The University of Ulster will host the inaugural International Symposium on Person-Centredness in Nursing Education at Jordanstown this week.
Organised by the School of Nursing, the one and a half day event will include presentations and workshops aimed at those involved in nursing education in academic and practice settings.
A person-centred approach to nursing focuses on creating a culture of compassionate care, whereby the individual’s personal needs, wants, desires and goals are central to the care and nursing process.
The key themes of the symposium are; to explore ways of infusing a culture of person-centredness through effective, contemporary higher education, to share innovative approaches to the facilitation of person-centredness in practice learning and to reflect upon how the experiences of teaching teams and service users and to consider how these can shape educational approaches and teaching strategies.
With a strong tradition of national and international leadership in the field of person-centred practice, the School of Nursing has been developing a programme of work with a focus on person-centredness in nursing education.
The Institute of Nursing and Health Research at Ulster also incorporates the Person-Centred Practice Research Centre directed by Professor Brendan McCormack.
The high quality of nursing education at the University of Ulster was recognised recently by the Nursing and Midwifery Council, whose 2011-12 monitoring results showed Ulster was one of two approved education institutions to get an 'outstanding' grading for practice learning and one of five institutions to get 'outstanding' in any of the five areas monitored.
The Institute of Nursing and Health Research also has a high reputation in the fields of nursing, midwifery and public health as was seen in the last Research Assessment Exercise, where Ulster was among the Premier League of UK Universities, finishing within the top three for 4* research.
Professor McCormack said: “It is our contention that in order to achieve maximum effect in practice, person-centredness should be embedded within and across all programmes of education for health care professionals. This symposium is the first of its kind internationally to address this issue.”
Deirdre McNamee, Associate Head of the School of Nursing, added: “A body of evidence exists to support the impact of person-centred practice in the promotion of high quality care outcomes.
“This symposium provides an opportunity to explore how education helps to achieve these outcomes. Nursing at Ulster is leading the way in this work and this symposium profiles this work we are doing in partnership with colleagues internationally.”
The inaugural International Symposium on Person-Centredness in Nursing Education takes place at the University of Ulster’s Jordanstown campus on Thursday 2 – Friday 3 May 2013.
For further information contact: Deirdre McNamee, Associate Head of the School of Nursing, at: d.mcnamee@ulster.ac.uk .
