By Amit Paik, GPST3 – North Cumbria / Leadership & Management ITP – CLIC 

As a GP trainee, I’ve had the pleasure of working in a variety of different practices across our region, in both a urban and rural setting. Challenges were had in the number of new and existing medical conditions patients presented with.

One of the many difficulties that face any health professional is a need to keep up to date on changes to clinical practice, including refreshing their own background knowledge. Some of this comes from one’s own clinical reading after coming across a difficult case. “Continuous Professional Development” (CPD) is therefore key to maintaining the high standards of patient care we demand from ourselves.

CLIC has played a central role in providing clinical and non-clinical educational events, working alongside our education partners to develop a varied CPD offering to our colleagues. This partnership has evolved further, through the development of our CLIC Academy – part of our wider “Blencathra Project”.

Collaboratively, we’ve developed a brand new, bespoke platform to hold ALL educational event and courses held within North Cumbria in a single location – both directly from our website, but now also via a brand new mobile application. This will allow colleagues the opportunity to search and book CPD events direct from their mobile for the first time. Available for FREE on both Android and Apple Stores, just search “The CLIC”. 

It allows users the functionality of our website including the search and booking of a various educational events on our constantly updated database, but via a few taps on their smartphone. 

We’re really excited about this latest development, particularly since it allows our team to use technology to support colleagues who are under increasing amounts of pressure within their working lives. Please do take time to review our offering and, as always, do feedback to us where we can improve our systems.

13th August 2019

9AM - 1PM

Boardroom, Voreda House, Friargate, Portland Place, Penrith, Cumbria, CA11 7QQ

Come and find out about the significant benefits that 500 staff have reported upon course completion.

Session includes presentation of findings so far such as...

4 year average:

• Mindfulness increased by 33%

• Self-compassion by 25%

• Perceived stress decreased by 77%

Contact Ian Rigg (ian.rigg@cumbria.nhs.uk) to book your place.

About Mindfulness

We have been offering mindfulness based interventions (MBI) to staff as part of a health and well-being offer since August 2015 and the interventions are extremely popular with staff.

The flagship MBI is the Mindfulness Based Living Course (MBLC), which is an 8 week intervention where staff are introduced to a variety of practices during a weekly two hour workshop over an 8 week period and then expected to practice the techniques in between each session. Each MBLC is preceded by two introductory sessions and followed up by a day of mindfulness and the aim is to run nine MBLC each year around the County. 15 staff can participate in each MBLC and staff are offered all courses free of charge during work time.

500 staff attending MBLC with an overall retention rate of 88%

(this is extremely high for an 8-week intervention when delivered for free during work time)

38 x 8 week Mindfulness Based Living Courses (MBLC) have been delivered

Testimonials

“I think this course has been the most significant course I have ever undertaken. Its effects have been felt in all aspects of my life. Brilliant!”

"One of the most worthwhile courses I’ve ever done, a life changer.”

“Yes, absolutely! The MBLC is the most innovative thing CPFT has ever done. Something that is current and can benefit all band 3’s – 9’s. I appreciate all the efforts to get this going, as I appreciate innovation and change takes a lot of time, effort, emails, persuasion and patience.”

“Immensely! It has really helped me to focus my attention and improved my ability to leave difficulty issues in the past and to stop reliving painful memories. It has helped me in too many ways to mention.”

“I found myself more able to relax and de-stress. I am now more aware of my well-being and have made a conscious decision to eat more healthily resulting in a healthy weight loss. I am also sleeping much better and find that I am more focused at work and not getting as stressed and bothered regarding office politics. I am also kinder to myself.”

Contact Ian Rigg (ian.rigg@cumbria.nhs.uk) to book your place.

By Sam Eggleston, Organisational Development Practitioner with CLIC

In business coaching, the main objective of a coach is to help you increase your self-awareness. I have recently been fortunate enough to enhance my practice and become a qualified coach, during which the learning has been immense and so useful. The big surprise is how it has helped me to self-coach and it made me realise that you don’t have to be a trained coach in order to do this. In this article I will share my insight.

To quote Carl Jung: 

“Every advance, every conceptual achievement of mankind has been connected with an advance in self awareness.”

– Dr Carl G Jung

Creating the space for time for self-reflection is the key here – how can we really become self-aware without this? When we reflect in our heads, our thoughts can be blurred by thinking errors, become dispersed and it is really difficult to retain all of those key insights. I have had a little book now that I carry round just to capture my reflections. 

I have really benefited from using a simple coaching model. I have seen my self-confidence, resilience, determination grow and I am just generally more content. 

The GROW model is perfect for self-coaching. The acronym stand for Goal, Reality, Options and Will (or way forward).  To help you to self-coach, below is a useful guide to follow, just answer the questions and you are on your way. The scenario in the worksheet focuses on a learning goal, but you can change this to fit with anything you would like to achieve. Remember the benefits are really felt when you take just a little time and write it down. 

We're pleased to announce that a new date is now available for Coaching Skills:

Wednesday 4th September 2019, 9.30am - 4.30pm in Cleator Moor Health Centre, Birks Road, Cleator Moor, Cumbria, CA25 5HP

The course will enable you to communicate using core coaching skills in your relationships with staff and colleagues (contributing to building a coaching culture throughout the local health and care system). By the end of the course it is hoped that you will:

• Understand what is meant by a coaching approach and the impact it can have on individuals and organisations
• Understand how and where coaching fits within the health and care economy strategic plans
• Know more about key coaching skills such as: active listening; empathy; asking open questions; giving effective feedback
• Be more aware of the psychological aspects of a coaching approach
• Have experienced and practised using these key coaching skills
• Have identified your next steps for using a coaching approach with your staff and colleagues and the support you need to do this

Places are limited, so please click here and book early to avoid disappointment.