First of all, time is an issue. Upon declaring this at our last Fellowship meeting, everyone was in agreement. Being busy is nothing new for many of us. I currently find myself starting work earlier and earlier in order to complete certain projects and this ensures that I can maximise post-work time where I can go and do all the other things I enjoy. Generally just getting outdoors, attaching myself to the end of a rope and climbing some-kind of rock face. The downside of this is that working on Fellowship inevitably suffers and can easily take a back seat.
My next issue is around having the ability to reflect. Reflection is something which I spend lots of time talking about. As a Candidate Support Officer for CILIP North West, I tell all candidates to practice their reflective writing skills. ‘Practice makes it easier’ and ‘reflecting is a skill, you just need to develop it’ - are normally my encouraging words to candidates. It turns out that I’m a complete hypocrite. When I did sit down and try to reflect, I realised that I’m really rusty.
Finally, I have access to two fantastic mentors. Both are knowledgeable and are committed to our Fellowship group, yet I don’t think I use their expertise enough. Similarly our Fellowship group is a really encouraging environment and I should use the experience in the group more often. And so my time for reflection is already up! I have to move on from this blog post and start my day. I need to get logged on, get coffee, finish a literature search and then prepare for a group training session I’ll be delivering on one of our inpatient wards later today.
However, I do have some actions. From now on, I will be adding one hour of Fellowship time in to my calendar each week. This will help me to prioritise FCLIP and spend some time completing evidence. I’m also going to be writing reflectively more often. I do believe that the more you do it, the easier it becomes and this blog is a great opportunity to practice some informal reflection. Finally, my mentors have been really supportive and they have allowed me to ‘invite’ them to FCLIP diary commitments. This just means that they get a little reminder that I should be working on my FCLIP portfolio each week. They’ve been more than happy to give me a nudge on these days and check in! I may come to regret this.
Dan Livesey, Library and Knowledge Service Manager, Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust
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