The University’s Whitworth Hall recently hosted two successful ‘Health Sector Workplace Ethics Workshops’ as part of the second year of pilot activities for the University’s ‘Ethical Grand Challenges’ Signature Programme.

The workshops were delivered by academic colleagues from six of the attending programmes, working in partnership with Student Deveopment and Community Engagement, and led by Professor Kay Marshall, Head of the School of Pharmacy and Rachel Starkey, Programme Director for Speech and Language Therapy.

A total of 227 students from eight healthcare focused programmes worked in interdisciplinary groups to consider ethical dilemmas of real-life work situations through unfolding scenarios, brought to life with clips of actors playing roles.

New for the 2016 workshop were filmed inputs from the sector experts, Professor Helge Hoel and Fiona Kevan, whose research and practice informed the development of the workshop content, and a closing address from Professor Ian Greer, Vice President and Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences.

The student response to the workshops was, once again, incredibly positive. Of the 210 evaluation respondents 89 per cent agreed that working with students from other courses has given them insights into the ethical challenges facing healthcare professions other than their own. When asked whether taking part in event had had made them more aware of their ethical responsibilities in the workplace, 84 per cent responded positively. Students overwhelmingly commented on how much they valued working with students from other healthcare sectors, and stressed a desire for an even greater mix of sectors. This sentiment is reflected by staff from all of the programmes involved, who are keen to overcome timetabling challenges to involve more students from a wider range health care focused programmes in the future.

Feedback included: “Excellent idea to work with other healthcare courses. Great to hear their perspectives and to better understand their roles and how they interpret their role within the multi-disciplinary team. Good scenarios too – really generated engaging discussions.” Nursing Student.