Annual Report: Learning and teaching

Learning and teaching

Carol Mackintosh-Franklin, Associate Dean

The headlines this year for teaching are:

·         All graduate Operating Department Practitioners programme successfully revalidated by HCPC and College of Operating Department Practitioners.

·         New Associate Practitioner Programme launched.

·         MSc Health Flexible Framework Developed

This has been a good year for teaching in the Faculty, we have been successful in validating one of the very few all graduate Operating Department Practitioner programmes in the UK, which places the University of Hull at the forefront of education in this expanding and vital area of health care. Moreover, students on the current Operating Department Practitioner programme gave a resounding score of 100% satisfaction in the most recent National Student Survey.

We have also launched our new Associate Practitioner programme, which offers Health Care Support workers the opportunity to improve their clinical skills and knowledge, as well as a chance to move towards entry to an approved route to gain Registered Nurse status.

We are also just about to say goodbye to students on our old Advanced Diploma in Nursing programme who are due to graduate early in the New Year.  All pre-registration education in the Faculty is now at graduate level with our first all graduate nursing students due to receive their awards in September 2014.

We have also improved some of our existing areas of provision.  Our Midwifery programmes have been subject to extensive review and pending approval by the Nursing and Midwifery Council in the New Year we hope to be able to offer all future students the opportunity to undertake the most up-to-date programme available. We are also starting the process of revising our Community Nursing provision to ensure that all students undertaking these programmes have the highest quality and most relevant educational experience that will ensure the continued delivery of high quality community based health care.

In our post-registration provision we have also launched our new MSc Health Flexible framework.  This allows already qualified health care professionals to study for postgraduate qualifications of direct relevance to their own work and area of expertise. Students can follow a specific route such as Critical Care or Advanced Practice or can make their own bespoke programme from the range of modules available in our portfolio. We will be looking at developing this approach further in the New Year by offering a similar framework at undergraduate level and named Postgraduate Certificates and Postgraduate Diplomas.

None of our work is done in isolation; we are fortunate to be able to work collaboratively with many health care professionals from a broad range of health care providers, both local and in some case not so local to the faculty, who support the development of our provision but also its delivery.  We are also grateful to the many service users who make a fantastic contribution to the development and delivery of all our provision, through their ability to offer unique insights and perspectives. Finally we cannot be a successful Faculty without the active engagement and participation of our students whose feedback, evaluations and participation is a further vital ingredient in our continued success.