Sense-making conversation cards

Part of the ESME : Resources for Sense-able Conversations Pack.

About the sense-making conversation cards

These conversation cards are designed to stimulate fresh and diverse conversations between midwifery students, midwives, educators, practice development staff and other interested team members. Each card has a topic (conversation cue) which is drawn from data collected in the ESME (Exporing Student Midwives Experiences) Study. 

The topic is presented alongside a prompt, prompts include 'Hot Topic' and 'Recurring Theme'. For example, you will see in the following cards how the topic of work/home life balance is placed under the 'Recurring Theme' prompt. The visuals and wording of these prompts are included to inspire people to engage in further reflections and ideas that may expand beyond what is written in the conversation cue.

On the reverse side of the card are some suggestions for questions to explore so that those participating can engage in their own sense-making of the conversation cues. Some of these might feel like standard questions, others might be surprising and others might stretch people's thinking to travel in new directions.

The invitation to those using these cards is to take the elements presented on the cards that work for you, and to see what sense you make of the topics included.

Using the sense-making conversation cards

Ideas for when you might use these conversation cards include during tutorials and clinical supervision gatherings. For the person facilitating the conversation it can be worth thinking beforehand how you will choose which card/s to discuss. Options include:

• Pre-selecting a card and bringing this to the group
• Pre-selecting a limited number of the cards (4-5) and placing them with the image uppermost so that people are able to see the conversation cue in order to decide which card they would like to pick.
• Selecting a card at random and seeing if the group would like to discuss it. If not, the card is replaced and a different one picked.

Once everyone has had a chance to read the Conversation Cue of the card which has been selected, the discussion could be opened with the question 'How do you feel about what you read in the conversation cue?'

You may want to consider inviting people to do this as a round, where people one-by-one share their response, so that everyone has a chance to share their perspective before it is opened up for more general discussion.

There is then scope to let the conversation naturally flow out of the first question, or return to the other questions listed on the card to further delve into the topic.

Hot topic: Everyone's part in facilitating learning

Conversation cue: Everyone has a key part to play in facilitating learning in the workplace.

Possible questions for sense-making:

• How do you feel about the conversation cue on the front of the card?
• What have your noticed about what motivates people to want to be part of facilitating learning in the workplace?
• From your own experience have you an example of where learning came from an unexpected place?
• What could people be doing more of together to further build the confidence of midwives to support and nurture midwifery students?

Recurring theme: Work-home life balance

Conversation cue: Work-home life balance can be a continual balancing act.

Possible questions for sense-making:

• How do you feel about the conversation cue on the front of the card?
• What have you discovered about what is important to you in relation to work/home life balance?
• For those who are juggling different responsibilities, how would you like others to acknowledge what you are balancing?
• Are there ways in which learning in your work life positively contributes to your home life, and learning from your home life to your work life?

Risking it: Asking for support can feel risky

Convesation cue: To ask for support, be it a midwifery student or midwife asking, is to risk being negatively judged as not coping or not being capable.

Possible questions for sense-making:

• How do you feel about the conversation cue on the front of the card?
  
• Have there been times when it felt ok to say you didn't know, or to ask for support?
•  What helped it to feel ok on those occasions?
• What do you value when others are asking you for your support?
• What do you think would help it to feel part of the culture for people to ask one another for support when they are unsure or would value help?

Words of wisdom: Simple things make a big difference

Conversation cue: Simple things like knowing my name, checking in with how I am doing, all make a big difference

Possible questions for sense-making:

• How do you feel about the conversation cue on the front of the card?
• What matters to you at work, however small?
• What helps you to share, and to ask others, about the simple things that matter?
• Can you think of a recent example of where someone did something simple that made a big difference to you. Do you think that person knows the detail of the difference it made to you? If not, might you be able to let them know?

Diverse views: The importance we give to different types of skills

Conversation cue: On the one hand technical skills are seen as most important for student midwives and midwives to learn, and on the other hand human interaction skills are seen as core and foundational to achieving the technical skills.

Possible questions for sense-making:

• How do you feel about the conversation cue on the front of the card?
•  If technical and human interaction skills were both being valued to the extent you feel they ought to be- what would this look like?
• What would people be saying about these different skill sets? Whose technical and human interaction skills have you admired?
• What stood out for you in how they enacted these skills?

Almost unmentionable: Exploring alternatives to 'woman-centred care'

Conversation cue: 'Woman-centred care' is a highly-regarded way of describing the care we provide. 'Relationship-centred care' is another option that recognises the role of women, students, partners and midwives in the care experience.

Possible questions for sense-making:

• How do you feel about the conversation cue on the front of the card?
• Why might it seem 'almost unmentionable' to consider alternatives to 'woman-centred care'?
•  What terms or language best reflects how you experience the care and learning you are involved in?
• What might help us to name 'almost unmentionable' topics we encounter in our practice?

Previously hidden: The role of language in showing people they matter

Conversation cue: Noticing and developing respectful language helps us show people that they matter and are valued.

Possible questions for our sense-making:

• How do you feel about the conversation cue on the front of the card?
• What words do you and others use that you feel help to build relationships of respect and recognition?
• Are there words and phrases that you have heard been used that you would like to see being tweaked?
•  If you were to invite people to work with you on re-framing words that don't sit comfortably, how would you like to be in those conversations?

It's complicated: Do we mind the gaps between what is learnt in university and experienced in practice?

Conversation cue: The difference between what is learnt in university and what happens in practice is often referred to by the term 'theory-practice gap'. Questions around this gap raise the idea that it is a complicated topic.

Possible questions for sense-making:

• How do you feel about the conversation cue on the front of the card?
• What types of conversation about potential differences between what is learnt in university and experienced in practice, would you find most useful?
• If we were to assume that differences between what is learnt in university and experienced in practice wasn't necessarily a problem to be solved, how else might we think about these differences?

Surprises: Our ways of supporting students' learning can become how we support everyone's learning

Conversation cue: The very things that enhance the midwifery students' experience can also enhance the midwifes' experience.

Possible questions for our sense-making:

• How do you feel about the conversation cue on the front of the card?
• Finding out about hopes, worries and learning might be one example of something that currently happens to support students. What are your thoughts about us having more discussions where midwifery students' and midwifes' are both finding out about each others hopes, worries and learning?
• Have you other ideas about how how we could apply our learning about what works well with students to how we support other staff?

Using the resources

All the resources in the ESME: Resources for Sense-Able Conversations are licensed under Creative Commons BY 4.0. This means that those using the resource can copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and adapt, transform, and build upon the material. Further details about the licence can be found on the Creative Commons website.

We would like to encourage you to have a look, take a light-hearted approach to giving them a go and notice what happens in the conversations when you try them out.