Digital Health Networks’ Mentoring: Applications open for expanded 2025 programme
- 3 September 2024
Diane Bullman reveals the “overwhelmingly positive” difference mentoring made to this year’s participants and looks ahead to the 2025 programme – which includes a new stream run by Imperial College London aimed at emerging digital leaders across the NHS
As we finish evaluating the Digital Health Networks’ 2024 group mentoring programme which ended in July, we are very much looking forward to next year’s expanded programme, starting in January 2025.
The 2024 programme was supported by the networks’ CIO (chief information officer), CCIO (chief clinical information officer) and CNIO (chief nursing information officer) advisory panels. Each panel member acted as mentor to a group of up to five mentees, providing places for around 150 mentees in total. The three streams were aimed at emerging digital leaders seeking personal growth and career development.
For the CIO stream, mentees were in or aspiring to CIO, CIO-like roles, IT leader and equivalent roles. The CCIO stream was for those working towards CCIO and digital clinical leadership roles and with a recognised clinical qualification. The CNIO stream supported mentees in CNIO, digital nursing, midwifery and AHP roles. All mentoring sessions were carried out online.
Virtual group sessions
The programme started with a one-to-one introduction session between the mentors with each of their mentees to understand what they were looking for from the programme. The mentors then held six virtual group sessions from January to July.
Mentors followed a light and flexible structure for the sessions. All mentees were offered a similar programme, but with scope to amend the sessions to suit the needs of the particular group.
The programme focused on the personal and career development of the mentees. Sessions starting by asking ‘where am I now?’, then moved through ‘goal setting and planning’, ‘visibility and impact’, ‘role complexity and prioritisation’, and finally to ‘reflections and next steps’.
Our evaluation of the 2024 programme is now drawing to a close. Feedback from both mentors and mentees has been overwhelmingly positive (see box), with aspiring leaders finding it supportive and motivating. For the mentors it was a chance to reflect on their own practice and gain a deeper understanding of the circumstances colleagues are working in.
Feedback on the 2024 programme
“Whilst the sessions were informal, the shared discussions were meaningful, encouraging and motivational, in a safe space where I felt comfortable in participating in the conversations. The mentoring has encouraged me to get out of my comfort zone… and see the wider picture.” Mentee
“The whole digital mentoring experience has been excellent and well worth the time. All the sessions have been beneficial, impactful and educational. Sessions were facilitated brilliantly throughout the six-month period, which has flown by. Participation in the mentoring programme enabled me to be successful at interview for a digital transformation post.” Mentee
“Participating in the mentoring programme was incredibly valuable to me. It made me consider my role and the way I work in several different lights, not only through the transparency [the mentor] showed but also through interaction with the other mentees within the programme… it was a supportive programme with a clear element of psychological safety.” Mentee
“[The mentorship programme] allows me to get a better understanding of the circumstance’s colleagues are working in, the differing attitudes to clinical digital support in differing organisations, and this allows me to continue to grow and learn… which in turn allows me to be a better CNIO.” Mentor
“It was a great opportunity to reflect on my own practice, learnings and understanding. It made me investigate areas I perhaps didn’t know enough about [and] stimulated me to reflect on me as a leader.” Mentor
Exciting expansion in 2025
For 2025 we have an exciting expansion of the programme. The CIO, CCIO and CNIO advisory panels will all provide mentoring schemes for those with the aspiration of becoming a CIO, CCIO or CNIO, as in 2024.
However, they will be joined by two new streams – one with mentors provided by alumni of the Digital Health Leadership Programme (DHLP) run by Imperial College, London. The other new stream will have mentors from the newly formed Digital Health CSO (clinical safety officer) Council.
The DHLP stream will be aimed at emerging digital leaders across the NHS ecosystem seeking practical advice at the intersection of health informatics, business strategy and leadership (for clinical and non-clinical digital professionals). The CSO stream will be for CSOs, aspiring CSOs and those with clinical safety as a significant proportion of their role.
The addition of these two new streams will expand the mentoring scheme to provide places for over 200 mentees.
The Digital Health ICS (integrated care systems) Council will also run an action learning set to discuss current challenges in operating in digital in an ICS. The sessions will start in September and run until March 2025. Places will be limited. You can express an interest in joining the action set here
The expanded mentoring programme begins in January 2025, and opens for applications this month (September 2024). Please look out for more information on the Networks website.
Applicants need to be members of Digital Health networks and can join the networks here.
Diane Bullman is senior community manager at Digital Health
