As with most weeks (especially ones that turn into fortnights!), this one has just gone too quickly! I’ve been so busy with work and looking after my grandson, I’ve barely had time to think, let alone write about anything, but here I am at last.
Last week I was back down in London again to teach my basic course. After the success of the previous weeks training, I was really excited about this course. Despite the fact I love teaching, I sometimes find the travelling difficult, and the novelty of staying in hotels soon wears off.
But that aside, I love what I do, and I wasn’t disappointed with the course. The learners were enthusiastic, excited to be learning about phlebotomy, and they all absorbed every bit of information I gave them. And to me that’s what teaching is about – there’s nothing nicer than passing on something you know, especially to someone so eager to take in whatever you’re teaching. It sounds cliched, but for me as a teacher, there’s nothing nicer than seeing my students do well, and knowing that they’re going on to be brilliant phlebotomists.
Last Sunday (20th) saw myself and Andrew head to York (just a short journey!) to teach the advanced course, and we had a great day. The advanced course covers a range of things that the basic course doesn’t – we get into cannulation, using a butterfly needle, and taking bloods from the hand, amongst other things!
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday last week saw me train up two new tutors Noura and Adam, and get all of my staff get together for a couple of training days. I like to get everyone together every six months or so to go over what they already know, make sure they’re comfortable with what they’re doing when they are teaching or assisting with the technical side of things, and just to make sure that they’re all happy with their work.
Looking after my staff is just as important to me as ensuring I send the best phlebotomists out into the world. As well as that though, a huge part of our accreditation with the Open College Network is ensuring that all of our training is standardised and our regular meetings mean that we keep those protocols of standardisation fresh in our minds, so we can all teach the same course to the same high level.
Our USP is the fact that we are accredited by an educational body. When I initally applied for the accreditation from the OCN, I knew that standardisation was important, but it wasn’t such an issue when I was a one man band. I knew that I taught every course exactly the same, every time I did it. But as I began to take on more tutors, it became more imperative to have a structured, formalised training schedule in place for my staff to make sure that we were giving every student the same tools to enter the workplace.
If you’ve completed our basic course, you’ll know that we ask you all to complete a course evaluation, and this is one of the many tools we use for this training. The evaluation highlights any areas where we, as a team, need to sharpen up our training. I’ve been teaching for years now, but there is always chance to improve, and the evaluations help me to learn as much as they help me to train the tutors.
We’ve also been tweaking the lesson plans recently, and every tutor is now familiar with this, and we’re rolling it out across every single course that we teach. This means that I know every course is taught to the same high standard, and our students know that whichever course they go on, it’s going to be taught to the highest possible standard, and that in turn means that we keep that unique accreditation from the OCN.
On Friday, my husband acted as the auctioneer for a former student of ours who is involved in fundraising for Muscular Dystrophy. There are 10 ‘warriors’ who are climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in September and our former student Justin will be walking 150 miles across the Saharan desert in the ‘Marathon des Sables’ from Thursday. It was lovely watching my husband doing what he’s passionate about, but he’s been struck by a bit of a virus this last week, so he was a bit hoarse! It’s a great cause and it was brilliant to be involved and support one of our former students in such a challenge. If you want to see how you can help, or learn more about the challenges, you can visit www.drjustinroberts.co.uk.
This week holds business as usual, with a well needed weekend at home for myself and most of my tutors. Unusually, there’s just one course running this weekend, but it’s a sell out in London with Sue and Massimo. If you’re going, I hope you have a great time, and good luck! Feel free to let us know at the office how you get on!