Oxford University Hospitals
NHS Trust
First Year Registered Nurse
Foundation Programme
Welcome
Meet the team
The trust corporate education team would like to take this opportunity to welcome you on your
Trust First Year Registered Nurse Foundation Programme. This brochure identifies the key elements
of the Foundation programme and introduces you to the team of people who will be guiding
your first year with us.
About our hospital
The Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust (OUH) is
one of the largest acute teaching Trusts in the UK
and has a national and international reputation
for the excellence of our services and our role
in teaching and research. The Trust is made up
of four hospitals- the John Radcliffe, Churchill,
Horton General and the Nuffield Orthopaedic
Centre. Our education training programmes will
enable you to develop in these dynamic clinical
settings.
Introduction
In large, complex organisations like ours,
managing your learning can seem a daunting task.
Our response to the Registered Nurse education
and training challenges nationally was to create a
dedicated corporate education training team who
bring a wealth of experiences to support staff with
different learning needs. Our corporate education
team work with clinical staff in your areas, such as
Practice Development Nurses, to support our new
starters within a positive learning environment.
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We have considered the components required for
creating an encouraging, professional, and skills
based learning environment such as: regular
clinical supervision, external ‘Buddies, a
wide range of e-learning resources, portfolio
support and structured skills based training.
Our programme will provide structured clinical
supervision using one to one Professional
Development Nurse (PDN) support, corporate
‘Buddying’ and action learning sets to help you
develop issues from your practice areas using peer
and facilitator support.
This foundation programme is the start of your
journey with us and will link to a clear career
pathway to develop your future skills within our
trust over the coming years. At the end of your
programme you will have time with the education
team developing your future education plans that
may include access to graduate, post-graduate and
masters modular programmes.
This publication describes the robust support you
will be offered by Oxford University Hospitals NHS
Trust on this First Year Foundation Programme. We
hope you use the learning opportunities and you
enjoy working in our Trust!
Catherine Stoddart
Liz Wright
Director of Nursing
Deputy Chief Nurse
Appointed in April 2014, Catherine
has vast nursing experience, including
Chief Nurse of Western Australia,
and held executive management and
clinical nursing roles across tertiary,
general and rural Australia.
Has worked in the Trust since
2012. Previously wide senior nurse
experience across London in a
variety of complex acute Trusts,
and specialist organisations as well
as the Strategic Health Authority
Lily O’Connor
Rachel Wright
Divisional Head of nursing and
Governance for Medicine
Rehabilitation and Cardiac
Background in general nursing,
midwifery, risk management,
governance, infection control and
translational research.
Foundation Programme Lead
Works in the Corporate
Education team with a
focus on preceptorship
and clinical skills.
Sarah Stephenson
Naomi Clements-Cole
Lead Nurse Practice
Development and Education
Practice Education Facilitator
Sarah’s role is to provide support
and guidance to both you and
your managers as you progress
through your career in the OUH
Trust.
Works for the corporate
education team as a
practice education facilitator
for pre-registration clinical
placements.
Kathryn Sherrington
Carol Forde-Johnston
Quality Improvement
Nurse Educator
Works as a Lecturer Practitioner
linked to the Higher Education
Institute Oxford Brookes
University running both Adult
Nurse Degree modules and
Masters Modules.
Works as a clinical skills
facilitator, and leads quality
improvement projects.
Full contact details for all staff members above can be found using the people search function on the OUH Intranet site.
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The Foundation Programme
The First Year Registered Nurse Foundation
Programme will run over your first year. You will
receive a timetable from the cohort lead prior to
starting the programme and will meet with the
new starter Registered Nurses in your cohort.
Use the opportunities available to you on the
programme to network with other practioners
from different areas, share ideas and offer peer
support to each other.
On the first day of the programme, you will meet
the corporate team along with the Professional
Development Nurse from your area of work.
You will learn how to access the OUH e-learning
resources to take forward your skills based training
within our Trust. Clinical skills training will form
part of this programme, alongside a number of
core days.
Structured
Clinical
Supervision
We provide a picture of the support that will be offered
to you in your first year with us whilst also being aware
of the many questions you may have at the start of
your career. Time is allocated on the first day to spend
time with key educators and to talk to your peers to
address any questions that you may have.
The proceeding study days on the Foundation
Programme focus on providing clinical supervision
that will involve group action learning sets,
one to one with your PDN, discussion with a
corporate educator and self-directed portfolio
work. At the end of the year you will meet a member
of the education team to plan your future education
goals and career progression. An evaluation of the
programme will take place that incorporates your
experiences. Your feedback is very important to us and
this is a dynamic programme that will need to change
according to the needs of our new starter Registered
Nurses.
Support with
Personal
Development
Plans
One to one
PDN/clinical
educator
support
Portfolio
Guidance
Portfolio
Professional portfolios are a fundamental
resource for nurses to record their developing
skills as they progress their career. The key to
assembling a strong portfolio is recognising
what constitutes meaningful evidence of
achievement. You will be guided as to
how to structure your portfolio to best
exemplify professional and personal
development. Portfolios need to be
individualised to the nurse, reflecting the
nurse’s approach to patients, their emergent
skills in meeting patient needs and how they
work alongside other professionals.
Many Registered Nurses are using on line
e-portfolios to evolve their developmental
plans as recommended by the Royal College
of Nursing or NHS Scotland. The foundation
team will guide you as to what may best
suit your individual learning needs, be it an
RCN e-portfolio or hard copy paper portfolio.
Your local PDN’s will present you with local
Band 5 clinical based competencies as
the standard to achieve in your first year,
alongside transferable competencies within
the foundation programme. If you are a
Royal College of Nursing member you will
have free access to their e-portfolio and NHS
Scotland has kindly offered our OUH staff
downloadable word formats to create your
own e-portfolios (See References).
Preceptorship
The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC
2008) recommend that all new ‘registrants’
have a period of 12 month preceptorship
when they start employment. The
preceptorship time should focus on providing
support for new starters to enable them
to make the transition from a student to a
practitioner who is professionally accountable
for their actions in practice. A ‘preceptor’ is
a member of staff who provides the defined
support to a newly qualified practitioner who
is called the ‘preceptee’ (NMC 2008).
Essential to the Foundation Programme
learning outcomes is recording your progress
through regular meetings with your preceptor
and PDN’s and the formulation of Personal
Development Plans that are reviewed at
3, 6, 9 and 12 months. All of the Personal
Development Plans, reflections and clinical
supervision meetings you have over the next
year should be documented and will make up
your portfolio.
The four key elements of support given to our registered nurse new starters.
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Clinical Supervision
Clinical supervision provides a safe environment for clinicians to actively engage with each other to reflect on
their clinical practice and improve standards of care. It allows them to think proactively and find solutions to
problems.
Within our Registered Nurse Foundation Programme you will be given structured time to have clinical
supervision using different formats. You have the opportunity to have one to one supervision with your
PDN, one to one with a corporate team ‘Buddy,’ peer support from group reflection and reflection
on problem based issues within action learning sets facilitated by an experienced educator.
The OUH has invested time and resources to ensure clinical supervision is implemented for all our new
Registered Nurse starters on this Foundation Programme. The outcomes from all clinical supervision
meetings and reflections will inform your Personal Development Plans and be used as documentation within
your portfolios.
Clinical Supervision provides
an opportunity for staff to:
Professional Supervision provides
staff with the opportunity to:
• Reflect on and review their
• R eview professional standards
• Keep up to date with developments in
practice
iscuss individual cases in depth
• D
• Change or modify their practice
and identify training and
continuing development needs
(CQC 2013)
their profession
• Identify training and continuing
development needs
E-Learning and
Additional Training
The Oxford University Hospital NHS trust uses an e-Learning and Management System (e-LMS) to ensure
that all staff have access to key Statutory and Mandatory training on line. You will be given access to
these on line resources and guidance as to how to navigate this system, on your Trust induction.
You should ensure that you find out what additional local based training you require and work with your
PDN’s using your PDP’s to plan your training. To book any additional skills based training you must navigate
the e-LMS to book yourself on key study days and programmes as required. You should book on additional
training days when you checked with the Sisters and PDN’s in your area first. You can book time out
from the ward rotas to attend additional training and this needs to be negotiated formally. There is also a
‘Learning and Development’ management team that can assist you if you need one to one assistance or
specific e-LMS advice.
Contact Us
Email
foundationyearcoordinator@ouh.nhs.uk
• Ensure they are working within
professional codes of conduct and
boundaries (CQC 2013)
Clinical Supervision and Professional Supervision is an integral part of our foundation programme.
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Delivering Compassionate Excellence
References
1. Care Quality Commission (2013) Supporting Information & Guidance: supporting effective clinical supervision. London: CQC.
2. Nursing and Midwifery Council (2008) Standards to support learning and assessment in practice. Standards for mentors,
practice teachers and teachers. London: NMC.
Available at http://www.nmc-uk.org/aArticle.aspx?AtricleID=1658
3. Nursing and Midwifery Council (2008) PREP Handbook. London: NMC.
Available at http://www.nmc-uk.org/aArticle.aspx?AtricleID=1658
www.ouh.nhs.uk