Seven aspiring leaders in palliative care begin their journey through our new leadership programme
Wednesday 24 July, witnessed the first meeting of a new cohort of learners, focused on becoming Pathfinder Leaders in Palliative Care.
A group of seven aspirational individuals came together to hear more about the programme they are joining in September, to meet each other and to share their expectations, so that those designing the course can get its final shape and content right.
Heather Richardson, co-course lead
As one of the programme leads, I left that meeting truly excited about our forthcoming nine months together.
The participants bring diversity in terms of geography, professional background, context of work and the leadership roles they hold currently.
They are joining for a variety of reasons spanning validation of what they already know, the opportunity to put theoretical knowledge into practice, support to grow into newly acquired director posts, application of previous leadership skills to new opportunities in palliative care and more.
Most had already done some leadership training and could see the complementary nature of this training programme – offering further stretch, personalised development and a new network of people from whom they could learn.
They were warm, engaged, respectful of each other and I can think of no better community that I want to join, in order to rethink together how we build and support leaders fit to drive hospice and palliative care forward in the future.
Our vision for this course is one of optimism. We recognise the many challenges facing individuals, teams, organisations and systems focused on improving the experience of people living, dying and grieving, but we also confident that renewed investment in leadership development for self and others can really make a difference, and one which is very positive in nature.
This programme doesn’t seek to replace those courses already in place within the hospice and palliative care that have already grown leadership capacity significantly.
Instead, it seeks to augment them, further investing in people who have courage and vision to see a new and different future in which they want to play a part.
We reflected during our meeting together on the immense challenges that the pioneers of hospice and palliative care faced some 50 or 60 years ago and how they managed to change the world and society despite them. Like them, we will encourage people to be courageous, to remain committed to improving how people die and grieve and to be resilient.
We know people are time-poor in relation to learning so our approach is highly flexible, realistic for busy professionals and inspired by the expertise and achievement of many leaders already flourishing within the hospice and palliative sector and beyond.
We have a few more places available for the course, so if you are interested we encourage you to get in touch with education@stchristophers.org.uk as a matter of priority. Other dates are available to meet the team later in August for participants who couldn’t attend this week or those still in the process of on-boarding.
For more information about the course, visit our webpage – Pathfinder Leaders in Palliative Care Programme, 17 September.
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