Supporting students: Helping colleagues be effective with students in difficulty Deborah Murdoch-Eaton On behalf of the Faculty of Medicine & Health Personal Tutor Group

Students in “difficulty” What are “difficulties”? –Academic –Personal Financial / accommodation…….. Mental health –Others “the meaning of life” “why am I here”

Who do students go to? Does it depend on your faculty / school? Someone they know? Opportunistic? Personal tutor

What is a “personal tutor” Differing roles –Academic –Pastoral –Other? Eg professional development

University Partnership Agreement Implemented this academic year Expectations of the PT role –Code of practice governing personal tutorials for students on taught programmes “schools should ensure that staff can receive further training as part of their CPD”

material Resource to use for training those who encounter students in difficulty, especially PT DVD –Role play of scenarios Booklet –Sentence outlining content of scenario –Background – to read out to the group –Discussion questions to use as prompts

Content of scenarios Generic to all HE –Study skills difficulties –Course problems –Student behaviour –PT conduct Health care specific –Professionalism –specific

AT THIS PART OF THE TALK, WE LOOKED AT AND DISCUSSED A NUMBER OF DIFFERENT SCENARIOS FROM THE DVD MATERIAL

Who has this material? Copies of DVD and booklet sent to all Directors of Learning & Teaching early in 2006 So every school has a copy somewhere! SDDU (can be purchased from media services)