Sarah-Jayne Woodman, Cornwall College
Switching from full-time nursing during covid to four days a week teaching in Cornwall College this January and then powering through a teaching qualification in just five months takes some doing, but Sarah-Jayne Woodman seems unfazed by the changes. Having spent 12 years as a nurse starting in an accident and emergency department and then moving into social care and specialising in working with dementia patients, Sarah shows a deep passion for her work that should inspire many to follow her lead in a sector desperately in need of more nurses - and teachers to train them.
Why and how did you get into nursing and social care?
I’ve always wanted to be a nurse ever since reading Nurse Nancy stories in a magazine as a young child. After GCSEs, I did a two-year level 3 BTec in health and social care (H&SC) at Cornwall College and then a three-year nursing degree at the University of Plymouth. I began full-time work in Truro’s Royal Cornwall Hospital’s A&E department, before moving to community hospitals as a junior sister. For the past seven years, I’ve worked as a nurse in social care for Cornwall Care, a charity that runs 16 care homes and has specialised in working with elderly people, particularly those suffering from severe complex dementia. Many patients, often with the army or navy backgrounds, are still quite young and fit and yet have often had to be sectioned for very challenging behaviour; there are sadly very few long-term placements able to take them.
My employer had partnered my college to run a student assistant practitioner level 5 training programme in clinical skills - just below the nursing level - to help offset the current massive shortage in nurses; they wanted practising nurses as teachers. With a young family. I have so far been working four days a week in college. This term the college has also asked me to teach 16- to 19-year-olds doing a level 3 H&SC BTec - a new age group for me as I have been delivering adult classes since January. I will continue to work one day a month as an agency nurse to keep my hand in.
How was the transition?
It was a massive move, particularly as I’ve been working as a nurse throughout the pandemic. I was in a senior role as regional clinical manager at my company, helping deliver a training programme for very often long-serving assistant practitioners who had not had an opportunity to get a qualification. So when approached about the college job, I was really excited and passionate about doing it for them.
What’s your main role?
As a study programme manager in H&SC and a nurse assessor (I’m completing my assessor qualification later this year), I teach 16-19s on a level 3 BTec and adult learners on a level 5 assistant practitioner programme. I am also starting a programme at levels 2 and 3 for practising assistant practitioners seeking a qualification to move on to, say, nursing or paramedic careers.
What’s a typical day?
I start at around 8 am, catching up with team members in the office and hopefully getting all lesson plans in place. The teaching starts at 9 am. We teach in blocks from 9-12.15 pm and 1.15 to 4.30 pm plus breaks. I try to fix on one subject area at any one time and relate it back to actual practice with examples I’ve experienced as a nurse. Numbers will be greater from this September but up until now, I have worked with some 24 students across a range of different lessons. I regularly invite physiotherapists and other members of the multi-disciplinary team in to talk about care (such as the end of life and specialised dementia care).
How have you coped with covid?
Microsoft Teams has worked really well and helped keep our students’ online attendance up to 98% despite the inconvenience of shift work. We have kept staff limited to specific areas to avoid cross-infection. We did struggle with masks worn by dementia residents as they watch your face to help them communicate. But as a result of our tight testing and isolation regime, we haven’t suffered from covid in the way some institutions have.
What do you teach?
We look at life stages, care boundaries and what it means to be an assistant care worker working with children and adolescents, and we have a strong focus on psychology and sociology. In general discussion, we often talk about how H&SC has changed in the past 20 years. One example is our increasingly ageing population, which means we have to fit our practice to our patients’ needs - not make patients conform to our methods. For care is not institutionalised - we have to think far more outside the box for each individual. The care home is their community, and their room is their home; it needs to be decorated right with their belongings. If an individual would like to stay In bed all day and get up in the evening, that’s fine. This is where social care is able to meet the long-term needs of individuals as opposed to acute care. We provide care 24 hours a day and we should be there to meet the needs of every individual.
What do you like teaching most?
Putting across care values because they sum up what care nursing is all about; anatomy and physiology (my favourite academic subjects); and what to do when some things go wrong. It’s teaching people to expect the unexpected.
Any specific tasks completed recently?
We have a great rapport with Cornwall Care (conveniently sited next door to us) which recently demonstrated to our students what it’s like being hoisted into a bath and why it’s so important to support and reassure patients. We are currently getting ready for post-16 school-leavers starting in September, so we’re arranging lots of welcome events and evening presentations.
Key challenges of the job so far?
I come from a very supportive family background so it’s been eye-opening to realise just how much pastoral support students often need in college. I’ve been helped by an amazing educational pastoral officer and safeguarding team, who quite often run tutorials with us on various issues.
Any achievements you are particularly proud of?
Getting through the pandemic as a nurse, then joining the college during lockdown where I rapidly completed my level 3 teacher training Award in Education and Training (AET) within five months of joining.
What personal skills and qualities do you need?
Flexibility and thinking outside the box. An ability to weave into your lessons practical examples from your experience to explain why certain decisions are made and how you have adapted to meet people’s needs, particularly in cases of severe dementia. H&SC is not just normal nursing where patients meet certain criteria - we have to ensure our practice is right for them. You also need to be patient, caring and passionate and be a good reader of what might be going on in a patient’s mind, always getting people to talk to you and say if they are ok or not. Regular banter and a sense of humour help here!
Background/training/qualifications?
You need a nursing qualification and then several years’ experience. Your college employer will then normally expect you to do an in-house level 3 AET followed by an assessor’s qualification. You really need to have worked in an H&SC environment to teach the subject and thus relate it back to practice.
Any advice for wannabe lecturers?
When I completed my level 3 teacher training qualification, we had one amazing professor teach us. On some subjects like verification of death he’d go almost completely off tangent, but if any of us asked something about, say, septic shock, he’d shoot back: “Right, so tell us what do you know about septic shock?” It made me feel uncomfortable as I was put right on the spot but I learnt so much from his lessons . . . it taught me not to feel I had to fill any silences in a lesson but to let people work things out for themselves.
Key interview questions to a potential H&SC lecturer?
What is your favourite clinical experience or one that has stayed in your mind? And how would you inspire others?
What spurs you on to work each day?
It’s taking up the daily opportunities to inspire my students by passing on my practical experience, ensuring they know the core care values and building up their skills to do the job.