Clare Hines – NHS South West

I was pleased to finally have the opportunity to take part in a programme of learning, aimed at the right level, which would enable me to increase and enhance my workforce planning skills.

Opportunities/benefits
I think that the programme has led to both benefits to me personally and to the health community.

The positive things to come out of this programme for me are:

• An opportunity to explore the full extent of workforce planning holistically through the module work
• I have been able to increase my knowledge and skills in areas that I didn’t know were relevant (but are) such as learning theory, organisational learning and the balanced scorecard
• I now have specialist knowledge that can be called upon and used to address the unmet need within the health community.

From a wider perspective, the programme has increased the awareness of workforce planning within the health community as a set of skills to be developed.

Challenges
The programme has been challenging, particularly as it is taking place over eight months alongside a full time job. It has also taken some effort to get back into the swing of carrying out academic work as this is a completely different style of work.

I have also found the learning networks project challenging. It became clear that there were a lot of things to consider such as what could actually be achieved in the time frame, would I be in a position to affect anything at all in April 2007? So, it has remained theory rather than practice.

Has the programme met your expectations?

The programme was not what I was expecting, however I think that this is a good thing. I was expecting more practical use of planning tools instead I have learnt some more useful and relevant skills in workforce planning which enable me to look at the bigger picture.

I plan to continue to champion workforce planning and use the skills I have developed on this programme.

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