Nursing

Guy’s and St Thomas’ Nursing Visiting Professional Programme provides international clinicians the opportunity to experience NHS nursing alongside many award winning nurses.

Introduction

The nursing programme was started as it is recognised that as a large teaching hospital in the centre of London, Guy’s and St Thomas’ has a lot to offer in relation to clinical expertise. The Trust has acclaimed international success through patient care campaigns, including a recent campaign on care for patients with dementia, and is home to several award winning nurses. The visiting professional programme is a great way to share our learning and expertise with others.


Programme aims

The nursing programme has been devised so that visiting professionals can experience the full authentic experience of Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust. There are many unique offerings and benefits that attending the nursing programme can provide. 

These include: 


Format

The nursing programme is delivered by the Nightingale Academy. Mornings are usually based in our Education centre, where lectures, discussions, simulation and action learning is facilitated. The afternoons are spent in clinical areas, working alongside our teams, observing clinical practice and attending relevant meetings. It is an observational programme, we will endeavour to align visiting nurses with a mentor from within the clinical environments that they have pre-chosen. The mentor will ensure the VPP’s learning and development needs and expectations are met. There is a wide selection of departments to be placed within, so we ask that any visitors inform us of their specific areas of interest well before the come, to ensure we can provide it. Each Friday, visitors spend time with our Senior Nurses and attend our clinical review and safety briefing and innovation discussions.


Who can apply

The nursing programme is aimed at registered nurses and midwives currently working outside of the UK, who wish to broaden their knowledge of health care and gain insight into nursing in the NHS. Experience of working in a hospital environment is not essential but would be an advantage for those attending. Our Bespoke Leadership VPP, is aimed at Senior Nurses wishing to expand their knowledge and skills in all aspects of healthcare leadership.


Programme duration

The nursing placements that we offer normally run for two weeks, but they can run between two weeks and eight weeks. This is to enable a comprehensive experience and an opportunity to learn about what it is like to work as a registered nurse or midwife at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust.


The Nightingale Academy

St. Thomas’ Hospital was the birthplace of modern nursing, where Florence Nightingale opened her first School of Nursing, defining the profession and pushing forward the boundaries of nursing practice. To build upon her legacy and to continue to embody her values, the Nightingale Academy was established in 2017. The academy provides the framework to achieve our ambitious strategy for Nurses and Midwives at Guys and ST Thomas’. 

Our 2020 goal is to have a national and international reputation for providing and leading in evidence based care, delivered with kindness, to each individual and those they care about. Our Nurses and Midwives will: 

Nursing leaders at the Trust embody Florence Nightingale’s values of kindness and compassion, partnered with a commitment to evidenced based and skilled nursing care to our patients. We are passionate and committed to developing nursing practice and the profession. The workforce are empowered to lead nursing and midwifery practice forward by innovation, evaluation and research, putting patients first and providing the best care and services. 

There are 3 hubs in the academy:

The Workforce Hub ensures staff are safe, skilled and fit for providing healthcare, leading on recruitment and retention initiatives.

The Practice Innovation Hub ensures that care is evidence based and reduces variation with our Nightingale Programme, whilst leading in advanced and specialist practice, in all areas across the trust.

The Education and Research Hub leads our award to recognise our outstanding Nurses and Midwives, the Nightingale Nurse Award and established Clinical Academies. These academies build clinical communities and reward team commitment, learning and development. We work with two universities to provide the best in educational, simulation and clinical practice learning.

Available departments

The Visiting Professional Programme has been designed by the Chief Nurses Office to ensure that those visiting Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust gain the most from their experience. This is why we ask those wishing to visit to specify which departments they are interested in observing. 

The following departments have available spaces for visiting professionals: 


Example Timetable

Monday morning

  • Welcome Meeting (Commercial)/Library Access / OH sign off and HR contracts 

Monday afternoon

  • Lunch with Faculty 
  • Tour of St. Thomas Hospital 
  • Florence Nightingale Museum Tour

Tuesday morning

  • Welcome to GSTT 
  • Objectives for the course/ facilitated development discussion 
  • Leadership in the UK and at GSTT: Leading with care – different types of leadership styles

Tuesday afternoon

  • MDM/ward round/shadow

Wednesday morning

  • Our values: Strive to be the best 
  • How nursing has developed over the 70 years of the NHS 
  • Career pathways in nursing: examples from across the profession 
  • Current challenges in the nursing workforce

Wednesday afternoon

  • MDM/ward round/shadow

Thursday morning

  • Evelina Senior Nurses meeting The value of working with others to improve care for patients

Thursday afternoon

  • MDM/ward round/shadow

Friday morning

  • Our values: Take pride in what we do
  • Reducing variation and consistency in practice Nurse led services – where nurses are leading in clinical care and impact

Friday afternoon

  • Feedback session
  • Weekly trust wide senior nurses meeting – Safe in our hands

Monday morning

  • Our values: Respect others Resilience and Wellbeing Supportive clinical environment, how to have effective conversations Speaking up

Monday afternoon

  • Lunch with Faculty 
  • Tour of St. Thomas Hospital 
  • Florence Nightingale Museum Tour

Tuesday morning

  • Our values: Act with integrity 
  • How do leaders share their vision and inspire a shared purpose and common goal
  • How do we provide assurance that our patients are safe and receiving the best care

Tuesday afternoon

  • MDM/ward round/shadow

Wednesday morning

  • Nightingale Academy Conference

Wednesday afternoon

  • Nightingale Academy Conference

Thursday morning

  • Our values: Put patients first Patient experience and involvement Complaints and investigations – Duty of Candour Safeguarding – looking after the most vulnerable of our patients

Thursday afternoon

  • MDM/ward round/shadow

Friday morning

  • MDM/ward round/shadow

Friday afternoon

  • Feedback session 
  • Reflection & Evaluation SIOH Close of Programme

Fees

A course fee per week will be applied; this fee excludes accommodation and travelling expenses. To find out the fee amount please email vpp@gstt.nhs.uk


Please note

Clinicians are able to offer bursaries or discounted placements on an individual basis. This is at the discretion of the Directorates of GSTT and does not affect the terms and conditions of the Visiting Professional Programme agreements.

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Visiting Professional Programme attendee

Fruitful experience. I can learn more about of the nurse clinic for the SLIT and SCIT patient. Also, from the food allergy clinic, food and drug challenge, drug allergy clinic as well

Doctor from China