Anne-Marie

Job/Role Summary

The HSC Clinical Education Centre (CEC) primarily exists to provide in-service education to nurses, midwives and AHPs employed in the five Health and Social Care Trusts, the Northern Ireland Hospice and the Southern Area Hospice. The CEC also provides education to various other statutory, independent and voluntary organisations. As a Senior Education Manager I am responsible for managing the Service Level Agreement (SLA) between the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust and the CEC. This involves the collaboration, allocation and delivery of education in partnership with Trust core clients. In addition to this I manage an operational team within the CEC, facilitate the Adult Acute Care Professional Group, input into various strategic groups and I also deliver a wide range of education programmes within my scope of practice.

Specific qualifications and experience:

I took up post as a Nurse Education Consultant with the CEC in 2009 (formerly Beeches Management Centre). In brief the post holder was required to have:

• Current registration on Part 1 (Adult field of practice) of the Nursing & Midwifery Council (NMC) Register,
• Hold a Primary degree in nursing or relevant subject
• Hold an NMC recordable teaching qualification or be willing to undertake
• Two years’ experience at Band 6 or above within the last 5 years
• Demonstrate experience of delivering education to nurses/midwives or other health care staff.

In 2014 I was successful in gaining a Senior Education Manager post within the CEC. In brief the post holder was required to have:

• Current first level registerable qualification with NMC
• NMC Recordable teaching qualification
• University Degree or equivalent

Worked for at least 3 years in the last 5 years in the delivery of nurse

Career Milestones

Prior to joining the CEC I had been working as a Sister in a very busy emergency department. I had worked in this department for 10 years. At the point of taking up post as a Nurse Education Consultant in 2009 I had a Diploma in Adult Nursing Studies, BSc in Health Studies (First Class Honors) and a Postgraduate Diploma in Specialist Nursing Practice – Emergency Care Nursing. I went on to successfully complete the PGCert in Education for Nurses/Midwives in 2011.

What attracted you to this job?

My greatest passion as an ED nurse was to ensure we as a team of health care professionals would continually strive to deliver high quality person centred care. With this I developed a love of teaching! I grasped every opportunity I could to share my knowledge with colleagues and thoroughly enjoyed this aspect of my job. Having worked in the emergency department for 10 years I was ready for another challenge and was delighted to take up the post of Nurse Education Consultant with the CEC. I became part of a team of highly skilled Nurse/Midwife Education Consultants responsible for designing, delivering and evaluating in-service education. I continue to utilise my extensive emergency care background and experience to enhance my delivery of education programmes and feedback from participants in my classes would suggest that this has offered them a really enriched learning experience.

Enjoyable aspects of the job/role

I have several different aspects to my role as Senior Education Manager and that in itself is a challenge at times. The most enjoyable aspect is the teaching element. I deliver a wide variety of education programmes based on acute care such as Basic Life Support and AED awareness, suturing, venepuncture, IV cannulation, right patient right blood and ECG to name only a few. When not teaching my role as SLA Co-ordinator for the BHSCT involves working collaboratively with the Assistant Director/Co-Director of the Trust with responsibility for learning and development to discuss and provide reports on activity levels with the SLA. I work on allocating the appropriate CEC staff to all education requests from the Trust. This is a very demanding and challenging aspect to my role due to the volume of requests received.   In addition as Senior Education Manager I have line management responsibility to an operational team within CEC.

Important success factors

The key success factors for me are hard work, determination and resilience. I strongly believe that if you put the effort in you can achieve whatever you want. I have had several knockbacks but what is important is to dust yourself off, get back up and try again!

Key skills that can be gained within this job/role

The CEC really is an inspiring place to work! Since joining the CEC I have had the amazing opportunity to develop into an experienced Nurse Teacher. My invaluable ED experience has enabled me to deliver high quality evidence based education which is relevant, responsive and innovative. In addition the role has enabled me to become a member of various key Health and Social Care strategic groups working with various stakeholders across the region on a variety of projects. With this comes real development of strong interpersonal and communication skills.  As a Senior Education Manager I have developed my skills in exercising strong professional leadership to facilitate my team members to achieve their personal and professional goals.

Advice for those considering the type of job/role

Absolutely go for it! It is highly rewarding to feel that our delivery of education will ultimately contribute positively on patient outcomes. However I would encourage anyone thinking of coming into a career in nurse education to ensure they have gained significant clinical experience in the first instance which is essential to enable the nurse teacher to deliver high quality education which meets the wide and varied needs of our nursing and midwifery family. They must also have a real passion for teaching and imparting knowledge to colleagues. Other key areas of importance are possessing effective time management skills in dealing with priorities and meeting deadlines.