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Caught in a trap

I’ve been undertaking the fellowship process for about a year now and for the past few months I feel like progress has slowed. I had originally intended to submit my fellowship application at about this time, but I have come to realise that I am still some way off – I need to re-visit my expectations and timescales.
In my defence this has not been all my own fault! We have had ongoing staff shortages in my library and the day job has been busier than ever. When faced with high service demands, CPD is often the thing to fall by the wayside. However, I somehow need to find a way to kick-start my fellowship progress again.
When I look through my evidence grid, I realise that part of the problem is that I am caught in a trap of my own creation! I am dutifully working my way through all the areas that I wanted to develop and finding evidence to support my application. I have become a bit obsessed with covering all angles and ensuring that I have an abundance of evidence for all three areas (personal performance, organisational context and wider professional context). What I am failing to do at this stage is keep up to date with my reflections on the evidence I have created! I am the fellowship equivalent of the student who spends too much time reading for an assignment and then must stay up late to write the essay at the last minute!
To try and get myself out of this pickle the only thing that I can do it to set myself some absolute deadlines with my mentors. I will commit to specific deadlines for specific reflections and ask my mentors to nag me about it (nicely of course!). I am also going to discuss with my mentors what my revised submission deadline should be. Wish me luck 😊
Becky Williams
Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust

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