European Junior Leadership Academy for Student Nurses Erasmus Project

Project Title

European Junior Leadership Academy for Student Nurses

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Intercultural/intergenerational education and (lifelong)learning; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Open and distance learning

Project Summary

The European Junior Leadership Academy for Student Nurses and Midwives (RELATE) was a 3 year education innovation project that has transformed how gifted nursing/midwifery students are identified and developed. It resulted in development of European educators’ competencies in facilitating and stimulating the development of high performing student leaders through imaginative pedagogy. RELATE aimed to identify nursing and midwifery students demonstrating leadership aptitude early in their career journey and develop their leadership identity, knowledge, attitudes and skills. Nurse educators from different countries were targeted because educating this modern “leaderly” student nurse/midwife, requires highly skilled, educators willing to design deliver and evaluate game–changing pedagogies for leadership development. The team recognised the value of emerging leaders as peer mentors for student nurses so we also identified novice nurses and senior students with well-developed leadership identity and developed their peer mentoring skills. The junior leadership resources generated are openly available for educators anywhere in the world. Objectives were to
•generate a contemporary, shared conception of nurse leadership that integrates a range of cultural and professional values
•develop leadership knowledge, skills and attitudes of student nurses and newly qualified nurses
•to establish active communities of practice for students and newly qualified nurses through blended mobility
•to provide opportunities for nurse educators to collaborate, experience and test innovative teaching methods.
Changes in Europe’s health sector, political landscape and a need for high quality nursing/midwifery care globally require strong clinical leadership. RELATE provided a radical supplement to traditional leadership development in nursing/midwifery programmes by designing a programme that supported high performing student nurses/midwives demonstrating leadership aptitude to construct a leadership identity early. This enables junior leaders to engage in collective and distributed leadership with potential benefit for individuals, health systems, the professions and society. RELATE supported 44 of nursing/midwifery’s most promising leaders to develop their leadership identity, knowledge, attitudes, skills and individual, distinctive and authentic leadership signatures.
RELATE built the competence of European educators’ to facilitate and stimulate the development of student leaders through imaginative pedagogical methods. Inter-cultural, international, inter-sectoral, inter-disciplinary, inter-professional and democratic collaboration were distinguishing and foundational constituents of RELATE which commingled students and staff from UoN-UK, UoM-Slovenia, TCD-Ireland, and ESEL-Portugal. Though just 4 organisations were included in the original bid, nearly 30 additional organisations contributed to achievement of the project outcomes by providing internships, mentors, speakers and intellectual resources. An additional 50 organisations from a further 16 countries benefited from the teams’ learning when over 120- students and 5 staff from European Nursing/Midwifery Schools came together for a Summit of Student Leaders. To deliver the project objectives, an innovative programme of activities and joint training events for staff and students was designed consisting of
•Leadership Festival
•Pedagogical Innovation Event
•Massive Online Open Course
•Pan-European Summit of Student Leaders
European Junior Leadership Academy consisting of
•5 day residential Leadership Retreats I&II
•Allocation of nurse/midwifery leader as mentor
•Completion of a project in regional peer networks
•2 week policy/leadership internship in Ireland, England, Slovenia or Portugal
Participation has enhanced employability and students’ capacity and capability to lead early in the career journey and maximised the early impact they will have in organisations they serve. The results include a collection of assets and pedagogical resources for student nurses, nurse educators, nurses and the public, curated on the RELATE website and electronic noticeboards. RELATE produced resources for a MOOC, Lead Now! a lasting project legacy, to be run in July 2020 to coincide with the Year of the Nurse and Midwife. RELATE’s impact in local, national, regional and international nursing and education communities is wider acceptance of junior leadership as a key talent management strategy. Locally, health and higher education institutions are benefiting from students/newly qualified/emerging leaders increased leadership identity and enhanced ability to initiate change, service and care improvement. Participants’ enhanced IT skills have resulted in more effective communication, networking and collaborations. The long term impact will be better standards of care locally, nationally and regionally and enhanced patient experience, mortality, morbidity and health of local populations.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 263774 Eur

Project Coordinator

THE UNIVERSITY OF NOTTINGHAM & Country: UK

Project Partners

• THE PROVOST, FELLOWS, FOUNDATION SCHOLARS & THE OTHER MEMBERS OF BOARD OF THE COLLEGE OF THE HOLY & UNDIVIDED TRINITY OF QUEEN ELIZABETH NEAR DUBLIN
• UNIVERZA V MARIBORU
• ESCOLA SUPERIOR DE ENFERMAGEM DE LISBOA (ESEL)