Background and context: The Foundation of Nursing Studies, in collaboration with Mrs Elizabeth Tompkins, offered The Richard Tompkins Nurse Development Scholarship, a development opportunity to improve person-centred cultures of care. This paper reflects my experience of this scholarship year, which included attendance at a five-day residential International Practice Development Collaborative (IPDC) practice development school hosted by the England Centre for Practice Development, and 12 months’ mentorship from FoNS.

Aims and objectives: To reflect on my learning during the scholarship year and on its impact on my professional and personal growth.

Conclusions: This experience has enabled me to examine my own values and beliefs about practice development, develop my facilitation skills and work towards becoming an effective nurse leader by integrating the principles of practice development into my everyday practice. It has been a year of challenge and meaningful reflection. The future involves engaging key individuals within the organisation to progress practice development across the workplace.

Implications for practice:

• The power of this mentorship experience has highlighted the importance of developing all staff, but ensuring potential mentors have had the right investment to develop the necessary skills and qualities to be effective in their role
• Practice development values and beliefs have the ability to support change in culture. Using its principles to underpin ways of working leads to an engaged and enthused workforce
• Being a facilitator of practice development requires energy, creativity and commitment

This article by Chris Benson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 3.0 License.