Summer holidays are in full swing and many of you will be taking a well-earned break with friends, family or just some time away for yourself. We are all supporting this, by covering the temporary absence of colleagues so that everyone gets their break, without impacting the service and care we provide to the public. This shows our commitment to team work at the most basic level of compassion, responsibility and resilience. This is the NHS!
Whilst reflecting on what I would write for this blog, my thoughts drifted to my own holiday in June, when I chose to cycle unsupported over the Pyrenees mountains with two of my very closest friends. One friend, a critical care specialist at a UK air ambulance, the other a Director of HR at a large insurance group. The trip involved cycling to Portsmouth, getting a ferry to Bilbao in northern Spain and then aiming to cycling to Toulouse in France….over some big mountains, with a small tent for accommodation.
On day five of the two-week trip, my bike blew over in a gust of wind. The gears snapped off. Undeterred, I decided to try and remove the gears and make the bike single speed. Thankfully this didn’t work – as climbing over a major mountain range on basically a butcher’s bike was pretty intimidating! With only my pride dented, I pushed my bike into town the next day and met my comrades at the first café they had found, to formulate a plan. The critical care specialist triaged quickly, and decided that aircraft repatriation to the UK was all that could be offered to seek a full repair – holiday over. Ever the solution focused optimist (and Pharmacist) I quickly realised that there were no bike shops for miles – so I began a futile supply-chain, delivery exercise to source the part online. The HR guy bridged the gap by looking for a practical people solution. After a second coffee, he’d encouraged us to go to a Tourist Information office. Shortly afterwards, I was getting a train back to a coastal city – the wrong direction, but the right call. After spending the afternoon trying bike shops, eventually my explanation of our team goal – inspired a very kind (yet enterprising) shop owner to take the part I needed off a brand new bike in his show room and relieve me of a handful of Euros. The team was back in business! We completed our mission, albeit on a slightly revised schedule – which I would call an ‘adventure’.
I can anticipate the ‘get to the point’ that your thinking (or shouting) at the screen right now. My point is; that all teams require a mix of individually mastered skills, the freedom to make decisions around shared values and most importantly a common purpose and vision. This is commonly known as “motivation”. A strong vision can also inspire others to join in support. Celebrating different points of view and understanding the human factors is vital. Realising that in certain situations, personally you may not have the answer and understanding that in joining forces as a team behind one goal – we are better. This is how the best outcomes are secured.
Striving for our shared vision to be trusted to provide safe, caring and effective services, because people matter by living the Trust values of Care, Respect, Responsibility means we will Care Better Every Day.
Back to the Floor
Last week I was very privileged to join the fantastic OPAT / Community IV team for a morning chemotherapy line care clinic. Quite quickly my clinical competencies were put to the test with a thermometer! As an oncology clinician, it was fantastic to see the delivery of high quality, joined-up care that our community teams provide. I was struck by the obvious impact this service had on patients and their families, the strong supportive relationships that had formed with the nurse team really made the difference. Thank you for hosting me!
As promised colleagues – I put a filter on it!
The back to the floor approach continues in the Trust as senior nurses will have protected time each week to bring their wealth of experience and leadership into direct patient care at the front line.
Dudley Improvement Practice
I know I am not the only member of staff that is excited about the next Dudley Improvement Practice event on Ward C3 this week. The event will run from the 8th to the 13th of August with the first couple of days off site and the remainder making improvements in real-time on the ward. Expect to witness Peter Lowe’s improvement tool kit in action! It will be great to see the evidence of this teamwork in the weeks to come.
Patient Safety Launch – GREATix
As I mentioned earlier the power of understanding human factors is vital to supporting our patient Safety Strategy. Learning from excellence and sharing best practice as a Trust wide team is the key to driving quality. The Trust has launched GREATix, a positive learning system with more details on the Hub. Use GREATix to highlight a team, individual or pathway that is helping us provide better patient care.
A launch event will be taking place on Wednesday 21st August from 2 – 4 pm in the CEC where you can find out more. Everyone is welcome.
Gloucester Visit
Finally, this Wednesday the clinicians and the Digital Trust team will be hosting a team from Gloucestershire Royal Hospital looking specifically at delivering eObs, eSepsis, ePhlebotomy and order comms at their Trust using Sunrise. The team from Gloucestershire are at the very beginning of their digital journey, with a huge amount of challenge and opportunity laid out before them. It is fantastic to have a number of nearby Trusts taking on Sunrise recently, so that we can all benefit from collaborative working and share learning.
