Camilla Leach

The impact on the workload of the Ward Manager with the introduction of administrative assistants.

AIM To evaluate the impact on the workload of the Ward Manager (WM) with the introduction of administrative assistants into eight trusts in the South of England in a year-long pilot. BACKGROUND Ward Managers are nurse leaders who are responsible for ward management and delivering expert clinical care to patients. They have traditionally been expected to achieve this role without administrative assistance. Meeting the workload demands of multiple roles and overload has meant the leadership and clinical role has suffered, presenting issues of low morale among existing WMs and issues of recruiting the next generation of WMs. METHOD Sixty qualitative interviews were carried out with 16 WMs, 12 Ward Manager Assistants (WMAs), and six senior nurse executives about the impact of the introduction of the WMA post. Quantitative data to measure change in WM workload and ward activity was supplied by 24 wards. RESULTS Ward Managers reported spending reduced time on administrative tasks and having increased time available to spend on the ward with patients and leading staff. With the introduction of WMAs, there was also improvement in key performance measures (the maintenance of quality under service pressures) and increased staff motivation. CONCLUSIONS There was overwhelming support for the introduction of administrative assistants from participating WMs. The WMAs enabled WMs to spend more time with patients and, more widely, to provide greater support to ward teams. The success of the pilot is reflected in wards working hard to be able to extend contracts of WMAs. The extent of the success is reflected in wards that were not participants in the pilot, observing the benefits of the post, having worked to secure funding to recruit their own WMAs. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT The widespread introduction of administrative assistance could increase ward productivity and provide support for clinical leaders. Continuing professional development for WMs needs to incorporate training about management responsibilities and how to best use administrative support.

Religion and Rationality: Quaker Women and Science Education 1790-1850.

This article examines the work of two Quaker women, Priscilla Wakefield (1750–1832) and Maria Hack (1777–1844) as popularizers of science and in the context of the development of scientific literacy. Both women were writers who specialized in scientific educational texts for children and young adults. As Quakers their community and culture played a significant part in their understanding of, and approach to, the study of science. Hence this article will consider how and why Quakers encouraged scientific education for their children. It will also consider how Quakers, in their support for science, avoided the theological discord that was beginning to arise between religion and science in other Christian denominations.

The application process for general practitioner trainers in United Kingdom deaneries: similarities and differences.

A survey was undertaken of the application and reapplication forms used by all the UK deaneries for general practice (GP) specialty training. The aim of the survey was to identify similarities and differences between deaneries in terms of the content and nature of the information requested, and the relationship of that information to the Postgraduate Medical Education and Training Boards (PMETB) Quality Assurance Framework (QAF). The details requested on the application forms were compared to the guidance set out in Generic Standards for Training, in order to see if they reflected the areas and standards required by the PMETB for the quality assurance of medical education and training. Although many similar areas of information were requested in the application process, great variation was found across some items which were not attributable to regional or contextual differences. The survey also found that the majority of domains of Generic Standards for Training are not well covered in the paper application process. Although deaneries may view their application processes for trainer approval as robust, this paper makes a number of recommendations and argues for the development of a standardised form for the appointment of general practice specialty training (GPST) trainers across the UK, based upon the PMETB QAF.

Teacher training and the public good: the University of Winchester Alumni Project

In this paper data are used from the University of Winchester Alumni oral history project to suggest how the historic culture of the institution, as one of the original church training colleges, founded in the mid‐nineteenth century, might have been transmitted to those who attended it as trainee teachers from the 1930s, the earliest data that are available, to the late 1970s when its courses diversified. Two questions will be posed. The first will ask what might have been distinctive about teacher training at a church college. The second will consider the possible effects of such training on the professional lives of the alumni as teachers, and beyond, in the community more generally. In their analysis of the data the authors utilise Pierre Bourdieu’s key concepts of ‘field’, ‘capital’ and ‘habitus’.

Rulers, rebels and reformers: transnational, religious and gendered perspectives in the history of education

The 2012 History of Education Society Conference was held at the Winchester Hotel, Winchester between 30 November and 2 December. It was organised by a team from the Centre for the History of Women’s Education at the University of Winchester. The theme of the conference was Rulers, Rebels and Reformers, each in their own way central to understanding drivers for change in formal and informal education. Over the three days some 100 delegates were in attendance. They came not only from the United Kingdom and several other European countries but also from Australia, Brazil, India, Israel, Japan, Pakistan, Taiwan and the United States of America. A keynote address was a central feature each day and over the course of the conference a further 65 papers were delivered. The now familiar postgraduate session saw a further eight presentations from postgraduate student delegates. For the first time, a poster session was included on the Saturday during a pre-dinner drinks reception: eight posters were displayed with the designers on hand to answer questions. To give a flavour of the conference, six papers, selected from a large number submitted for consideration, are included in this special issue. Most appropriately the issue opens with the plenary lecture by Dame Janet (Jinty) Nelson: appropriate not only because it was the opening plenary but also because it takes as its subject King Alfred of Wessex, whose association with Winchester as his capital is well known. His name lived on for many years in the former name of the city’s university. The last paper in the issue is the closing plenary by Sian Roberts. Within these six papers three themes, the transnational, religion and gender, emerge that highlight some of the exciting developments in scholarship over the tenure of editorship that finishes with this edition of the journal. Each of these themes also intersects with shifting views of the role of citizenship education. The diversity of topics and the span of years covered by the papers illustrate how overarching theoretical frameworks highlight the role that education plays in bringing about change. In the following discussion we offer some brief reflection on the articles selected for this issue and their contribution to current debates within the history of education. The editorial in 2009, for the joint edition with the Australian and New Zealand History of Education Society, identified the significance of transnational flows

‘Becoming their most Intimate Scrutinizers’: collecting women’s lives

Taylor and Francis RWHR_A_444821.sgm 10.1080/09612020903444601 Women’s History Review 0961-2 25 (pri t)/1747-583X (online) Original rt cle 2 10 & Francis 0 00Feb uary 010 Andre Jacob .Jacobs@winch ster.ac.uk The theme of the 2007 Women’s History Network conference, ‘Collecting Women’s Lives’, was interpreted by participants in various ways to demonstrate how as ‘collectors’ we become, in Jo Stanley’s words, ‘the most intimate scrutinizers’ of our subjects. 1 The art installation by Alex Hoare, artist in residence, 2 during the conference, collaged film, sound and image to interweave the traces of the women ‘collected’ by participants with images of their ‘collectors’ in the present. Alex describes her installation as follows:

Learning lives and alumni voices

Changes in governmental financial support are causing many would‐be students to question the value of higher education or to consider attending a local university. Oral history testimonies provide a source for understanding the role that living, as well as working, within an academic community plays in the learning lives of its alumni. An understanding of the cultural and social space provided by an institution offers an insight into how time spent in higher education remains integral to long‐term learning lives, often articulated as marking a ‘watershed’ or inspiration. Interviews for the University of Winchester Alumni Voices project invited alumni and retired staff to reflect on the process of learning generated by their time at Winchester (previously King Alfred’s College). At the article’s core is the significance of oral history narratives to the social history of learners and learning. We discuss how we have developed voice relational analysis in order to interrogate the transformative impact of learning on individuals’ sense of self. The richness of the data from a small scale research project and the increasing sophistication of oral history methodology demonstrate the relatively untapped potential that histories of higher education hold for understanding individual learning lives.