An educationalconference in a generalhospitalGordon Caldwell, Clinical Tutor, Diabetes Centre, Worthing Hospital, Western SussexHospitals NHS Trust, Worthing, UK

SUMMARYBackground: Western SussexHospitals National Health Service(NHS) Trust comprises the DistrictGeneral Hospitals of Worthingand Chichester. Both hospitalshave successful postgraduatemedical education centres, pro-viding training for junior doctorsand continuing professionaldevelopment for senior doctors.Until now, there have been lim-ited multi-professional teachingand learning activities available.Context: The two hospitals haverecently merged. The educationexecutive felt that workplacelearning had become undervaluedsince the implementation of

Modernising Medical Careers inthe UK. The executive wanted toprovide a multi-professional con-ference on Workplace Learning,both to support the merger and topromote the value of workplaceand multi-professional learning.Innovation: The conference topiccovering the ‘how’ of workplacelearning was innovative. Manyeducational conferences concen-trate on the organisation andevaluation of classroom learning,rather than on how learning canbe facilitated in the workplaceduring ordinary working practice.It was also innovative to ensurethat the presenters were repre-sentative of the multi-profes-

sional workforce. Thepresentations were limited to8 minutes each to promote high-impact short presentations. Thetalks were recorded for publishingon the trust’s intranet and theinternet.Implications: A committed teamin a district general hospital canprovide a high-quality educa-tional conference with wideappeal. Local health careprofessionals can produce shorthigh-impact presentations. Theuse of modern information tech-nology and audio-visual systemscan make the presentationsavailable to both local andworldwide audiences.

A committedteam in adistrict generalhospital canprovide ahigh-qualityeducationalconference withwide appeal

How todo it

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INTRODUCTION

Western Sussex HospitalsNational Health Service(NHS) Trust held a multi-

disciplinary educational confer-ence in September 2010 on‘Learning without leaving theworkplace’. The conferencereceived very high evaluationsfrom the attendees. A leadingmedical educationalist watchedthe videos and said:

A distillation in one after-noon of the best of medicaleducation experience,described by teachers andlearners themselves, puttingeducational theory intosparkling practice.

I thought it could be useful toshare our experiences so that youcould learn from them and runyour own local conferences to thebenefit of your patients and staff.

The Director of Medical Educa-tion (DME) had a vision to makeour hospitals into a UniversityTrust, and this was supported bythe Trust Board. He proposed anannual educational conference forthe trust, and I suggested a themeof ‘Learning without leaving theworkplace’ for the first conference.The educational executive of theDME, the two clinical tutors andthe two medical educationalmanagers (MEMs) co-opted thenursing lead for training, the locallead for health informatics and aboard member with an interest instaff development to representnon-clinicians in a working group.We set a date 3 months ahead toplan the conference.

We wanted the conference toconcentrate on the learning thattakes place in the workplace, andhow that learning can be stimu-lated. I had been influenced byreading Jean Lave and EtienneWenger’s book Situatedlearning legitimate peripheralparticipation.1 The education

executive wanted to re-emphasisethe importance of apprenticeshiplearning.

From the outset we were clearthat we wanted at least half ofthe presentations to be given bypeople other than doctors. Wewanted nurses, physiotherapists,pharmacists and non-clinicalprofessionals to be well repre-sented. We used the team’snetworks, e-mails, intranet andletters to encourage contributorsto submit applications to speak.We asked prospective contributorsto submit a very brief outline oftheir planned talks. Each presenterwould be given just 8 minutes totalk, and we suggested that theyuse a maximum of six POWERPOINT

slides. The conference ran fromlunchtime at 13.00 hours untilclosing at 17.00 hours. There wasno charge to delegates, who wereallowed time away from clinicalduties to attend. The HospitalNHS Trust funded the catering andhire of the room.

The MEMs identified a suitableconference room in a local hotel,and worked hard on advertisingthe event (Appendix), producingthe programmes, attendanceregisters and sign posting, andwelcoming delegates. From theoutset we planned to video recordthe whole event with the aim ofpublishing the proceedings on theintranet, and possibly on theinternet. We were fortunate tohave excellent local audio-visual(AV) experts, and were lucky to findthat we had a staff member withexperience in film production!

The team invited two outsidespeakers, who were enthusiasticto contribute. Professor JanetGrant of the Open Universityagreed to talk for 30 minutes on‘Whatever happened to appren-ticeship learning’, and a localhead teacher, an expert in accel-erated learning, who sits on ourlocal academic board, agreed toend the afternoon with a sessionentitled ‘Wake up and learn’.

Potential contributions wereconsidered for inclusion by thepanel. We had 10 slots to fill forlocal speakers and had 23 submis-sions from around the trust. Themost difficult part of the processwas deciding which presentationsto accept. This was where visionwas most important, so we limitedthe number of presentations thatwe accepted from doctors, andchose as wide a range of presentersas possible. One of the MEMsdecided on the running order to tryto provide a flowing theme. Wewrote to all of those whose pre-sentations were not accepted. OurMEMs are such excellent managersthat they implemented all of theplans, and in all we had only threeplanning meetings, each lastingunder an hour.

The team also managed to getsome sponsorship, and there werefive display stands, with only onefrom a pharmaceutical company.The library had a stand, as did thelocal research network.

The presenters submitted theirfinal submissions 10 days beforethe conference. The importance ofmaking sure that the presentationwas limited to 8 minutes wasemphasised.

The topics were:

• Opening lecture – ‘Whateverhappened to apprenticeshiplearning?’

• ‘How I teach medical studentsthe fundamental elements ofsafe prescribing’

• ‘Accrediting pharmacy techni-cians’

• ‘Learning through role models’

• ‘Educational synergies betweenhandover and ward rounds’

• ‘How I teach doctors in theradiology department’

• ‘How I teach observationalskills during a bed bath routine’

• ‘How I enthuse physiotherapystudents to care personallyabout their patients’

We wanted theconference to

concentrate onthe learning

that takesplace in the

workplace

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• ‘Workplace learning in the crit-ical care unit’

• ‘How I develop professionalismin postgraduate doctors’

• ‘Teaching on ward rounds’

• Closing lecture – ‘Wake up andlearn’

We attracted 120 delegatesfrom all professions and disci-plines in the trust, and onlyreceived five apologies on theday. Unfortunately, ProfessorGrant was unable to attend,so I covered the ‘Whateverhappened to apprenticeshiptraining?’ slot.

On the day, the presentershad a countdown clock on a

laptop in front of them as theyspoke, and everyone stuck totime. The quality of the presen-tations was exceptionally high,and the evaluations of the eventreflected this. There were onlyone or two minor glitches withmicrophones and supplies ofcoffee, and otherwise everythingran very smoothly. It was clearthat we have staff with highlydeveloped expertise in developingstaff in the workplace and instimulating learning from theclinical experience of caring forpatients. The passion for caring,and enthusiasm for seeing staffgain in expertise and confidence,shone through in every presenta-tion, perhaps most powerfully in

the address ‘How I enthusephysiotherapy students tocare personally about theirpatients’.

We brought together localexperts from many disciplines,who were able to share their pas-sion for and expertise in ‘Learningwithout leaving the workplace’.The buzz during the tea break andin the bar afterwards was sufficientin itself to prove that this was avery worthwhile endeavour, andprovided justification for our uni-versity hospital status.

A small team with a clearvision and backing from the boardcan facilitate a useful local edu-cational conference that can drawtogether professionals of variedbackgrounds.

Our audio-visual team havenow edited the presentations andpublished them on the trust’sintranet, and the videos canbe viewed on the internet athttp://www.westernsussexhospi-tals.nhs.uk/careers/postgraduate-centres/educational-conference.

The videos can also be foundon http://www.youtube.com bysearching ‘pgmc’ and ‘education’.

Now we are planning for nextyear. Who knows, in 5 years time,might this be an internationalseries of local conferences unitedin an internet community ofpractice?

REFERENCE

1. Lave J, Wenger E. Situated learning

legitimate peripheral participation.

Cambridge: Cambridge University

Press; 1991.

Corresponding author’s contact details: Dr Gordon Caldwell, Clinical Tutor, Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust, Diabetes Centre, WorthingHospital, Worthing, West Sussex, BN11 2DH, UK. E-mail: Gordon.caldwell@wsht.nhs.uk

Funding: None

Conflict of interest: None

Ethical approval: Not required. All contributors signed agreements that their presentations could be recorded onto video and then

distributed onto the internet.

A small teamwith a clearvision canfacilitate auseful localeducationalconference

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