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Professional Development News 

Improved quality development pathway for Educators

While renewing the DESMOND Curriculum for the Newly Diagnosed and Foundation modules, we have taken the opportunity to review the Quality Development (QD) pathway for Educators.

We have been collecting feedback and comments on the original process from Assessors and Educators for some time. We have also been lucky to benefit from ongoing research into our exiting processes and tools by the Training Strategy Group.

CONGRATULATIONS to the 130 Educators who are already accredited. This is a fantastic achievement for everyone involved. Many more Educators are now well on their way through the DESMOND pathway working towards accreditation. For your information, the main changes to the QD pathway are as follows.

• Educators will receive a ‘Personal QD Folder’ containing a QD Pathway, a copy of the QD chapter from the curriculum, a set of QD Tools, 3 master Reflection/Action Plan sheets and 1 DOT CD.

• The 1st visit is now about MENTORSHIP rather than assessment, and will take place for one half of the course (either half if F2 and part 2 if F1) – putting the emphasis firmly on the development of the DESMOND Educators.

• The 2nd visit is now the external assessment visit at which Educators will be observed for the whole 6 hours of the course

• The Self Reflection and Peer Review sheets have been amended, and have been renamed the ‘Reflection/Action Plan sheet’. This is a double sided sheet and can be found in the new QD folder.

• Educators are being encouraged to use the DESMOND Observation Sheets (DOS) and DESMOND Observation Tools (DOT) on each other more often to aid reflective practice, and it is now a requirement to have copies of this paperwork available for the Assessor to review

This new QD Pathway went live on 1st MARCH 2010. For your own benefit, please note that you must always allow 1 hour for the feedback process at the end of the final session.