Professor Michael West, CBE

Background

Foundation doctors have higher levels of burnout than any other training grade. However, doctors are at their most compassionate the closer they are to medical school. Additionally, the recent changes in the Foundation curriculum place compassion and leadership at the heart of Foundation Training.

The Compassionate Leadership course was initially developed for Foundation doctors at the request of Professor Paul Baker, HEE NW Deputy Dean of Medical Foundation Training, in collaboration with Lancaster University. Dr Alison Sykes, Director of Medical Education at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS FT, and Mr. Mike Pezet, Professional Executive Coach, Solutions Focused Coaching, created the course based on Professor Michael West’s work on Compassionate Leadership and Dr Kristin Neff’s work on self‐compassion.

The course

The course aims to provide learners with an opportunity to reflect on their practice and working relationships through a lens of compassion and empowers them with tools to support their own wellbeing while also caring for and supporting patients and colleagues. Ultimately the course aims to contribute to a cultural shift within health and social care towards greater compassion, through attention, understanding, empathy and intelligent action.

The course has been delivered annually to Foundation doctors at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS FT and more recently at Stockport NHS FT and Wigan, Wrightington and Leigh NHS FT. The programme is being rolled out more widely across the North West via in-depth Instructor courses. It has also been delivered to a variety of healthcare professionals including Consultant Educational Supervisors, Foundation Programme Directors and Administrators.

The content is very robust, flexible, and easily replicated into different spheres of health and social care. It can be delivered online or face to face and is designed to be interactive, using chat function, break out groups and live plenary discussion. Participants are invited to ‘experiment’ in between the sessions with the concepts and tools they have learned and share their experiences and reflections.

Evaluation

The programme is subject to ongoing evaluation through HEE NW. The content and delivery are continuously amended and improved in response to learner feedback, which is gathered throughout the course via:

‘Lighthouse moments’ where participants are asked to share key reflections on what resonated for them in the session, and how the content may impact their professional practice and wellbeing.

Learners’ scores on Neff’s self‐compassion scale at the start and end of the programme.

Learners’ survey at the end of the course, which is followed up with semi‐structured interviews 2‐3 months later to see how the skills of compassionate leadership may have impacted learners’ practice and supported their wellbeing.

Conclusions

There is a compassion crisis.  We know that there are higher levels of mental health issues and burnout amongst NHS staff than previously seen.  Those well enough to work are carrying the additional burden of filling rota gaps and endeavouring to catch up on the lost activity due to Covid, whilst themselves feeling tired and under pressure.  Now more than ever before, NHS staff need to be given direction in how to overcome these challenges without becoming burnt out themselves.  Could Compassionate Leadership be the way forward?

Reference: GMC Quality Assurance Activity Feedback - Compassionate Leadership Course, July 2022