My aim was to gain a better understanding of how organisational structure plays a part in wellbeing
Matthew Shaw - Director at CPPE -shares with us his journey to better understand and support feelings of loneliness and isolation across his team.
Here Ciara shares a little about the project and the impact it has had on their team.
Ciara Richardson is an Education Supervisor at the Centre for Pharmacy Postgraduate Education (CPPE). Last year, she and her colleague, Faiza Ali established a virtual cafe to reduce feelings of isolation and support wellbeing across the team.
About the ‘ES Cafe’
Education supervision underpins the CPPE training pathways for primary care pharmacy professionals. Education supervisors’ (ES) roles can be complex and demanding because of the need to balance achievement of educational progress with effective pastoral support for learners as well as the challenges of home-based working.
Education Supervisors anecdotally reported that these factors were having an impact on wellbeing and that they would welcome support. In response, the team set up monthly online peer support sessions (badged the ES Café) that were facilitated by the Education Supervisors themselves.
The ES Café has been running for eighteen months now with education supervisors finding the sessions to be beneficial, notably in the areas of team connectedness, reduced isolation, provision of a safe space and the opportunity to give and receive support. A theme that emerged at one year was the benefit of peer learning on ES’ practice and wellbeing.
