So here we have it then, I’m now a second year paramedic. It doesn’t feel like five minutes since I was starting the first year. There has been blood sweat and tears, some of them have even been mine. There have been tears of joy, sadness and sheer exhaustion, however it is still the best decision I have ever made.

During my time at Staffordshire University I have had the privilege of being involved in some amazing experiences either as part of the course or due to being on the course.

I have supported the university with open days by answering questions of any potential new students and being involved in the patient journey which enables others to see of our skills we use out on the road. Being part of the team that showcased the facilities and skills learnt when Staffordshire University opened their centre of excellence, which also included being interviewed for the local radio station and being in the presence of the fantastic Ruby Wax.

I have been involved in the Stafford Police Open day again talking to people about what we do as a student paramedic and being involved with a scenario of a road traffic accident alongside the police and fire service, this was a particular exciting and nerve racking experience as I was the one in the back of the car giving support to the casualty whilst the fire service cut the roof off the car. With just a few hundred people watching and it being filmed live for facebook. It must have been the hottest day of the year and for our own safety and that of our patients we had to wear the full protective equipment so as you can imagine I nearly melted into my boots.

Understanding how other disciplines work is a key focus for any paramedic and sometimes our patients aren’t always at home or even in an accessible area so when Staffordshire Search and Rescue were looking for volunteers to be patients in the middle of a woodland I jumped at the chance. Sitting against a tree in the middle of nowhere pretending to be unconscious during a rain storm is definitely not for everyone but it was certainly a learning experience to see just how quickly and efficiently a group of volunteers work together to not only find someone but to transport them down a hillside quickly and safely to enable the patient to be seen by the ambulance service.

I’ve also had the opportunity to be a part of the first mentor workshop for health professionals at Staffordshire University which involved students from all the different courses to share our experiences of what makes a good mentor during our time of study.

During the course itself there is a lot of under pinning knowledge that needs to be learnt to enable us to make clinical decisions relevant and appropriate to our patients to ensure that they receive the correct and very best care. This means that not only do we have taught lectures with additional reading around the subjects, we also have practical sessions to improve and initiate key skills. These sometimes take place within the skills labs using the mannequins or each other (for assessment techniques only obviously not to be trying to cannulate or intubate each other), but also they sometimes take place at other locations.

In the second year we have the opportunity to go to SafeSide which is a fire service training facility that has a whole village inside, I know unbelievable or what, it has a railway track, a double decker bus, a canal, a shop, a doctors surgery, a police station with police cells, a court room to name but a few. This enables us to put all our skills into a real-life environment and they even use actors to play real life patients. This and alongside the extrication training we receive from the fire service I don’t think I could’ve been more prepared when I had to attend a road traffic accident for real. It’s like a muscle memory kicks in and I knew what needed to be done straight away but did it have to be again on one of the hottest days of the year so once again I nearly melted into my boots.

So now I am only 12 weeks away from completing my required amount of hours on placement with the ambulance service and when I look back to the short amount of time I’ve been doing this and the amount of skills and knowledge I have achieved I know I am a stronger person and I will be working as a registered paramedic in a small amount of time. This would not have been possible without the hard work and dedication of all the lectures, staff, mentors and fellow students from previous years, current years and those yet to step into my shoes. I have learnt never to be scared to ask for help whether it be physically or mentally. There is never a stupid question that has not already been asked previously (mainly by myself) and there will be days when you think you can’t do this, you can’t go on, but you do and you will and it will definitely be all worth it in the end.

I look forward to seeing future students out on the road doing what I’m doing now and you never know one day that mentor that’s answering all those stupid questions may just be me.

Emma Bywater, Paramedic Student

Published by Eleanor Ball, Paramedic Lecturer, Department of Midwifery and Allied Health, Eleanor.Ball@staffs.ac.uk

As a student mental health nurse like many other students as soon as I received my acceptance to university the nerves commenced. It was so very hard to believe I was going to be a student nurse and even better it was at staffs, my chosen university. I was overjoyed and equally nervous at the same time. I since had studied psychology and public health at the open university so the delivery was very different as a self-directed degree.

March was soon upon us and welcome week arrived. The first day the nerves hit. Those butterflies in your tummy like your first day of school again. Yet the university were so welcoming. You knew exactly where to go and we all sat to have our warm welcome to university. The week went in a blur. There was so much to take in and it was made enjoyable, from a vicar who sang us a memorable song to get over university blues right through to services to access for support and the layout of our year. At the beginning of my course I did personally need to access support and the support services were incredible. We all felt greatly informed during our welcome week and so grateful to be studying at staffs.

We soon made good connections and warmed to our peers and we felt that we had brilliant welcome to the university. After our first week we were looking forward to lectures and getting in to our course content. Lecturers were approachable and understanding and above all the are eager for interaction which I think plays an important part to study. Every day is different and the content is always well delivered to us. We have excellent IT facilities and support readily available which is of great use and even better we have the most fabulous cafe when we are work free and need to get that much needed hot chocolate. There are rooms to book for private study and that important assignment planning.

Personally speaking I can’t rate the university highly enough. Everyone wants you to succeed and helps you along the way be this emotionally and clinically. There is always a smile to greet you and a humour alongside the serious nature to our work. I look forward to a fantastic three years ahead in my mental health nursing degree and I’ve even felt inspired to do my masters. I feel a valued member of the university and I am so very glad I chose staffs. I will certainly be recommending.

Published by Lisa Beeston, Senior Lecture, Department of Nursing: L.Curtis@staffs.ac.uk

Paramedic Science provision at the Blackheath Lane Centre of Excellence can boast the use of two new bespoke clinical skills labs and an array of equipment with which students can gain invaluable hands-on practice.

In addition to these facilities however, our paramedic students are given the opportunity to further their skills within problem-based scenarios in a variety of additional facilities/locations. This is important for Paramedic Science, which is unique in relation to the unpredictability of the pre-hospital working environment that students will eventually enter, and the levels of autonomy which will be expected of them almost immediately after qualifying. Whilst half or the course is dedicated to clinical mentorship in practice, it is still vital for students to learn in an environment which reflects the work-place and in which they can make mistakes which will not potentially cause harm to patients (Lateef, 2010; QAA, 2016).

In support of this, Staffordshire University has its very own fully-kitted training ambulance which allows students to experience arriving at an ‘emergency incident’; selecting which equipment they think they will need (based on limited information); assessing and treating a mock ‘patient’; considering how they will transport the ‘patient’ from the scene (whilst maintaining essential treatment); and maintaining care in the back of an ambulance.

We also have the use of our own fully furnished house at the Leek Road campus within which to conduct realistic scenarios. This house is fitted with audio and video recording equipment (accessed and viewed via an upstairs control-room), which allows the teaching staff – and fellow students – to provide very detailed feedback on scenarios.

A casualty extrication exercise is conduced at Staffordshire Fire Service HQ, where students are given the opportunity to learn how to triage and treat alongside Fire Service and Police trainees.

Students are also taken to the custom built Safeside at Eastside ‘village’ site at the West Midlands Fire Service HQ. This site boasts a furnished three bedroom house, a train, train tracks, a police station, a shop, a bus, a canal and a traffic crossing – allowing for the staging of an extensive range of extremely realistic scenarios.

The additional facilities/locations that our students experience assists with the ‘suspension of disbelief’ during simulation training, and greater immersion within the learning environment; an element which is considered to be important for healthcare clinical education (Muckler, 2017).

Lateef, F. (2010) Simulation-based learning: just like the real thing. J. Emergency Trauma Shock. 3(4) p.348-352

Muckler, V.C. (2017) Exploring Suspension of Disbelief during Simulation-Based Learning. Clinical Simulation in Nursing. 13(1). p.3-9

Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) (2016) Subject Benchmark Statement: Paramedics. Gloucester: QAA

Mark Garratt, Paramedic Senior Lecturer, Department of Midwifery and Allied Health Mark.Garratt@staffs.ac.uk

• CertMAP delivered online through a partnership with Staffordshire university and the Institute of Money Advisors (IMA)
• 150 hours of study over a 12 week period.
• To pass CertMAP you need to score 70% in the end of course exam.
• This is to ensure those that do pass have the expertise necessary for the role of a caseworker/specialist levels.
• CertMAP is a Higher Education qualification at level 4 (first year degree equivalent.)
• Students do benefit from tutor support provided by the university.

The entry requirements are:

• 1 year current full-time experience in a money advice role (or part-time equivalent) OR
• 2 years previous full-time experience in money advice (or part-time equivalent) OR
• Any other relevant experience that we will consider on a case by case basis

To study CertMAP, you MUST be a member of the IMA with membership fees paid up to date. Find out more about membership and benefits by clicking here: http://www.i-m-a.org.uk/membership/

Over 1,200 money advisers have obtained CertMAP, which is accredited by the Money Advice Service (MAS) to caseworker/specialist level. MAS is the principal funder in the free money advice sector and also accredits the services it funds. Recognition from MAS means that CertMAP plays a key role in assuring quality of advice across the sector. Many organisations state CertMAP is an essential or desirable qualification in job recruitment.

As the Award Leader, CertMAP, I wanted to blog information about this course. I also want to wish Cohort 23 the very best with their CertMAP on Saturday 29^th April 2017.

Watch out for the latest blog / twitter from the IMA Conference on Monday 15^th May 2017 in Bristol.

Good Luck Everyone

Maqsoodah Ashraf, Lecturer, Department of Social Work and Social Welfare Maqsoodah.Ashraf@staffs.ac.uk

As Head of Midwifery and Allied Health Professions, yesterday I found myself talking to my staff about the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), through which universities will be given a rating of Gold, Silver, or Bronze.

Ratings are part of everyday life and we hear about them in relation to schools and hospitals, as well as credit ratings for ourselves, so now universities will join the system in rating teaching quality; obviously we want to be Gold.

Reflecting on the type of teaching and learning activities that the staff are engaged with each day I assume that we are already excellent. All staff hold accreditation with the Higher Education Academy as Fellow or Senior Fellow, 5 members of staff are applying for the Teaching Excellence Fellowship, and one member of staff has been shortlisted for the Student Union awards ‘Lecturer I would Get Out of Bed For’ and ‘Student experience Award 2016’. All courses receive over 90% in the ‘teaching on my course’ category of the National Student Survey.

The teaching activities vary considerably depending upon the subject that is being delivered. Students are sometimes engaged in large lectures with all of their cohort, sometimes they are in small groups of 8-10 learning specific clinical skills and sometimes there are individual tutorials to discuss assessments and general progression issues. Regardless of the type of activity that is being undertaken at any one time, staff continue to engage the students in apt and innovative ways, the use of whiteboard video animations to explore physiology; interactive PDF’s to assist clinical decision making and 3D models to explain complex bodily functions.

Do staff regurgitate lectures time after time? NO! Staff constantly stretch themselves to ensure students get the best experience they can, teaching & learning is seen a mutual responsibility, through negotiation and understanding students achieve their optimum potential. Staff learn from students as much as students learn from staff and if we do not heed the lessons from students we need to question whether we are in the right job.

Jo Carruthers, Head of Midwifery and Allied Health Professions J.Carruthers@staffs.ac.uk

I am the course leader on the Social Welfare Law, Policy and Advice Practice degree here at Staffordshire University. We are the only university in the UK which delivers a degree of this nature. If you want a career working with vulnerable people and have a passion for social justice then check out our course page on the Staffordshire University website and these pieces that I have written for The Guardian and Adviser magazine give a good flavour of the type of issues that we explore on our course.

Of course the most important people at our university are our fantastic students. Our final year students are busy finishing their assignments and projects before embarking on a range of exciting careers (our graduates work in a wide range of settings such as Housing Associations, Local Government and large community sector organisations such as Shelter, MIND and Citizens Advice).

This week I sat down with one of our students Phil Tweats. Phil will be graduating in the summer and I talked to him about his experiences of studying with us over the last three years. As we were finishing our conversation I asked Phil if he could sum up what it has been like to study at Staffordshire University. His response ‘It’s a roller-coaster ride but what a ride’ seemed to me to be a brilliant way of summarising student life. Being a student is exciting and fun, you will meet lots of interesting new people and learn new skills that you can take forward for the rest of your lives. Of course there are also challenges to being a student – we want to stretch students to think about things in new ways and to push them to reach their potential. At this time of year there is the stress of submitting lots of assignments. I’m sure that every student at some point in their academic journey thinks ‘I can’t do this’ or ‘this is too hard’ (I know that I did!), but with the excellent support that is available at Staffordshire University we are with students on every step of the journey. Getting a degree isn’t easy but it wouldn’t mean much if that were the case.

Phil talked to me about being the first member of his family to attend university and how it is important that there is a high quality university here in Stoke. He described the conversations that he had with long-term work colleagues who were surprised that he wanted to study at university (Phil is a mature student) and how he explained to them that it is something important that he wanted to do for himself.  He talked about how time management and preparation is key to be a success at university and the pride he felt when he achieved his first ‘first class’ mark on an assignment. He reflected that university has had a significant impact on him on a personal level:

‘I have changed as a person, I have become more tolerant and patient, you become more empathetic to other people, you sit you listen and you learn.’

And Phil’s advice to those who are thinking of studying at Staffordshire University:

‘Just do it. Yes it is hard work you do make a lot of sacrifices but in terms of what you get back – knowledge, experience, new friends its priceless’.

Why not join us for the ride this September?

Twitter: @RMachinStaffs

Email: Richard.machin@staffs.ac.uk

Sensory impairment is known to be associated with a range of psychosocial issues, such as loss, quality of life, identity and independence, all of which are of concern to social work. Despite this, Luey (1994) observes that work in this field has been somewhat marginalised by the profession, both in practice and academia. Deafblindness in particular has received little attention in social work and research on the experience of dual sensory loss is still very much in its infancy (Dammeyer, 2015). However, in England, the Care Act 2014 and its accompanying Regulations and Statutory Guidance have placed new duties on Local Authorities in assessing and responding to the needs of deafblind people. In response to these new responsibilities, I was delighted to host a ‘Deafblindness Day’ for the Level 4 BA (Hons) Social Work students as part of their ‘Readiness for Supervised Practice’ Module; we were also very fortunate to be joined by three experts by experience: Ann, who has Usher Type II, Lilias, who is the mother of deafblind son with additional needs, and Molly Watt, who has Usher Type II. The day started with an overview of the emerging findings from my PhD research on vulnerability amongst deafblind people (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26733322 ), and was followed by three excellent presentations from our guest speakers. Ann described her experiences of ageing with dual sensory loss, the daily challenges, her voluntary work with Sense’s Legal Team and her desire not to have social work intervention…. at the moment! Lilias gave a moving account of her son’s development and achievements, which challenged the predictions of professionals. She also offered the students an insight into why certain social workers had been better than others. Our final speaker, Molly (accompanied by her guide-dog Unis) explained the challenges she experienced at University as a deafblind student, her passion in raising awareness about deafblindness/Usher Syndrome, and her use of a range of technology in supporting her day to day life and role as Deafblind International Ambassador and motivational speaker. Further information about Molly’s work and charity, The Molly Watt Trust can be found here: http://www.molly-watt-trust.org/ . Feedback from the day was really positive, with students describing it as ‘Amazing’, ‘The best session on the module so far’, and ‘The session that will always stay with me’. I’m hopeful that the next generation of social workers will respond positively to the challenges faced by those with sensory impairments; the day might even have inspired some to specialise in the field!

References:

Dammeyer, J. (2015) ‘Deafblindness and Dual Sensory Loss Research: Current Status and Future Directions’ World Journal of Otorhinolaryngology. 5(2): 37-40.

Luey, H. (1994) ‘Sensory Loss: A neglected issue in Social Work’ Journal of Gerontological Social Work. 21 (3-4): 213-224.

Peter Simcock, Senior Lecturer in Social Work P.Simcock@staffs.ac.uk

As part of Student Health Week students at the Centre of Excellence – Stafford have been taking part in the ‘Step Challenge’ (as many steps as possible in 60 seconds whilst holding 20kg of weight) and the 100m rowing challenge.  All students are invited to get a free health MOT whilst they attempt to top the leader board.

Even the staff got involved, with what must be near-record breaking times on the rowing challenge.  Full leader board stats to follow at the end of the week!!!

You might wonder why a midwifery educationalist has chosen to blog about a subject that at face value appears to contradict the very purpose of midwifery – to help bring life into the world. My blog is about the control (or lack of it) American women have on their reproductive system. A university is the very place where we should be arguing and exploring philosophical viewpoints or as Newman (1852) eloquently describes it as a place in which ‘the intellect may safely range and speculate, sure to find its equal in some antagonistic activity, and its judge in the tribunal of truth’ .

In January, a seemingly innocuous picture went viral – it depicted a group of men witnessing President Trump sign a ban on funding for international groups on abortion (without one woman being present). Although this action does not directly affect women in USA, it could be argued that it represents a subtle misogyny which is starting to pervade the country.

In Oklahoma, women (or ‘hosts’ as described by the Committee) wishing to have a termination, will have to name the father and have his written consent if a bill is approved later this year.   More recently, the Texas Senate passed a law which ostensibly is designed to protect doctors from litigation if they fail to tell women about a fetal deformity – critics have argued that it gives pro-life doctors an opportunity to avoid providing the information if they feel that the woman might terminate the pregnancy.

So, why is this a problem? First and foremost, procreation affects women a lot more than men – their role (from a biological perspective) is completed within minutes, whereas the impact is a lot longer for women. In the USA, women are entitled to 12 weeks unpaid maternity leave (however, there are a number of limitations which means that a lot cannot even take advantage of this). American women are already poorer than their male counterparts: the gender pay gap currently stands at 20% (it is worse for certain ethnic groups and in some states), this means that women are further economically disadvantaged. One in ten Americans lack adequate health insurance, although this is a reduction since Obama’s Affordable Care Act (which is likely to be repealed under Trump) and there are very few options for pregnant women without health care insurance. Interestingly, it depends on the State whether the father is required to contribute to maternity fees. Unlike the rest of the world, the maternal mortality rate is rising (28 per 100,000 maternities) and this will be worse if women try to procure illicit abortions. The risks to women are not just death, pregnancy takes its toll on the body and a woman who is forced to ‘host’ a pregnancy that she does not want, could also have to contend with significant morbidity without access to health services. And as for the child? What are the implications for an unwanted baby born into a family in poverty?

This very brief foray into global health does affect midwives: the name means ‘with woman’ and part of this is understanding the impact of male dominated policies on female health. It is not a blog about pro-life or pro-choice but one about the ethics of self-determination. As an academic, I have a duty to challenge, to speculate and to antagonise and it is essential that all health students recognise political determinants of health to ensure that the UK does not fail women in the same way.

Traci Hudson, Senior Lecturer and Lead Midwife for Education Traci.Hudson@staffs.ac.uk