Celebrations with the Allied Health Professions Career Fellows: responding to public health priorities

Celebrations with the Allied Health Professions Career Fellows: responding to public health priorities

The Allied Health Professions (AHP) Careers Fellowship scheme showcased the learning and achievements of the fifth cohort of Fellows on 13 June 2024 as they joined the growing network of alumni.

The scheme is open to all workforce levels of the 14 professions working in health and social care across Scotland. It supports the career development of Fellows across the four pillars of practice:

• Clinical Practice
• Facilitating Learning
• Leadership
• Evidence, Research and Development

Cohort 5 consisted of 19 Fellows, undertaking 14 work-based projects in the practice setting, from seven professions across eight NHS Boards. The cohort of Fellows designed and implemented work-based projects that aligned to public health issues within the health and social care system.

A profile of each Fellow and their project is available from this Sway.

This celebration is now an annual event in the AHP calendar – as an opportunity for Fellows to:

• celebrate achievements
• consolidate learning
• raise awareness across professions, networks and organisations through disseminating their findings

For the first time, this event was held online, enabling access from across Scotland. The Chief Allied Health Professions Officer, Professor Carolyn McDonald was in attendance and took the opportunity to praise the Fellows for their achievements. She invited them to share their work across the UK by submitting case studies to the Royal Society for Public Health.

The new AHP Careers Fellowship Scheme Turas learn site was launched ahead of the event. The site hosts outputs from the Fellowship learning and development programme.

Fellows also shared blogs and vlogs about their experiences in the lead up to the event. In these, the Fellows shared the impact of the Scheme on their development, their team and on people accessing services.

The event was an opportunity for Fellows to share their development, key learning and their work-based projects. And to answer questions and take part in an interactive group activity.

You can find out more about the Fellows’ projects by accessing:

• this collection of abstracts from the fourteen projects
• the Fellows’ project outputs hosted on Turas Learn

The final session involved hearing from mentor Kirsty Farnan, a Principal Radiographer from NHS Tayside, explaining some of the benefits of supporting a Fellow in the practice setting.

Kirsty Farnan, Principal Radiographer from NHS Tayside, said:

“Jenna’s Fellowship opportunity facilitated the education of the whole team. I benefitted as her mentor, Jenna herself benefitted. The experience caused us to move to a culture where everyone shares their learning.

“And, because of the investment in the development of individuals, patient care improved. Investing in team members, ultimately leads to improved patient care.”

You can listen to the presentation on Vimeo.

More information

Visit our AHP Careers Fellowship Scheme Turas learn site

If you have any questions about the AHP Careers Fellowship Scheme, please contact the team at AHP.Fellowships@nes.scot.nhs.uk

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