During the pandemic, clinical placements for preregistration students on health courses were suspended. As a result, virtual leadership placements flourished.
Since then, universities have continued experiencing placement capacity challenges as the NHS faces restructures and staffing pressures. While we need alternative placements, we should also keep in mind that leadership placements are not just to fill capacity gaps. They provide valuable opportunities for learning.
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Now is an excellent time to re-examine the value of non-clinical facing placements, a term which itself suggests that these placements are on the back foot from those in clinical practice. Leadership placements are an asset; they can provide an educational space that encourages a sense of mattering and self-actualisation for people at the start of their leadership journeys.
What is mattering?
Mattering is a sense of being valued and important. Mattering is linked with belonging and becoming. If we provide conducive environments for our students to feel that they matter, that their voices are recognised and count, they learn they have the power to achieve and make a difference in their careers.
It is also important for us to consider anti-mattering: those attitudes and behaviours that actively exclude individuals from a space and conversation, making people feel insignificant and less likely to achieve in our higher educational institutions.
If we consider healthcare leadership, compassionate and authentic leadership is often set as the ideal approach. So we need to teach our students how to be compassionate leaders, and this requires taking a decolonised and inclusive stance.
Models of leadership placement
A leadership placement can take many forms, whether as a quality improvement project alongside practitioners in an external placement setting, or as a placement that includes observing leaders within an organisation. Alternately, Mattering in Practice Education is a leadership placement where delivery is virtual and held within the university setting. It is a placement where students delve into increasing their understanding of what we mean by leadership, exploring their own skills and approaches to leadership, with an opportunity to practise this in a project team.
For a Mattering in Practice Education placement, there are three aims:
- to develop understanding of leadership
- to develop skills for leadership
- to make a difference to practice education by using learners’ passion and insights to create a resource/s.
Applying the concept of mattering to practice education
Our project, Mattering in Practice Education, aims to give a voice to students to make a difference in practice education. Many of our students experience hurdles in their lives and it is crucial to continue developing educational strategies that encourage a sense of mattering and belonging as part of our community. For leadership education, we actively work towards decolonising leadership and leaving no one behind.
This project takes a deliberate co-design approach, flattening the hierarchy in an educational setting, where students share stories and passion for how they would like to make a difference.
Imposter syndrome is a common topic in our discussions. We may have students who are the first member of their families to attend university. Through this placement, we hear direct accounts of students juggling their family and work roles, while rapidly adjusting their educational self-expectations, realising professional roles are within their reach. Our students have stories of microaggressions, discrimination, lower socio-economic status challenges and managing neurodiversity in the workplace; they also have stories celebrating diversity and difference.
The Mattering in Practice Education leadership placement is deliberately aimed at supporting our students to feel they matter, and to be a supportive mechanism in their journeys to realise their potential. Mattering and belonging are important concepts for the current context of universities and health-focused professional education, linking to the well-being of our students and future practitioners. As educators, we are well-positioned to introduce our students to spaces to elevate their voices, shining lights through the glass ceilings.
How it works
For a leadership placement, students usually work remotely in small groups. They meet with supervisors each day and with their professional practice lead once a week to ensure their work fits their profession’s professional framework and assessment requirements. Leadership placements are often interprofessional, and in our project, they apply to speech and language therapy, physiotherapy and occupational therapy students.
Authentic and compassionate leadership includes how we make use of self. The leadership skills include understanding self care, thinking about what each student brings to practice, strengths and areas for development, and previous experience and insights in their journeys in education and practice education. Authentic leadership does not leave the self at the door. It is how we manage our self in all our actions that is important and the sign of a proficient professional.
Why Mattering in Practice?
This placement is an excellent opportunity for students to make a difference in improving practice. At the university and within our school, it is important that our students feel they belong and matter. They are important as partners in developing practice education – all our experience counts.
Assessment
Assessment is through meeting the proficiencies within usual placement assessment documents, through engagement and professionalism in each student’s approach and through meeting agreed goals. Students keep a reflective diary, evidenced through weekly reflections, and develop a resource or resources that improve practice education. A resource could be a poster, podcast, blog or creating a community of practice or support group/mechanism.
Examples of topic areas that students explore include racial inequity in practice education, developing resources to address microaggressions, allyship, white privilege, sanction and fragility; being a neurodiverse student on placement; the impacts of being a carer and a student; the impacts of commuting; and the impacts of socio-economic difference. Resources/outputs have included podcasts, posters, leaflets, animations, presentations at conferences, journal and newsletter articles, and developing links with staff networks.
The benefits of a leadership placement
Students develop knowledge and skills in the following areas:
- Self, compassion and leadership
- Project management
- Collaborative working
- Communication
- Research
- Social media
- Self-organisation and time management
Increasing confidence is very apparent as students work alongside academic staff.
As a lecturer, I relish running these Mattering in Practice Education placements – they are a precious and valuable space for co-learning and synergy.
Helen Carr is principal lecturer in practice learning at Canterbury Christ Church University.
Acknowledgements to Bridging the Gap to Leadership, an excellent leadership placement that specifically challenges racial inequity in practice education. Websites: CCCU AND UOB. Helen co-leads this with Mary Makinde, associate head of school and strategic lead for Closing our Gap at Canterbury Christ Church University, and Sarah-Jane Ryan, head of practice learning and development, and Channine Clarke, associate dean of practice learning and partnerships, both from the University of Brighton.
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