news – Swansea University Student Leadership Academy

by Robert Stevens

Leadership is one of the four core pillars of paramedic practice (College of Paramedics, 2024). Discovering that leadership exists at all levels and is not restricted to the hierarchical structure was integral to developing a core component of proficiency (HCPC, 2023). The NMC suggest that leadership is about role-modelling the best practice and having the confidence to do so (NMC, 2024).

My name is Robert Stevens, and I’m a second-year Student Paramedic at Swansea University. I started with a non-clinical background and limited science, having previously studied law and directed a small business. Returning to university without a science foundation was daunting, and I felt like a small fish in a big pond, hiding behind my mentors and peers when I felt least confident.

When Beryl Mansell presented the opportunity to join the Swansea University Student Leadership Academy (SwanSLA), I immediately signed up, hoping to find the answers to building my confidence in a new profession. Upon a successful application and a three-day inspiring conference, Jason Killens (CEO of the Welsh Ambulance Service University Trust (WAST)) became my leadership coach. Through the coaching, I developed my confidence and strategised ways of overcoming imposter syndrome. I also had the opportunity to participate in the College of Paramedics Student conference and C4CHEd conference, and workshops that helped me identify my strengths and weaknesses and hone in on my strategies for self-improvement.

Imposter syndrome does not have to be a weakness, and Jason helped me reframe this into a strength. One way to achieve this was by keeping organised, emphasising a work-life balance, and building confidence. When you have clarity of mind, making decisions under pressure and embracing the unknown is much more effective. The coaching was a great opportunity to be open about vulnerabilities and grow professionally. He encouraged me to “step out of the shadows”, a phrase that stuck with me and I find incredibly powerful.

Through the programme, I began to see leadership not as something reserved for others but as an opportunity to develop myself.

A significant focus of the programme was resilience and recognising that leadership involves vulnerability, self-doubt, and sometimes failure. To lead authentically, you must act with conviction and sometimes make the wrong call, but how you deal with this can create a great leader. It is also the part of the journey where the most meaningful learning happens. I’ve come to understand that discomfort is the root of growth.

Resilience is closely related to well-being. Interestingly, many of the SwanSLA reflected that reliance and well-being were areas they wished to develop personally and within the university. We were encouraged to prioritise reflection and collaboration and utilise emotional intelligence to support our colleagues and peers. Through speaking to healthcare leaders, I have found compassionate leadership, collaboration, and release the recipe for making a real difference and essential for a long, fulfilling career.

One of my greatest leadership achievements was working collaboratively on a project for the HCPC national student competition with Student Paramedic Tesni Davies. We achieved a runner-up prize for developing an online training package on social media guidelines for student healthcare professionals, which has been published online and delivered to first-year student paramedics at Swansea University. We attended a council meeting in London where we were awarded for our achievement and gave a short speech. It was an opportunity to network with and speak to HCPC representatives and leaders and understand more about the regulator’s role. I never would have considered it possible to compete nationally, but by “stepping out of the shadows”, it is possible.

Image: HCPC, 2024

In the future, I am committed to ongoing leadership development for a lifelong mindset. I want to contribute to a culture encouraging compassion, collaboration, and resilience. I plan to continue developing my practice and share my experience as a mentee with other students. In addition to the coaching, I have had fantastic WAST Practice Educators who have helped me in my development journey.

If I could offer one message to other student healthcare professionals, it’s this: Be willing to feel uncomfortable – step out of the shadows.

Written by Robert Stevens (Swansea University Student, Second-Year Paramedic Science BSc)

24 April 2025

References

College of Paramedics. (2024). Paramedic Career Framework 2022 (5^th Ed. Revised 2024) [PDF Publication]. https://collegeofparamedics.co.uk/COP/ProfessionalDevelopment/post_reg_career_framework.aspx.

Health and Care Professions Council. (2023). Leadership at all levels of practice [Leadership fact sheet]. https://www.hcpc-uk.org/globalassets/standards/standards-of-proficiency/updated-standards-themes/fact-sheets/leadership.pdf.

Health and Care Professions Council. (2024, December 06). Winners of the HCPC student competition 2024 announced. https://www.hcpc-uk.org/news-and-events/news/2024/winners-of-the-hcpc-student-competition-2024-announced/

Nursing and Midwifery Council. (2024, May 09). Good Leadership means better care. https://www.nmc.org.uk/standards/guidance/good-leadership-means-better-care/.

University of Plymouth. (2024). The Collaboration for Compassion in Healthcare Education (C4CHEd). https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/research/compassion-in-healthcare-education

My journey in leadership throughout the Student Leadership Academy 2023 has been an incredible one.

The first conference, on the 9^th and 10^th of March, was a strong start to the whole process – from getting to meet a lot of like-minded students, to getting to witness great talks from extremely senior members of staff (Chief Executive Welsh Ambulance (NHS) Trust Jason Killens). While the talks and networking with staff was very useful and genuinely interesting, to be able to connect with my fellow healthcare students was also a great aspect of the Academy. Throughout my general university life, I have ample chance to socialise with other student nurses, but unfortunately have had little time nor opportunity to engage with students of other healthcare degrees. However, in the Student Leadership Academy there was a large mix of students. Nursing students were well represented, but there was also midwifery, paramedics, neurophysiologists, and occupational therapists.

The first two days set up how the rest of the experience would go – encouraging me to think about what truly matters in a great leader, and how these key aspects in the good leaders around me utilize these to give their staff and patients the best possible working and healing environment.

One challenge that students were asked to think about before returning for the second and last part of the Academy was an achievable change that Swansea University could implement to improve the student lives. The group that I was in decided to go with my idea of a society catered towards all healthcare students – created with the goal of uniting students across the boundaries of degrees, making life-long friendships that would benefit the student in university but additionally once working together in the NHS. Our group the “HealthSoc Committee” then committed to starting a presentation to be shared on the final day of the Academy.

The next stage of the Student Leadership Academy was the coaching scheme, which involved one-on-one meetings with senior members of different aspects of healthcare organisations in the UK to speak about leadership and learn from one another. The coach that I was paired with was Simon Cassidy, a member of staff in Health Education in Wales. Simon was always incredibly pleasant to me and enabled me to feel comfortable to ask him continual questions about his experiences whenever we met up over Zoom. This was around once every month from April to September 2023 – which may have been slightly more than other students met with their coaching mentors! Simon and I had a good relationship over our chats, and so he invited me to speak at a HEIW conference with four other students from across South Wales.

With some students from Cardiff University, Open University, University of South Wales, I was proud to be able to represent Swansea University by my lonesome. On the 24^th October 2023, in my speech to a crowd of around 100 people, each with their own years long experience as a nurse, I spoke about the future of nursing as it seems to students, mentioning the negative press surrounding nursing (potentially turning away future needed nursing staff), and the positive way I had been treated by multiple staff members on placement ensuring my enjoyment.

As I was going first of the group, I was quite nervous, but persevered. I got through the speech – hopefully with mistakes to a minimal! Some audience members were also kind enough to come to the students’ table after the event and congratulate us all on our speeches. A comment made by a sister stuck with me – that our talks reminded her “of what it was like to be a student and to have that ambition and drive to improve”.

With positive reviews on the day and on the internet afterwards, I was feeling grateful that the Academy enabled this opportunity to come to me – but that was not the end of positive effects from SLA!

The final day on the 7th of July came upon me fast. The “HealthSoc Committee” group had been preparing for the presentation, and we had organised a survey for healthcare students to undertake – with full approval from the SU research ethics team. We did not anticipate the response, with over 140 responses from many different healthcare degrees. This encouraged our team, as it showed a real gap in the SU experience and incredible preliminary interest in the idea, and through this survey process we gained valuable advice and knowledge from multiple senior staff members. We then presented in front of staff and students, an experience which helped me build my confidence in my presenting skills. The feedback we received was exceptionally positive and made me thankful for the work that my group and I had put in, all supported by the skills garnered from the Student Leadership Academy. As a direct result, we now have a healthcare society, of which the majority of committee are SLA members of 2022/23.

The final opportunity that I can thank the Student Leadership Academy for is meeting hosted by HEIW staff with five other students online, of which I was the only student from Swansea University, and additionally the only student studying Adult (General) Nursing.

It was in this meeting I got to learn about how HEIW is planning to recruit nursing staff, and the future of nursing from their perspective – as well as share my own thoughts. The topics ranged from AI to decentralisation. Throughout I was honoured to get an inside look at how nursing could look in 10 years time – a chance earned through SLA.

When I first applied to attend the SLA, I was not expecting to be given these great events throughout the year – but as I have I would encourage everyone to give the Student Leadership Academy application a go. You may just get through and open yourself up to improving yourself with leadership skills, and incredible networking opportunities in which you make stable and lifelong relationships!

Tag: news

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