Siân is Director of Learning, Teaching and Assessment in the Faculty of Health, Education, Medicine and Social Work (FHEMS) at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU). She is a Principal Fellow and University Teaching Fellow. This status has been achieved through direct recognition of her role in leading and championing digital pedagogic innovation in health education.
Siân's leadership of the development and implementation of an app-based electronic ongoing achievement record (e-OAR) for practice assessment of student nurses has contributed to the reduction of attrition in adult nursing from 25% to 5% at ARU. This equates to an additional 66 nurses completing their course. The value of the innovation is not limited to individual student success, it also benefits the NHS and reaches into society with additional nurses entering the professional register, reducing the NHS staffing crisis. It prevents ARU losing £9,500 for each year a student fails to progress. Key to the success of the e-OAR was Siân's excellence in technology stewarding – taking responsibility for the innovation and making it work for all users.
One of Siân's key driving factors is a desire to educate nurses who embody the NHS values of care, compassion, dignity and a commitment to quality of care. To this end, since 2018, she has led pedagogic research into the pioneering use of 360-degree video within the nursing curriculum for teaching non-technical skills, eg decision making, leadership and development of empathy. The research findings prove that our use of VR increases the development of empathy and knowledge retention through embodied cognition. “It seems like a real-life experience: ‘cos you are there.” (Student Nurse).
The immersive scenarios are engaging, interactive and enhance the excellent placement experience with the best of digital learning. The use of this technology enables ARU to have consistently high-quality learning environments. It allows the faculty to place students within professional placement areas which are either limited in number or challenging to access. This ensures that all students receive the same high-quality learning at a fraction of the cost of building and resourcing and additional skills labs.