Back to school

Participants on the development programme for newly appointed matrons felt they needed to share their experiences and develop leadership and team0building skills. Personality tests and receiving individual feedback were seen as helpful. The programme is thought to be a valuable tool in integrating these new roles in the trust. The matrons are now in action learning sets.     

E-learning. Back to the new school

The NHS's interest in e-learning is making a comeback after some initial setbacks. A new wave of programmes will be closely aligned with the everyday training needs of NHS staff. Better IT access and proficiency among NHS staff have contributed to the revival of e-learning.     

Back to school. Lifelong learning comes to health care

North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System's corporate university is designed to nurture lifelong learning for its 30,000 employees, and heighten their skills and enthusiasm for their work. "The better you teach your employees and motivate them, the better for your bottom line," contends CEO Michael Dowling.     

Back to school: a health care strategy for youth

School-based health centers (SBHCs) are a policy innovation designed to increase health care access among youth. The centers offer primary and acute care, often to underserved populations. We describe SBHCs, trace their history, and analyze the three great political challenges they face: moral opposition triggered by concern about reproductive health services in schools; funding in a managed care era; and partisan state politics. We show how the centers have been meeting these challenges. Finally, we consider the prospect of this innovation going to scale across the nation.     

Back to School

The biggest problem I faced at school involved adjusting to the new role in which I found myself. Before entering the school I had mistakenly anticipated teaching in a context rather similar to the one I had left ten years earlier when I moved from school teaching to college lecturing. At that time I was the Head of an English Department in a school where I worked for seven years. Here, however, I was very much the newcomer, almost the probationer and — in some respects — I was experiencing the reception that a student (of mature years) would receive on teaching practice. A somewhat salutary experience from which I have learned a little humility, if nothing else, when I next come to teaching, practice preparation with my students.