The ripple effect: personal scholarships and impact on practice development

Transformational learning experiences for counselor training can be described as experiential activities that facilitate the ability to express feelings and meanings related to life issues. The authors investigated the impact of a 2-day seminar using transformational learning experiences on the personal and professional identity development of counselors-in-training. Quantitative results indicate that participants' self-reported professional performance scores were not significantly different following the training. However, in the qualitative inquiry, participants noted that through the transformational learning experiences, they became aware of past and present challenges, the need for change, the impact of processing within a group, and the application of transformational activities in clinical practices. Such findings indicate how transformational learning experiences-particularly through the use of reflective journaling-might influence personal identity development among counselors-in-training.Keywords: personal identity development, professional identity development, transformational learning, counselor-in-trainingThe promotion of professionalism is a significant component of counselor training and is recognized by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) as a core curriculum requirement for graduate counseling programs (CACREP, 2009). Professionalism includes knowledge and understanding of professional organizations, legal and ethical standards, the role of counselors, professional competencies, and personal and professional growth. Development in this area includes both personal and professional growth and is often referred to as counselor development (Gazzola & Theriault, 2007; Rabinor, 2004; Skovholt & Ronnestad, 1996; Thompson, 2004) or counselor professional identity (Auxier, Hughes, & Kline, 2003; Cashwell, Kleist, & Scofield, 2009; Nugent & Jones, 2009; O'Bryne & Rosenberg, 1998; Reisetter et al, 2004).Independently, professional development encompasses the acquisition of skills and knowledge, and is concerned with the doing needs (Donati & Watts, 2005, p. 476), and personal development includes the needs (p. 476), like authenticity, interpersonal engagement, intimacy and self-evaluation. As dependent concepts, one can imagine the significance each has for counselor identity. A counselor lacking skills and knowledge will function quite differently than a skilled practitioner with years of experience and knowledge. Concurrently, counselors must attend to their own form of personal development (Skovholt & Ronnestad, 1996). Wilkins (1997) went so far as to suggest that personal development embraces everything else that facilitates being a practicing counselor. For example, personal development might include ways in which the counselor maintains a balanced lifestyle, or ways the counselor manages the stress brought on by difficult clients. A counselor lacking in personal well-being might not be considered fit to practice.Many counselors view counselor identity development as a process (Auxier et al, 2003; Brott & Myers, 1999) that results in congruency between personal and professional worldviews (Reisetter et al., 2004), or consider it an equal combination of professional (e.g., roles, decisions, ethics) and personal selves (e.g., values, morals, perceptions; Auxier et al, 2003). This view suggests that personal and professional development are not mutually exclusive and are just as much interrelated as dependent concepts.Research on counselor professional identity development has examined areas such as personal or professional fit (Woodside, Oberman, Cole, & Carruth, 2007), critical incidents experienced by counselorsin-training (CITs; Howard, Inman, & Altman, 2006), career concerns of CITs (Busacca & Wester, 2006), evaluation of personal and professional development (Donati & Watt, 2005; Hensley, Smith, & Thompson, 2003; Lamadue & Duffey, 1999), and ways for counselor educators to address problematic behavior of trainees (Bhat, 2005; Gaubatz & Vera, 2002; McAdams & Foster, 2007; McAdams, Foster, & Ward, 2007). …

Free-text comments in multi-source feedback are intended to facilitate change in the assessee's practice. This study was designed to utilise a large dataset of free-text comments obtained in a national pilot study in order to investigate how helpful these free-text comments may be to assessees. We investigated: (i) which areas of performance are usually addressed by free-text comments; (ii) to what extent assessors' (doctors, nurses, allied health professionals and clerical or managerial staff) comments correspond to assessees' (career-grade doctors) self-assessments, and (iii) whether the comments contain specific behavioural evidence and suggestions for change. Initially comments were read through to identify commonly recurring themes. A strong theme was 'respondent-centredness', which refers to the extent to which comments focus on issues that are of value to the assessor rather than to the assessee's personal development. In response to this, the data were re-evaluated against predefined research questions to assess how constructive comments were for the assessee's personal development. Of 11,483 assessor forms, 4777 (42%) included free-text comments. A total of 513 forms contained at least one below average score and 286 (56%) of these forms contained the assessor's free-text feedback. Free-text comments were mostly rater-centred and addressed the effect of the assessee on the colleague's working life rather than areas of relevance to the assessee's personal development. A total of 1806 assessor/assessee pairs of comments were compared; most demonstrated clear differences of opinion or interpretation. Reliability and supportiveness were over-represented; clinical performance and personal development were under-represented. The comments were unlikely to provide specific behavioural evidence or to address how change might be initiated. Our data indicate that, in their current form, the overwhelming majority of free-text comments add little to facilitate improvement in assessees' personal development and performance.

The main theoretical approaches to solving the question of the essence and content of the personal and professional development of a teacher are considered in the article. The analysis of scientific researches of domestic and foreign authors concerning the given scientific phenomenon, its structure and specificity is carried out. The content of the concepts “development”, “personality development”, “teacher personality development” is analyzed.The content of the concept of “personal and professional development of a teacher” is also substantiated, whereby the author understands the conscious process of qualitative personality changes aimed at achieving a high level of personal self-development and professional self-realization in teaching. According to the author’s opinion, the term “personal and professional development of the teacher” reflects the diversity and interconnectedness of scientific and pedagogical activities and personal characteristics of the teacher – i.e. reflects the activities and personal aspects.Emphasis is placed on the personal potential of the teacher, which allows you to transfer it from the position of the object to the position of the subject of their own professional development. The author notes that personal and professional development requires from the teacher a thorough mastery not only of academic knowledge but also personal strengths and characteristics that help him to define and comprehend his pedagogical practice and himself as an individual. This is done by developing the necessary life skills which help the teacher grow in his profession and beyond. In addition, the author emphasizes that such development depends not only on formal education but can also be initiated by the teacher himself (non-formal, informal education). In this case, according to the author, the necessary solution is to find an effective trajectory of professional development that meets their own needs and preferences.It is determined that the comprehensive personal and professional development of a teacher occurs when such aspects of development as personal, professional and social are involved. The last aspect of development, explained by the author, is the social nature of the pedagogical activity.
 Keywords: personality development; teacher personality development; professional development; personal and professional development of a teacher; personal potential; acmeological approach; personal self-development; professional self-realization.

The University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy's Ambulatory Care Residency Program has graduated 22 residents from its Leadership Emphasis program from 1999 to 2014. The Leadership Emphasis program is unique in its design, providing a set of experiences over two years focused on developing leadership skills in practice development, establishing personal influence, advocacy in the profession, and teaching. The program's design has focused on bringing value to three distinct audiences: pharmacists enrolled in the program, the local pharmacy practice community, and the College of Pharmacy. This paper explores the program's contributions in each of these areas.
 Program graduates from 1999-2009 were interviewed and cited the independent, yet mentored, activities of the program as instrumental to their professional and personal development. The program has provided significant value to the College of Pharmacy, primarily in the form of instructional support, service to faculty practice sites and development of new practice sites for APPEs. Teaching and precepting hours offset the salary of the residents, resulting in financial benefits for the College. In the second year of the program, residents pursue development of new practice sites, 15 of which have been sustained to provide at least a half-time pharmacist position, having a direct impact on pharmacy practice development in the region.
 The program provides a win-win-win situation for all the stakeholders involved. Schools and colleges of pharmacy are encouraged to consider whether a similar program may assist in achieving its own goals in practitioner development, teaching and learning, and community engagement.
 
 Type: Clinical Experience

Objective: The purpose of this study was to understand what online adjunct faculty value as support services, specifically professional development opportunities, provided by their respective higher education institutions. Method: This qualitative narrative inquiry study centered on exploring perceptions and experiences of online adjunct faculty members from higher education institutions and their experiences and expectations of professional development (PD), prior to and during COVID-19. Results: The study resulted in the identification of possible improvements and enhancements to existing PD content that would further support faculty personal development, mental health, wellbeing, and academic growth. Conclusions: This study reminds us that there are numerous variables, including unforeseen crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic, that need to be considered when developing, implementing, and presenting PD for online adjunct faculty professional and personal growth. Because faculty want to be listened to and heard, the PD development and implementation process needs to be interactive to support online adjunct faculty, regardless of whether the university is for-profit or not-for-profit. Implication for Practice: The results based on online adjunct faculty experiences could lead to updating professional development opportunities employed in different higher education institutions to promote faculty self-actualization and ultimately, student success.

IntroductionIn regional Australia and New Zealand, museums and art galleries are increasingly becoming primary sites of cultural engagement. They are one of the key tourist attractions for regional towns and expected to generate much needed tourism revenue. In 2017 in New South Wales alone, there were three million visitors to regional galleries and museums (MGNSW 13). However, apart from those (partially) funded by local councils, they are often run on donations, good will, and the enthusiasm of volunteers. Regional museums and galleries provide some paid, and more unpaid, employment for ageing populations. While two-thirds of Australia’s population lives in capital cities, the remainder who live in regional towns are likely to be in the 60+ age cohort because people are choosing to retire away from the bustling, growing cities (ABS). At last count, there were about 3000 museums and galleries in Australia with about 80% of them located in regional areas (Scott). Over the last 40 years, this figure has tripled from the 1000 regional and provincial museums estimated by Peter Piggott in his 1975 report (24). According to a 2014 survey (Shaw and Davidson), New Zealand has about 470 museums and galleries and about 70% are located outside capital cities. The vast majority, 85%, have less than five, full-time paid staff, and more than half of these were run entirely by ageing volunteers. They are entrusted with managing the vast majority of the history and heritage collections of Australia and New Zealand. These ageing volunteers need a diverse range of skills and experience to care for and interpret collections. How do you find the time and budget for professional development for both paid staff and volunteers? Many professional development events are held in capital cities, which are often a significant distance from the regional museum—this adds substantially to the costs of attending and the time commitment required to get there. In addition, it is not uncommon for people working in regional museums to be responsible for everything—from security, collection management, conservation, research, interpretation and public programs to changing the light bulbs. While there are a large number of resources available online, following a manual is often more difficult than learning from other colleagues or learning in a more formal educational or vocational environment where you can receive timely feedback on your work. Further, a foundational level of prior knowledge and experience is often required to follow written instructions. This article will suggest some strategies for low cost professional development and networking. It involves planning, thinking strategically and forming partnerships with others in the region. It is time to harness the power of modern communications technology and use it as a tool for professional development. Some models of professional development in regional areas that have been implemented in the past will also be reviewed. The focus for this article is on training and professional development for workers in regional museums, heritage sites and keeping places. Regional art galleries have not been included because they tend to have separate regional networks and training opportunities. For example, there are professional development opportunities provided through the Art Galleries Association of Australia and their state branches. Regional galleries are also far more likely to have one or more paid staff members (Winkworth, “Fixing the Slums” 2). Regional Museums, Volunteers, and Social CapitalIt is widely accepted that regional museums and galleries enhance social capital and reduce social isolation (Kelly 32; Burton and Griffin 328). However, while working in a regional museum or gallery can help to build friendship networks, it can also be professionally isolating. How do you benchmark what you do against other places if you are two or more hours drive from those places? How do you learn from other colleagues if all your colleagues are also isolated by the ‘tyranny of distance’ and struggling with the same lack of access to training? In 2017 in New South Wales alone, there were 8,629 active volunteers working in regional museums and galleries giving almost five million hours, which Museums and Galleries NSW calculated was worth over $150 million per annum in unpaid labour (MGNSW 1). Providing training and professional development to this group is an investment in Australia’s social and cultural capital.Unlike other community-run groups, the museums and heritage places which have emerged in regional Australia and New Zealand are not part of a national or state branch network. Volunteers who work for the Red Cross, Scouts or Landcare benefit from being part of a national organisation which provides funding, support workers, a website, governance structure, marketing, political advocacy and training (Winkworth, “Let a Thousand Flowers” 11). In Australia and New Zealand, this role is undertaken by the Australian Museums and Galleries Association AMaGA (formerly Museums Australia) and Museums Aotearoa respectively. However, both of these groups operate at the macro policy level, for example organising annual conferences, publishing a journal and developing Indigenous policy frameworks, rather than the local, practical level. In 1995, due to their advocacy work, Landcare Australia received $500 million over five years from the federal government to fund 5000 Landcare groups, which are run by 120,000 volunteers (Oppenheimer 177). They argued successfully that the sustainable development of land resources started at the local level. What do we need to do to convince government of the need for sustainable development of our local and regional museum and heritage resources?Training for Volunteers Working in Regional Museums: The Current SituationAnother barrier to training for regional museum workers is the assumption that the 70:20:10 model of professional development should apply. That is, 70% of one’s professional development is done ‘on the job’ by completing tasks and problem-solving; 20% is achieved by learning from mentors, coaches and role models and 10% is learnt from attending conferences and symposia and enrolling in formal courses of study. However, this model pre-supposes that there are people in your workplace whom you can learn from and who can show you how to complete a task, and that you are not destroying or damaging a precious, unique object if you happen to make a mistake.Some museum volunteers come with skills in research, marketing, administration, customer service or photography, but very few come with specific museum skills like writing exhibition text, registering an acquisition or conserving artefacts. These skills need to be taught. As Kylie Winkworth has written, museum management now requires a [...] skills set, which is not so readily found in small communities, and which in many ways is less rewarding for the available volunteers, who may have left school at 15. We do not expect volunteer librarians to catalogue books, which are in any case of low intrinsic value, but we still expect volunteers in their 70s and 80s to catalogue irreplaceable heritage collections and meet ever more onerous museum standards. That so many volunteers manage to do this is extraordinary. (“Let a Thousand Flowers” 13)Workers in regional museums are constantly required to step outside their comfort zones and learn new skills with minimal professional support. While these challenging experiences can be very rewarding, they are also potentially damaging for our irreplaceable material cultural heritage.Training for museum professionals has been on the agenda of the International Council of Museums (ICOM) since 1947 (Boylan 62). However, until 1996, their work focused on recommending curricula for new museum professionals and did not include life-long learning and on-going professional development. ICOM’s International Committee for the Training of Personnel (ICTOP) and the ICOM Executive has responded to this in their new curricula—ICOM Curricula Guidelines for Professional Museum Development, but this does not address the difficulties staff or volunteers working in regional areas face in accessing training.In some parts of Australia, there are regional support and professional development programs in place. For example, in Queensland, there is the Museum Development Officer (MDO) network. However, because of the geographic size of the state and the spread of the museums, these five regionally based staff often have 60-80 museums or keeping places in their region needing support and so their time and expertise is spread very thinly. It is also predominantly a fee-for-service arrangement. That is, the museums have to pay for the MDO to come and deliver training. Usually this is done by the MDO working with a local museum to apply for a Regional Arts Development Fund (RADF) grant. In Victoria there is a roving curator program where eligible regional museums can apply to have a professional curator come and work with them for a few days to help the volunteers curate exhibitions. The roving curator can also provide advice on “develop[ing] high quality exhibitions for diverse audiences” via email, telephone and networking events. Tasmania operates a similar scheme but their two roving curators are available for up to 25 days of work each year with eligible museums, provided the local council makes a financial contribution. The New South Wales government supports the museum advisor program through which a museum professional will come to your museum for up to 20 days/year to give advice and hands-on training—provided your local council pays $7000, an amount that is matched by the state government—for this service. In 2010, in response to recommendations in the Dunn Report (2007), the Collections Council of Australia (CCA) established a pilot project with the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder in West

This study examined professional development in practice. Interview data from 20 medical attending physicians suggested their professional practice progressed through four stages: (a) becoming familiar with the basic skills and operations of a profession, (b) building professional competence, (c) shifting practice from self-centered to client-centered, and (d) developing a continuous concern for the profession. Professional development is a life-long learning process. Attending physicians must continue learning after residency to acquire not only expert-level clinical competencies but also a set of personal qualities and attitudes that constitute the core of professionalism. Senior attending physicians stressed the importance of providing and receiving mentoring in professional development. A general model of professional development in practice was proposed.

This study determined the extent of administrator involvement to the academic journey of secondary teachers in Siargao Division, Surigao del Norte. It determined the profile of the respondents and the extent of involvement of the administrators with content knowledge and pedagogy, learning environment, diversity of learners, curriculum and planning, assessment and reporting, community linkages and professional engagement, and personal growth and professional development as factors. The perceived extents of administrator involvement to the journey of the teachers were compared based on their profile. Similarly, the perceptions of the administrators and the teachers on the extent of involvement of the administrators to the journey of the teachers were also compared. Data were gathered from 23 administrators and 30 secondary teachers from Siargao Division using researcher-made questionnaires. Data were analyzed using frequency count and percent, mean and standard deviation, Kruskal Wallis, and t-test for independent samples. The study revealed that most of the administrator-respondents are married head teachers who have been serving for at least 11 years. They have attended less than 11 trainings and have at earned units in Master’s degree. Most of the teacher-respondents are Teacher I, single, female English teachers who have been in the service for less than 11 years and earned units in Master’s Degree. Both administrators and teachers strongly agree that the former are involved in the academic journey of the latter in terms of content knowledge and pedagogy, learning environment, diversity of learners, curriculum and planning, assessment and reporting, community linkages and professional engagement, and personal growth and professional development. There is no significant difference on the extents of involvement of the administrators on the academic journey of the English language teachers when grouped according to their profile. There is a significant difference on the extents of involvement of the administrators on the academic journey of the secondary teachers based on the type of respondents.

BackgroundGender disparity has long been noted in nursing, a predominantly female-dominated profession. However, recently the increase in the number of male nurses disproves the existing belief that nursing is exclusively a female profession. Even though the studies have reported changing gender trends in nursing, the information is not sufficient and the effects of the changing trend on professional practice and professional development have not been explored. Therefore this study aims to assess the influence of gender in nursing on professional practice and development in Tanzania.MethodsThis was an analytical Hospital-Based Cross-sectional Study Design, conducted at four hospitals in Dar es Salaam, with 580 nurses between 20th May and 20th June 2024. Proportionate sampling was used to determine the required number of participants from each of the four facilities. Moreover, systematic random sampling was used to recruit participants from each facility. The validated questionnaire was used to obtain data, which were analyzed through descriptive and inferential statistics.ResultsAmong seventy items that measured professional practices, sixty three items indicated good professional practices among female nurses compared with their male counterparts male. On the association of gender in nursing to professional practice and development, the findings revealed no significant association between gender in nursing and professional practice (χ2 = 1.384; P = 0.239). Moreover, the item analysis revealed that male nurses have professional development in three items similar to female nurse who had shown professional development on other three items. Through binary logistic regression, male nurses were 0.528 (OR) times less likely to have good professional development than their female counterpart (P < 0.001; 95% CI: 0.379, 0.737). Several social demographic factors were found to be associated with professional practice and development.ConclusionIt was found that professional practice does not depend on gender in nursing, because the practice was optimal across both genders. Nurse’s self-image of nursing, facility factors, and professional development influence their professional practice. Moreover, gender in nursing is associated with professional development, indicating the existence of gender stereotypes in the distribution of opportunities between male and female nurses. The study recommends extending this cross-sectional study to nonclinical settings such as training institutions.

The professional development of individuals within organizations is a crucial component in shaping organizational competitive advantage. Although existing research indicates that leadership styles can significantly influence individual professional development, there is limited understanding of the mechanisms and boundary conditions governing the relationship between perceived team leadership and individual professional development. Based on valid survey questionnaires from 655 university teachers in Hebei Province, China, this article constructs and tests a moderated mediation model. Empirical results demonstrate that: perceived team leadership has a significant positive impact on university teachers' professional development; innovative self-efficacy plays a partial mediating role in the relationship between perceived team leadership and university teachers' professional development; organizational innovation climate positively moderates all paths within the mediation framework. This finding reveals the interactive effects of "context-individual-behavior," extends the application boundaries of Social Exchange Theory in educational organizations, and demonstrates that leadership effectiveness also depends on organizational climate support. This article elucidates the mechanism by which perceived team leadership influences the professional development of university teachers, providing practical insights for university administrators, such as enhancing team leadership, fostering organizational innovation climate, and activating teachers' intrinsic motivation for development.

A professional doctorate in education degree (EdD) is a degree where students contextualize professional knowledge into a “theoretical academic framework” (Quality Assurance Agency, 2015, p. 8). This study’s context is a 100% online EdD programme in the United Kingdom (UK) comprised of students throughout the world. Because online EdD programmes are relatively new, limited knowledge exists about the online EdD phenomenon from the students’ perspectives. In effect, the student voice about the online EdD is nearly absent in the literature but should be considered. How to fulfil the primary aim of the programme, to interrelate theory and professional practice and evoke social change (Costley, 2014), also has received limited attention. Two main aims of this study are: (1) To investigate the impacts of the online EdD learning experiences and outcomes on the participants’ personal and professional development through a phenomenologically-informed lens; and (2) To advance the student voice about learning experiences in online EdD programmes. This thesis is phenomenologically-informed, which enabled an in-depth investigation and a “Textural-Structural Description” (Moustakas, 1994, p. 121). The methods to collect data were interviews and document collection, which offered response triangulation and further analysis. The study results indicated that the participants experienced emotional and social challenges (e.g., cultural and linguistic disconnections and incremental disorienting dilemmas) that the transnational higher education (TNHE) virtual learning environment (VLE) sometimes exacerbated. Five of the eight participants’ stories contained evidence of each transformative learning stage (explored further in section 4.6) (Mezirow, 1991). The majority of the participants applied new knowledge from the online EdD programme to their professional contexts to effectuate social change, which is discussed in Chapters IV-V. This study draws attention to the online EdD phenomenon and furthers the discourse about the impacts of the online EdD on students’ personal and professional development. Key words: professional doctorate in education (EdD); phenomenologically-informed; transformative learning; student voice

The term practice development has been associated with supporting modernization, and organizational, service and quality improvements but more importantly in promoting patient-centredness. Originating in the UK, it is increasingly being adopted in other countries. Its perceived value is in its facilitative approach to engaging, empowering, enlightening, evolving and evaluating patients, users and professionals within the processes of innovation and change through collaboration, team working and partnership building. Despite the plethora of literature outlining the relative merits and demerits of practice development to the healthcare professions and professionals and health and social care organizations there is limited evidence substantiating the existence of a knowledge base within the field of practice development. This paper aims to present the underpinning evidence confirming the existence of a knowledge base within the field of practice development. An in-depth critical review and synthesis of the literature on CINAHL, undertaken at the end of 2004 using the key words ‘practice development’ revealed 416 articles. This was limited to 130, which made direct reference to practice development in the title. From these articles, 23 were research focused and 107 associated with informing the practice development debate. The in-depth critical review and synthesis of the literature demonstrated that practice development can be defined and deciphered to show its impact in supporting innovation and change to individual, team and organizational practice. Practice development's primary principles are centred on promoting patient-centredness through the utilization of a facilitative approach to team working, collaboration, and partnership building and by networking. By nature of design and virtue practice development is not linear but a messy concept, yet among the mess of daily practice it does adopt a systematic and organized holistic approach to advancing and evaluating practice. The in-depth critical review and synthesis of the practice development literature reinforces the need to consolidate a position in order to move forward rather than back. This review confirms that practice development is an emerging discipline within health and social care demonstrating an acquired body of knowledge and an evidence base to substantiate its case. By plotting its history and reviewing the current evidence base, it would be fair to state that practice development is here to stay and due to grow within all professional groups. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Primary health care in the UK is currently centred around independent contractor organisations (general practices). Although the development of these organisations is considered necessary to improve the quality of health care, no structures exist to support the systematic development necessary to attain this goal. Part of the failure to change clinical processes has been the requirement that general practitioners attend passive educational events for continuing professional development, without reference to organisational or local health priorities. A feasibility study to integrate professional and practice development planning sought to overcome this mismatch. NHS Staff College Wales, as a facilitating organisation in this study, developed a model to assist practices to identify, prioritise and implement developments, interlinked with individuals' professional development. The paper summarises the experiences of facilitators supporting this integrated approach, using Senge's model of the challenges to the successful implementation of change. The role of facilitation in negotiating these challenges is also explored. The paper concludes that the approach is effective in the integration of professional and practice development and offers a useful framework to progress the quality improvement agenda.

The experience of nursing staff and consumers in inpatient mental health wards is often reported as being negative. Efforts to improve culture and practice have had limited success, with ineffective leadership, staff resistance, and unresponsive organisational culture identified as common barriers to change. Practice development has been promoted as an approach to developing person-centred culture that enables professional development through participation, learning and empowerment. For person-centred practice to flourish, organisational leadership at all levels must reflect the same principles. In preparation for the opening of a new integrated mental health service, an inpatient mental health team participated in a practice development project. An action research approach was used to facilitate a series of “away days,” initially with the nursing team and then other members of the multidisciplinary team (MDT). Transformational leadership principles were adopted in the facilitation of team activities underpinned by strengths and solution-focused practices. Evaluation of the project by staff members was very positive and there was a high level of participation in practice development activities. The project resulted in the creation of a development plan for the ward, which prioritised five key themes: person-centred care, personal recovery, strengths-based principles, and evidence-based and values-based care. The project outcomes highlight the importance of leadership, which parallels the ideals promoted for clinical practice.

Background: In October 2018, the University of Witten/Herdecke (UW/H) launched the new reformed medical education programme called Medicine 2018+. A major innovation compared to the existing model programme was the introduction of thematic focuses. A longitudinal communication skills curriculum was integrated into the new thematic focus “professional and personal development – inner work” (IAP). With the start of the new programme, the IAP curriculum has been built step-by-step over time, i.e. the first four semesters have already been implemented, the following semesters are being planned.Project description: IAP aims to provide students with patient-centred medicine. Five areas of competence were defined: Doctor-patient communication, team competence, staying healthy, my paths to becoming a doctor, medicine and society. The focus of this article is on the communication curriculum. The first year of study focusses on the training of basic communication skills. In the 2nd year of study, students practice these basic skills in small groups with simulated patients (SP), whereby the emphasis in the 3rd semester is on history taking and in the 4th semester is on sharing information. In the 3rd semester, students complete a communication station in an OSCE. From the 5th semester onwards, the focus of training is on the consolidation of basic and advanced communication skills, which can be applied in clinical clerkships, and the reflection of clinical experiences. Key didactic elements are, in addition to teaching the theoretical basics, experience-based small group work with and without SP, feedback and reflection. The evaluation of the summer semester 2020 showed high agreement ratings of the students regarding the overall satisfaction with the individual courses (83-100% agreement).Discussion: The introduction of IAP has been very positively received by the students. Challenges are the adequate handling of the increasing student workload when planning new courses, the implementation of a longitudinal e-portfolio as well as the recruitment and training of clinical teachers and SPs.Conclusion: As the evaluation results of the summer semester 2020 show, the first steps of implementing a longitudinal communication curriculum at UW/H have been successful. Helpful strategies were the orientation on published examples from other faculties as well as regular feedback and discussions with students and teachers in order to adapt and integrate educational considerations into the existing model programme in Witten.