Lecturer takes University’s teaching style and new FHS curriculum to Cyprus
Date 21.05.2019
How the University teaches students in the twenty first century – including changes to Faculty of Health and Society subject curricula – was outlined to attendees at a recent health conference.
Alison Power, Senior Lecturer in Midwifery and the Faculty’s Interprofessional Education (IPE) Lead, spoke to delegates last week at the second International Network for Health Workforce Education (INHWE) at the European University Cyprus in Nicosia.
The conference theme was ‘Future Education for Healthcare’ and Alison outlined the University of Northampton’s teaching shift from traditional, broadcast lectures in large theatres to an Active Blended Learning (ABL) approach.
ABL courses are taught through student-centred activities that support the development of subject knowledge and understanding, independent learning and digital fluency.
Alison’s presentation also focused on how the University’s Changemaker values will be embedded in the new interprofessional collaborative curriculum, the development of which she is co-ordinating as Faculty Lead.
Due to be implemented for first year undergraduates in September 2019, the IPE curriculum will provide students on health and social care programmes such as midwifery, nursing, paramedic science, podiatry, occupational therapy, policing and social work with opportunities that will see them learning with, from and about students from other professions.
Alison said: “Our ambitions for IPE have been in the planning for the past year and are nearing fruition, so it was great to share our ideas with an international audience. It was a valuable opportunity to showcase UoN’s innovative learning and teaching strategy and explain how ABL and Changemaker will enhance the learning experiences and employability of our students.”
“One great example of how all of this can coalesce into one brilliant project that will save lives, is Creating Equalz”. Developed by UON midwifery graduate Laney Holland with support from the University and funding from Santander, Creating Equalz aims to find new solutions to race inequalities and help community development. This includes training to increase health and social care professionals’ awareness of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and how to care for victims.
Alison continued: “This new collaborative curriculum is very much the starting point for us – we have plans to extend this to levels 5 and 6 as we progress through 2019-2021 and will be working hard to ensure students see the relevance of IPE and how an innovative and dynamic IPE curriculum will complement their subject specific learning; increase their employability post-graduation and most importantly prepare them to be champions of a collaborative health and social care workforce providing high quality, safe and effective care as a cohesive multiprofessional team”.