Final Reflections on the Stage 2 Training Process

It seems such a long time ago that I began this journey.  It has taken me 6 years and 10 months in total.  I remember after finishing my masters I felt that I had accomplished something, and that I had an experience that, whilst difficult and stressful, had been very rewarding. Finishing my Stage 2 did not feel like that, at least not at first.  I had a sense of relief that the work was finally over: no more practice diaries, no more placements, no more submission or re-submissions.  I just felt plain relieved.  Even when I received my BPS certificate and my HCPC certificate, I felt little joy or elation at my achievement.

Fast forward 6 months and I agree to attend the DFP Conference to accept my certificate in a more formal setting.  My partner and I decided to treat it as a small family holiday with our 6 month old and we drove to the conference.  My supervisor was there to greet me with hugs and congratulations and her old supervisor was also there and did the same.  I lined up with my peers who had also qualified and we sat in the front row of the conference hall waiting to be called on stage to collect our certificates.

As we waited, we whispered to one another our relief and confessed the length of time it had taken to complete, 6 years 10 months for me, some others shorter and some others longer but all of us united in the sense of gladness that it was finally over.  We collected our certificates and smiled for the obligatory group photo and then we all dispersed, back into the crowd and off back to our roles wherever we are, no one so much as looking over their shoulders.  But when I do look back at the event, I remember one thing very clearly. My little boy was the centre of attention and one lady, a senior psychologist, commented that despite the chartership, children are the greatest achievement.  And this really did place everything in perspective.

Before this, all I saw were the times of failure and the re-submissions. I had still held on to the feeling of being under constant stress and strain trying to complete the work and felt resentful of that.  I have since been able to let go of that burden, and that alone is an achievement.  To hear my peers express similar experiences and relief helped me recognise the enormity of the task we set ourselves and we came through it, slowly but surely.  More a case of the tortoise and hare than any prodigal speed to win a race but complete the race we did.  And also, if that lady was right and my little boy is my greatest achievement, then completing that chartership was an achievement along the way and I should acknowledge it as such.

I think what I am reflecting on now is that this was one of the toughest journeys I embarked upon and I know that peers on the BPS route and the doctorate are experiencing the same stresses and strains.  It is natural to feel relieved and want to push away all thought of the emotional challenges and feel bitter, but actually getting through is an achievement and each one of us should feel proud (although you won't see me applying to do any further studying for a while now, if ever!).

And also, this is one achievement, in a whole list of many that we will experience, some of which are not career related.  This profession and training can be all consuming, but it has helped me to remember that it is one part of what defines me and putting my achievements in context and in perspective has helped me take true enjoyment out of what I have done so far.

So to all of you still training, stick with it, you will get there, be brave and work through the failures - we all have had them.

To those of you starting out, don't just think about finishing fast. Think about the training route that will help you qualify, that is cost effective and that fits with the life that you want to live outside of your career. If that means choosing a slower route so that you can afford holidays and to travel and have children, then do just that; the training routes aren't going to disappear if you don't get it finished straight away, and neither is the profession.

And from me, this is my last post here as I move on to the next stage of my life.  Thank you to all those who have read, glanced over or accidentally clicked on the blog.  You have been a source of catharsis for me over these years.

Farewell.

My experience of Core Role 4

Looking back at Core Role 4, I feel this was actually the Core Role that I enjoyed the most.  This was because it took me past my nervousness at public speaking and gave me the confidence to present myself well in all aspects of my life.  It also taught me about my learning style and also my teaching style, which, I have to say, is probably a little informal.

There were aspects of this Core Role that had particular challenges in terms of the assessors.  Sometimes developing a rationale for training can be as problematic as developing a rationale for research.  Although it is understood that as a trainee you need to provide exemplars, there is no room for developing training "for the sake of it".  Assessors will pick up on this and will question whether the training was really needed by your organisation, and this in turn will suggest to them that you might not entirely understand how to identify learning and training needs in the context of working within your organisation.

On the other hand, sometimes you identify a need and there is little appetite for meeting it within the organisation.  I found that exploring literature around change and growth in organisations can help in this situation.  It can help you understand any resistance you meet and can help you develop strategies to get past this.  What you must do is provide evidence for the assessors to prove that you understand how to identify learning and training needs and that you can bring the organisation on board.

Another hurdle that you might need to overcome might be in the case of your organisation directing you to deliver training and the training is mandatory.  In these cases it is harder to demonstrate why you have identified the training needs and how you select appropriate participants for your training.  Instead, you might have to reflect on what you could do under different circumstances or perhaps you could do some additional work to check the need within your population.

With mandatory training it is vital that you consider the motivations to attend and what this might mean for people's willingness to engage and learn. It is important to consider what will affect a person's motivation to learn and how you will account for this and address this in your training.

Finally, a focus for the assessors is how you evaluate training.  They will want to see that you have used literature and research to develop evidence-based methods of determining if people have learnt from your training session.  Usually this is a form of questionnaire but you will have to have clearly demonstrated through your evidence why you have chosen this method and your reflections on your chosen method.  A final part to this will be evaluating your evaluation method through reflection.  Did your evaluation really test what you wanted it to?  What could you have changed?  What would you do next time?  They will also want to see how you have learnt and how you have applied these changes to your next training programme or seminar.

I should note that whilst a reflection on learning styles and how you have catered for them in your training is often wanted by the assessors, there is a huge amount of literature available recently which rejects the theory of learning styles.  You may want include and consider this when you are developing your training.

Success in sight....almost.

Photo, "Woman Climbing Rock" by olovedog, courtesy of www.FreeDigitalPhotos.net

At a time when you least think that the going can't get any tougher, it can.  Not insurmountably tough, but there's no point dressing it up in finery.  Gaining Chartership is a testing experience.  It is a test of academic ability, intellectual ability, resourcefulness, creativity, stamina, and, not least, resilience.  The submission of completed exemplars is one of those areas where more than just your ability to gather the evidence necessary to prove you're meeting the standard and string it into words is being tested.  Putting together the submission means applying a multitude of skills, and just as you are beginning to breathe a sigh of relief at having done as much as you thought was necessary to complete everything, the submission comes back at you with stern comments on what you didn't quite get right, or you didn't get right enough.  This is where resilience and determination kick in.

Photo "Don't Give Up" by Stuart Miles, courtesy of www.FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Firstly, I just want to spend a bit of time reflecting on those fine points of detail in making your submission that can affect how it is received.  You need to ensure that there is nothing confidential that can be identified in any way - there is no option but to be extremely thorough about this.  Just this point alone speaks volume about a trainee's professionalism.  Either remove identities or blank these out.  If posters advertising training events  you are delivering are to be used as evidence, any traces of any identities must be removed e.g. photos.  I'm sure there are readers who will contemplate, as I did, just how reliable evidence that has had all identity wiped clean can be, but it is something that must simply be done. A submission must be sent in duplicate hard copies as well as through an electronic version - the precise details as well as details of what must be signed by your supervisor is on the DFP site.  It is important to make sure you have original signatures because electronic signatures will not be accepted.

Then you wait for the submission to be returned and you will feel varying degrees of confidence almost day by day.  Recieving feedback can be difficult, and this is where resilience kicks in.  The first thing you focus on is whether competence has been demonstrated.  Perhaps it has and you will feel a welter of relief.  That's great.  More commonly, your first attempt - or indeed, early attempts - at submissions will come back with the glaringly harsh comment: "competence not yet demonstrated".  

At first impact the chances are you will move along a spectrum of emotions from outrage, to deep disappointment, to despondency, through despair, and then to grudging acceptance that something was not quite right with it.  I suggest putting it down, brewing a cup of tea and coming back to it once the weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth is over.  Then read it through again because you may find, once you read it all through, that you  have passed all but one or two of the competencies, and then, there may just be some minor issues you have overlooked.  Feedback is there to provide you with a chance to improve that little bit more, to stretch youself those last few inches to reach the summit of your training, so it is worth making the most of it.

Assessors tend to give detailed feedback. Some may be more prescriptive in what they want you to submit and others less so. Once you have read through the feedback, discuss this with your supervisor so that you decide together what is going to be resubmitted in order to cover all the points.  Then you are up and running again.

Photo "Male Runner on Starting Blocks" by stockimages, courtesy of www.FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Most trainees do not pass their first submission.  But after five or more years working on this, not quite demonstrating competence is a difficult judgement to receive and accept.  In fact, when faced with having to rework a project that was completed perhaps a year or more previously, perhaps with a different employer, perhaps in a different part of the country, the task may seem completely impossible.  However, it is very rare for an assessor to want a submission completely reworked.  Usually there is a detail that is missing or needs further clarification or greater reflection.  Perhaps your practice diary may not be clear or a reference to a piece of evidence may be missing.  Most resubmissions are usually in the form of an additional report to demonstrate a very specific piece of learning, or perhaps another reflective piece, or new practice diary entries to show that you went over your statistical analysis and are content that you chose the right one, for example.  Breaking down the feedback and requirements of resubmission into its component parts will make the pill much less bitter to swallow, and the final stretch will appear that bit shorter.

What may be worth pointing out is that assessors vary in what they like and don't like to see in submissions. Some will compliment trainees on their reflective diaries, some may like a very formal approach, others will want a good deal of supporting evidence while others are less demanding as to quantity.  The best way of dealing with this is to make sure you have unfailingly followed the guidelines and that you have made clear anything that you are not sure about with the registrar.

For many trainees, dealing with some negative feedback and having to do yet more work before reaching the finishing post can be very disheartening.  I have written this from the perspective of someone who has to resubmit some work and I understand intimately the range of emotions that this sparks off.  But proving your professionalism and capabitlities is more than what you put on paper.  It is about taking the knocks, working with them, learning from them, shaking off the hurt and taking those next steps to achieving your goal.  Success is in sight.

Photo "Young Girl Rejoicing" by stockimages, courtesy of www.FreeDigitalPhotos.net