Hello – Who are we and what do we do?
Who we are:
Diverse Learners provide Disability Support and Training for the healthcare sector and healthcare education. Diverse Learners was set up by Kerry Pace in 2012 in response to research she had undertaken into dyslexia screening at entry, the benefits of embedding study skills in introductory modules on undergraduate healthcare courses, and the benefits to healthcare students on placement of accessing Specialist one-to-one Study Skills and Strategy Support and Specialist Mentor support via Skype outside of ‘office hours/location’.
Our team of health and social care practitioners and disability specialists includes a nurse, midwife, lecturer on undergraduate and post graduate nursing courses and researcher and delivers expert support and training for:
- Healthcare students
- Healthcare practitioners
- Trusts
- Universities
- Companies
The team has personal experience of Specific Learning Differences/Difficulties (SpLD), have neurodiverse profiles and/or have mental health issues ensuring an empathetic approach. As reflective practitioners we all take part in regular peer observation, have regular team meetings and are partake in continuous professional development.
Our team is very experienced, fully qualified, DBS checked. Tutors have Post Graduate Certification in Supporting Adult learners in FE/HE and are on ADSHE Quality Assurance Register and Patoss register.
What we offer:
Dyslexia and Dyspraxia Awareness Training
Our team provides training to organisations to enable them raise awareness of disability – in particular dyslexia and dyspraxia, support their staff and adopt more inclusive practice. As healthcare practitioners trained in disability we are a unique team with expertise in understanding the demands and needs of healthcare settings.
Training can be delivered 1:1, small groups, large groups, as part of a CPD package and staff development days as well as being tailored to the needs of a specific team.
For an overview of our training, workshops and consultancy please click here or on the Training and Consultancy tab at the top of the page.
We have exceptional feedback and this can be seen on our testimonials page or LinkedIn
Individual Support
We provide training to individuals to enable you to become a more effective and efficient learner. Via Access to Work, occupational health referral, self-referral or Disabled Students Allowances, we provide online, face-to-face support for individuals to address their learning needs. These might include: lack of confidence, low self-esteem, lack of learning strategies, difficulties with time management and organisational skills. These needs are most often associated with:
- Dyslexia
- Dyspraxia
- Mental health issues
- Chronic long term health conditions such as Fibromyalgia and M.E.
- A combination of these conditions
At Diverse Learners our flexible approach means we can support you through identifying the way you learn best, and at times that suit you, raising your self awareness, self-confidence and self-belief. For further details please see our page about the support we offer.
When we are available
To offer flexibility and fit in with shifts and changing working patterns, our 1:1 support for healthcare practitioners and students is available
7 days a week 9am-10pm All year round (we don’t close over the summer)
Collaborative Working
We love to collaborate with others on projects, whether that be:
- Conference presentations, papers, research projects or special issues of journals (view on Researchgate or LinkedIn)
- NHS Employers events with the Diversity and Inclusion team
- Webinars with @WeNurses and Plymouth University
- Collating vlogs about the experiences of healthcare practitioners and students who have disabilities for our Diverse Nurses project
- Presenting at the Student Quality Ambassador for healthcare related courses welcome event
- Co-hosting regular Tweetchats with @WeNurses @Nurchat @Physiotalk
- Attending events, co-hosting tweetchats and writing articles with our student ambassadors
- Workshops for our professional bodies
- Events, advice and awareness raising with Dyspraxia Ireland
- Events for Dyspraxia Awareness week such as Eat Cake in your PJs and appearing on radio Humberside
- Creating and collating Videos for our YouTube channel
- Blogging / Guest blogs / Joint blogs – let us know if you want to do a blog for us
- Projects with Assistive Technology companies
Working in Partnership
We can provide a complimentary service for universities looking to extend their specialist support / DSA support .Our expertise in supporting students on healthcare courses means that universities using our service as part of their provision can offer support a number of students that would not be able to support themselves.
By using our top quality service we can enable the university to have longer opening hours and so increase access to support for their students. The universities we work with state our service reduces their waiting lists, improves their student feedback and NSS survey results, reduces attrition / improves retention, extends the breadth service offered, reduces room demand and reduces their admin time.
Oxford Brookes University refers students to Diverse Learners as part of their specialist provision for students who have disabilities.
“We approached Diverse Learners as we were looking for a better way to meet the needs of students who found it difficult to access on-campus support: distance learners, commuters, health-care students on placements. Kerry is an active member of ADSHE with a good reputation so we were confident that her Skype one-to-one study skills sessions would be right for our students. The process of referring our students to Diverse Learners has always run smoothly and they maintain a good level of contact throughout the year. The positive feedback from our students speaks for itself and we continue to offer this service in confidence.”
Fiona Hutchison, March 2015 , Team manager for Students with Dyslexia/SpLD, Oxford Brookes University
Kerry Pace also works with Plymouth University as an advisory member of the teaching team – school of nursing and midwifery – and is part of the team on the post graduate mentorship course. In addition, Kerry and the team at Plymouth University work collaboratively on webinars, twebinars (a webinar with a co-current tweetchat) conference presentations and are planning some research projects together.
Kerry Pace is also a FabAmbassador and a member of the Yorkshire and the Humber NHS Education and Training Leads Network.
We are always seeking ways to improve our service and welcome all feedback. Our feedback about the positive difference our 1:1 support and training courses can make can be found on our testimonials page, on LinkedIn and other social media. Should you have a complaint please chat to us about it so we can put it right. You can find our contact details under Contact US on the right hand side of this page but also welcome contact via text or Skype. Our complaints procedure can be found here.
Delivery of support via Skype
All our 1:1 support and some group training is delivered using Skype; a free, easy to use internet service that allows you to communicate by video, text and voice. Please see our page on support via Skype to see how it could work for you.