United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust

Professional Development

What is Professional Development (PD)?

It is a framework or combination of approaches, ideas and techniques that will help you manage your own learning and growth. Wherever you are in your clinical career now, and whatever you want to achieve, your Professional Development should be exactly that - yours!

What is the Professional Development process?

PD works on two levels. Firstly PD is a robust framework supporting you in your personal career development, but it's also a question of taking ownership of setting yourself developmental objectives guided and supported by the Professional Development Team. Our approach is based on personal reflection that focuses on outcomes and results, rather than 'time spent' or 'things done’.

Is Professional Development time consuming?

PD is about capturing useful experiences and assessing the practical benefits of what you have learned. There is one decisive question that you should ask yourself to evaluate every piece of learning: what can you do now that you couldn’t do before? It’s not what you did, but how you can use what you learned - How has it impacted on you and the patient experience?

What is the Professional Development Team all about?

• As a healthcare practitioner, you have a responsibility to keep your skills and knowledge up to date. PD helps you turn that accountability into a positive opportunity to identify and achieve your own career objectives which align completely with the competency frameworks so that the learning process both supports and compliments the role requirements of the healthcare professional.
• Our team consists of Clinical Practice Educators and Clinical Professional Development Leads who design and host a catalogue of up to date, accessible and clinically relevant learning opportunities, using a variety of methods which include seminars, action learning & e-learning whilst supporting the delivery of relevant local & national initiatives.
• The Professional Development Team actively supports Clinical Supervision and Appraisal, reflecting on the past and planning for the future in this way makes your clinical and academic development more methodical and easier to measure.

The PD team philosophy

The Professional Development Team is dedicated to developing high quality learning materials and programmes: through a coherent approach, sharing knowledge, resources and services across the organisation and at a national level.

We are committed to promoting ULHT as a learning organisation and as a key enabler for supporting staff development and promoting cultural change, being driven by innovation, including multi-professional learning, considered essential for the modernisation of healthcare services.

How to use this PD site

Use the drop down menus on the course selection page to find a course that is customised specifically to your band or browse through the catalogue by themed content.

• Each course title is accompanied by a short "what it’s all about" blog.
• Some courses have a common theme designed as a complimentary series.
• The National Learning Management System allows you to browse a catalogue of nationally produced E-learning resources allowing you to work in an exciting and more flexible way.

Whichever way you choose we hope that you can find something that is useful in supporting you in your Professional Clinical career development.