Justifying study time
You have to be able to answer the age old question "what is in it for me (us)?" when requesting study time.
Do you know what the study time criteria are in your Trust?
Does your trust have a template for study requests and do you know how best to complete it? The right terminology goes a long way (we know this from patients completing DLA forms!) Find out exactly what the trust (or your employers) policy is on study time. If you are not certain of what it means send it to the MS Trust so we can 'unpick' it for you.
Use your competency folder when you have an appraisal or do your own self assessment
You can use it to identify the things that the service needs to improve upon and then link this to any study days, meetings or conferences you want to go to. Write a very brief outline of what you have identified as needed for your service; just one or two sentences and then match that with the content of the event you are attending. Do they match up?
Try to marry up what you are going to learn about to the Trust objectives and the service you are delivering and this is will demonstrate what they are getting out of it.
- Highlight an area you need/service needs to improve/develop
- Match the topics for any forthcoming meetings with Trust objectives
What is the reason you are attending a meeting/study day?
To revalidate your existing knowledge?
To Learn something new
If it is new clinical knowledge state that it is within your moral contract with your patients and you are meeting your duty of care by ensuring practice adheres to the current evidence base for MS care. Be clear why you need to do so outside the work place.
If it is a new wider skill or knowledge (such as latest DH policy/guidance) that is important to your specialist role explain the benefit of this acquired knowledge for the MS Service as part of your corporate contract. Give at least one example of how you would use what you have learnt and show them what benefit it will be to them. It does not need to be rocket science or big items on the shopping list; just a small change will be good.
If it is a new aspect of your personal development and is linked to increasing responsibility, or evolving services set out how it is relevant to the care you deliver. Not just a 'nice to have' but an essential requirement of your service.
If it is revalidation (of something you knew already) set out the reasons why you need to update your knowledge or expand understanding in a certain topic. Set out how it will impact on the MS service.
If it is revalidating clinical knowledge state that it is within your moral contract with your patients and you are ensuring your duty of care by revalidating your knowledge on current evidence for MS care. Be clear why you need to do so outside the work place.
If it is revalidating wider knowledge (such as latest DH policy) that is important to your specialist role explain the benefit of this acquired knowledge for the MS Service as part of your corporate contract.
If it is broadening personal development that is linked to increasing responsibility, or evolving service set out how it is relevant to the care you deliver. Not just a "nice to have" but an essential requirement of your service.
Consider publication
It is always good for any Trust to publish; any media, any publication, in any arena. If you have something positive, or informing, that can be disseminated and be of benefit to the wider audience, your Trust will be supportive. Commit to writing a short piece for them after attending your meeting etc. This is good practice anyway as it sharpens your mind on why you are attending! Start small (about 100 words) and low (say an in house publication or bulletin to internal staff) and get more ambitious over time. This is part of reflective practice and anyone at specialist level should be undertaking reflective practice and publishing. This could include publication in cited journals and again, something like Way Ahead is a citable journal. Consider a poster for a meeting, presenting at conference and make sure you collect evidence at the study event of your participation or contribution. Collect content and information from the meeting that you can use for your service.
Do not cite things like networking or sharing expertise
Your senior managers are not really interested in this as they will not see any immediate tangible benefit for the organisation. It is easy to get into an emotive debate about the importance of networking and sharing but the harsh reality is that nursing has not a strong enough power or evidence base for that protected time out.
Does your Trust give you clinical supervision?
You can certainly use some of the meeting time for clinical supervision as part of your professional development. It is a practice that has been signed up for and shown to prevent burn-out so include supervision as one of the outcomes of your meeting.
Have you undertaken a personal appraisal and working toward a KSF gateway with increasing responsibility?
Any study time should dovetail into your identified professional development and KSF gateways on your pay band (for NHS employees). No post is static and study time in whatever format should reflect identified development needs.
Example 1 - revalidating existing knowledge
A workshop is being offered on key policy drivers that will affect services for people with MS and knowing about new drivers for performance such as QIPP might help you in measuring the quality of the MS service within the Trust. (Wider knowledge and corporate contract)
Acquiring this additional knowledge will enable you to manage your cycle of service audit and review more effectively and make sure you are giving the best you can to patients (moral contract)
You have identified a need to understand the bigger picture and the context and priorities of other NHS staff so that you can work more collaboratively with other stakeholders on how your service can also meet their objectives. (personal development)
Example 2 - a new knowledge
You are invited to attend a workshop on an infusion therapy for people with MS that is not currently given in your locality
A new infusion service is to be developed within your Trust. This will potentially generate income and you anticipate seeing XX number of patients over a XX period. As the clinical specialist you need to be fully informed and understand the mode of action, side effect profile and method of delivery of the infusion therapy. (Clinical knowledge - professional code of conduct)
As the clinical specialist you need to explore how this service can/should be delivered and how it could impact on any SLA. (Wider skills of the specialist - corporate contract)
As the clinical specialist you are required to ensure the patient has evidenced based information that supports a shared decision and facilitates concordance with treatment (clinical knowledge - moral contract)
As a clinical specialist you need to listen to, and learn from, the experience of senior colleagues who can guide you in best practice (personal development)