Teaching Innovation of the Year

Brunel University London
Voices project: empathy and AI

The Voices Project is an exciting, well-evaluated, novel and ever-changing programme of both validation and change for a wide range of learners. A nurse-led programme, participants have included Nursing, Policing, OT, Social Work, Psychiatry and Counselling students and staff. Using experienced teaching staff and informed by ChatGPT and both darkened and immersive learning environments, we have focused on how to work flexibly, collaboratively and compassionately with people who are distressed as a result of auditory hallucinations, active suicidal ideation, and post-trauma responses. We have emphasised collaboration, self-discovery, mentalisation, self-awareness and self-development as crucial to effective and empathic care.

Buckinghamshire New University
MediLingo: teaching medical terminology like a language

Nursing students are tasked with mastering circa 6000 medical terms to prepare them for clinical practice. These terms are used daily by professionals to communicate precisely about anatomical structures, processes, conditions, and procedures. While these terms facilitate communication, many are derived from Greek and Latin word parts, which receive limited attention in the curriculum. MediLingo has been developed by a multidisciplinary team to address this shortfall by teaching medical terminology like a language; using an engaging and innovative digital approach to support understanding, spelling, recall, and pronunciation. Our goal is for every nursing student to participate confidently in medical dialogue.

East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust
Pre-registration clinical skills training mobile

Recognising the importance of hands-on training, the ‘Pre-Registration Clinical Skills Training Mobile’ has been created to provide a convenient and accessible solution for delivering clinical skills sessions to students on placements. The fully equipped trolley visits students in various placement units to supplement university-provided trainings and for them to gain more confidence on these skills. This teaching innovation stands as a shining example of a transformative approach to placement learning, earning its place as a revered and effective tool in shaping the future generation of healthcare professionals. Innovation extends beyond technological advancements; it's about inventive solutions that enhance student experiences.

Manchester Metropolitan University
Using the Virtual Reality Cave to deliver a real-life ED scenario

The Manchester Metropolitan University VR CAVE is a unique immersive space which places learners into virtual environments using multiple projection systems onto the walls and floor. These technologies are increasingly being used in the context of simulation offering heightened interactive lessons where learning through experience can improve the rate at which we understand new concepts. Our submission will showcase how the CAVE has been used to enhance learning for students from across the School and Nursing and Public Health by focusing on a ‘real world’ emergency department scenario which allows learners to fail fast in a safe and controlled environment.

Nottingham Trent University
An innovative trauma-informed art-based educational approach using an immersive learning pedagogy

I am proud to nominate this teaching innovation. Nursing is an art and a science and mental health nurses need to be able to work across both areas. Using arts to explore lived experience of trauma had a clear impact on the students ability to consider trauma informed care and why it is so important in mental health nursing practice.

Queen’s University Belfast
Transforming assessment: elevating interprofessional learning with video-based reflections

Queen's University Belfast (QUB) has pioneered Interprofessional Education (IPE) in its nursing curriculum since 2003, consistently leading in implementation and aligning with NMC (2018), GMC (2023), and GPC (2020) standards. Collaborative efforts among nursing, medical, pharmacy educators, e-learning, and digital support officers resulted in QUB's first IPE module, featuring a unique video-based assessment. This reflective video commentary on an IPE activity is submitted via the digital platform, Canvas, aiming to heighten students' awareness of interprofessional working, encourage reflection on learning, and prioritize patient safety. The assessment also integrates crucial digital skills within the healthcare context.

University of Chester
Podcast series: Your First of Everything

‘Your First of Everything’ is a series with limited edition video podcasts. The guests on these podcasts range from student nurses, student midwives, Directors of Nursing, University Lecturers and many other professionals who share their ‘first experiences’ from practice or from higher education. Some of these experiences may be emotionally compelling and others are more light-hearted, with a positive outcome. In evaluation of the podcasts as a teaching tool, identified is the positive impacts this has had on the development of reflective practice and as a resource to support development of preparation for practice for pre-registration learners.

University of Chester
Preparation for practice

The Lecturers in Practice Learning (LPLs), with the Practice Learning Team have devised an innovative programme of support for pre-registration nurses, in their first year of study. This being the Prep-for-Practice Programme. The programme focuses on supporting the development of enhancing a practice learning pedagogy, as a consistent tread, throughout the curriculum. The programme has received extremely positive feedback from participating learner. With evaluation citing positive impact on learner experience and their preparation in undertaking placement.

University of Exeter
Exhibition: challenging assumptions and informing new perspectives

An innovative teaching assessment was created to enrich nursing student curricula and enhance future practice via a summative art exhibition. Nursing students were encouraged to understand and challenge differing perspectives of living with illness, suffering, and dying by experimenting with a range of artistic mediums, literature and historical information. Following rich debate, interdisciplinary discussion and creative experimentation students created individual artistic works on themes such as spirituality, racism, palliative care, and women’s health. Reflections demonstrated that the teaching innovation helped improve empathy and promote holistic care whilst also creating new insights into illness, injustice and nursing practice.

University of Hertfordshire
Compassionate Herts: preparing student nurses for end of life care

Compassionate Herts is an innovative approach to helping 1st year student nurses from all fields of nursing prepare for clinical encounters that involve talking about, supporting or delivering care before, during or after death. It is a collaboration between academic staff, clinical staff, charities and service users to help students reduce preplacement anxiety and fear of the subject death and dying. The Compassionate Herts conference was a poignant, uplifting, reflective and life-affirming event that helped provide a positive foundation from which to continue the students' clinical placement experiences and further field-specific teaching sessions.

University of Hertfordshire
Student and staff partnership: peer mentors supporting learning through simulation

Student–staff partnership in higher education has been gaining momentum due to the positive outcomes to be gained from it. This teaching innovation embodies true student & staff collaboration enriching the skills learning environment for students, peer mentors and academic staff. This project is transferable and an easily tailored model of partnership working. Facilitating simulated practice learning in this way, with peer mentors working alongside academic staff, fosters a shared responsibility for learning, a strong sense of student and faculty community and can be used as a sustainable adaptation to traditional methods of teaching and learning.