Brenda Carson, Senior Professional Officer
On behalf of the CNO Office, NIPEC are working in partnership with the Health Innovation Network, South London to support the Communities of Practice (CoP’s) workshop series. Participants from across HSC Organisations receive support through a series of virtual workshops and drop-in clinics. Covering the fundamentals of the CoP approach to quality and transformation, these workshops help to develop an understanding of how CoPs work and why the approach might be useful to us in our work.
What is a Community of Practice?
Communities of Practice (CoP’s) are self-organising, self-managing groups of people who share a passion for practice. They come together as peers in shared inquiry, learning from and with each other about what works, what doesn’t and why. They share promising practices and know-how in pursuit of improving practice where they work and across the system, deepening capability and capacity for greater improvement in patient care.
These social learning communities will support members to:
- Establish a social learning space where staff can build and nurture effective and supportive relationships;
- Provide a powerful means for people working within the MDT to come together to lead on improving practice across services;
- Offer protected time for reflective learning and sharing knowledge and good practice, with the aim of developing stronger collaborative working relationships
- Continually learn and improve quality of care and patient experience.
The aim is to drive improvements across the HSC system in NI and to spread innovation, ideas, and best practices. It is anticipated that this approach will also provide support for implementation of the Nursing and Midwifery Task Group (NMTG, 2020).