KeepingWell NCL have also recorded an interview with Dr Michael Farquhar. Together with one of our Senior Practitioners, Rachel Stephen, Michael discusses topics such as the importance of sleep to health and wellbeing, breaking out of negative loops of sleeping and getting to the root cause of sleep problems. They also talk about the challenges faced by NHS or social care workers who work night shifts and how you can establish a good sleep regime as a shift worker. Finally, Michael shares some helpful strategies to improve sleep including CBT-I, mindfulness, apps and online resources.
To access Dr Michael Farquhar’s full article, click here
This guidance helps NHS organisations, line managers, and those working in the NHS understand more about the menopause, how they can support colleagues at work and those experiencing menopause symptoms.
https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/supporting-our-nhs-people-through-menopause-guidance-for-line-managers-and-colleagues/
We all bring our own histories, current contexts and difficult experiences to work and to our interactions with colleagues and service users. These include personal experiences of adversity and trauma which are frequently unspoken and yet so much more common than we think. They shape the lens through which we experience our work and our interactions with colleagues and service users.
By recognising the prevalence and far reaching impact of trauma, trauma informed organisational practice creates safe environments for service users and staff. Trauma informed organisations understand the risks of re-traumatisation and promote empowerment, collaboration and connection. Trauma informed practice is central to maintaining healthy organisational functioning and to staff wellbeing and retention.
Keeping well NCL is pleased to be able to offer introductory Trauma Informed Organisational Practice workshops to our NCL colleagues on the following dates.
To sign up for one of these workshops, click here.
Keeping Well NCL is a wellbeing and mental health project that connects and supports the North Central London health and social care workforce during the Coronavirus outbreak.
