A process evaluation of the first year of Leading Change, Adding Value.

BACKGROUND: Leading Change, Adding Value (LCAV) is a national framework to support transformational change across health and social care. DESIGN: a qualitative approach of semi-structured interviews was used to capture information on how LCAV has been disseminated in its early stages from the perspective of key stakeholders and partners. This also included looking at how it might be embedded into everyday practice. METHODS: data collection took place over a 3-month period between January and March 2017. Twenty semi-structured telephone interviews were conducted with key LCAV partners and stakeholders from across health and social care. Perceptions were sought as to how LCAV has been, and may be, used by frontline staff following initial dissemination and any potential barriers and enablers to taking the framework forward. RESULTS: a thematic framework analysis of data identified a three-theme paradigm to evaluate LCAV: past-where has this come from? Present-where is it now? Future-where is this going?. CONCLUSION: a programme of dissemination events and examples of good practice in the form of case studies have been valuable tools to engage nursing, midwifery and care staff across health and social care. Continuing to establish networks of frontline staff engaging with LCAV and supporting each other will help facilitate best practice sharing, and multi-professional and cross-boundary working.

Experiences of problem-based learning: issues for community specialist practitioner students.

In this paper, the findings from a descriptive study exploring community practitioner students' experiences of Problem-Based Learning are presented. The study was completed as part of an extended evaluation of a core module included in a post-registration community specialist practitioner programme. Data were collected via a self-completion questionnaire. The findings identify issues relating to the learning process and its influence on the knowledge gained. They illustrate that whilst the journey taken to acquire new knowledge had been difficult for students, they had benefited from the opportunity to learn with others. The findings from this small survey are discussed in conjunction with experiential learning theory and the particular needs of students being prepared for specialist practitioner roles in the community setting where collaborative practices are increasingly understood as essential for quality care.