Listening into Action

This week I attended the launch of Worcester Acute Hospitals NHS Trust’s involvement in Listening into Action. 

We aren’t supposed to call this a project or initiative or scheme; its something akin to “this is not a diet, it’s a way of life!” 
In essence LiA is about employee engagement to make simple improvements to care delivery, services and practice that have been identified and initiated by the people who really do know best; those on the ground. With the added bonus of guaranteed executive support and encouragement. 

I’ll put my cards on the table now and say that I was a sceptic. In fact when I first realised we were signing up I said out loud that I did not think that the Trust had the maturity for something like this (inward looking, set in ways……) BUT the launch event altered my views. 

Firstly it prompted me to remember why I do what I do and how I got here. When I left nursing at the bedside of my beloved MAU (firstly to be a practice development nurse, then as acting ward manager and now as a quality governance manager) it was because I desperately wanted to improve safety, quality and experience for patients, my colleagues and for me and my family. My epiphany in the early days was when I realised how foolish I was to be waiting for someone else to come along and make things better. There never was, and never will be, a mystical “them/they/magic elf” appearing through the mist. Change really does start with you. Yes I know this is simplistic and there are a number of factors that can make this tricky, but in essence it’s true. If you believe in something and want it enough to work hard for it then you can make change happen. Now the impact I have had to date as a lean, mean, changing machine is debatable and is probably the topic of an entirely separate blog (that would outline all the tricky factors alluded to above) but it is the raison d’etre that is important here, because I had forgotten this key tenet lately. LiA and writing this blog have given me a chance to stop and look again at my moral compass. 

Revisiting this has also helped me to reconcile some of the discomfort that I have about moving away from patient care and adding manager to my job title. For anyone else struggling with similar issues I recommend listening to this Lecture featuring June Girvin (@JuneinHE):  Pro Vice Chancellor and Dean at Oxford Brookes University. June is also a nurse and had been a nurse manager. I am also grateful to June for gently telling me off during this week’s @WeNurses tweet chat and to Teresa Chin (@AgencyNurse) for bringing the lecture to my attention. 

The second shift in my scepticism  was with regards to my statement about the Trust lacking maturity to Embrace LiA. How does anyone grow and mature without practice, experience and, perhaps most importantly, prior failure? LiA offers a supportive framework (way of life!!) in which to grow. Such a glib comment suggested that it was pointless to even bother trying. This is actually plain daft as doing nothing is simply not an option. 

Launch day saw a good turn out  and I would say that those in the room ranged from the sceptic at my end of the scale, passing bewildered and curious, and right on through to those who are doggedly determined to make a difference. Now that’s not a bad mix and probably is representative of the Trust’s employees on a larger scale. So it’s a promising start. 

The reason I found myself at launch day was because I had been asked to be one of a triumvirate (Definition – odd word, difficult to pronounce, not many people know what it means, not terribly in-keeping with the ethos of “keep it simple stupid”) to lead on a journey to streamline and simplify the nursing and medical paperwork between A&E and MAU cross county. This is something I’ve been wanting to do for eons so I can’t wait to get started. 

Hopefully the LiA new way of life will exceed this sceptic’s expectations. It would also be really nice if the experience provided me with enough material for a few more blogs so that others get the chance to follow and possibly learn. Watch this space…… 

History in the Making: #WGT16 and my first blog post

This is my first blog post as a healthcare professional so, as Miranda would say, bear with.

On Monday (29/2/16) I travelled north to attend the first We Get Together -#WGT16 (I actually made a weekend of it and took the opportunity to visit some friends beforehand). I won’t deny that I felt a little nervous about walking in to a roomful of strangers alone; even though I follow and communicate with many of the delegates on Twitter.  I spent quite a lot of the day looking around the room to see if I could match Twitter avatars to real faces. There was also a bit of surreptitious glancing at name badges for recognisable Twitter handles (we were all doing it).

The day kicked off with a fabulous silent movie outlining the journey #WGT16 had taken to come to fruition (I’d add a link here but I’m not sure how to do this yet). Like all well rooted trees, the concept of bringing members of the We communities together started with a seed of an idea (a tweeted one). 

The day offered plenty of opportunities to get to know one another and to discuss the benefits, perils and barriers of using social medial in health care. Social media guru Helen Bevan introduced the concept of curating information online so that digital intake is more like sipping from a wine glass than drinking from a fire hydrant at full force. I think Annie Cooper also planted a seed in my head for using Pinterest as one method of curating information (the treasure trove was a great example).

I also really enjoyed listening to @markOneInFour talk about the NHS, in particular around his trust of healthcare professionals to use social media wisely and for the greater good.

Discussions were varied but there was a lot focus on the variation of  local policy for social media use and some debate on Twitter’s ability to transcend traditional hierarchy (which carried on online afterwards). 

It’s an understatement to say how well everyone who took part in the organisation of the event did! Things appeared to run smoothly; credit to the resourceful and organised tweeting  MDT. There was also plenty of cake to go round (and no, I didn’t enter an M&S sponge into the competition as my own!).

True to form I managed to get a couple of selfies with Teresa Chinn and Roy Lilley – I know Rev David Southall would approve of this haul! It was great to chat briefly with Teresa in person and to get/give a hug. There were a lot of hugs in the room between people who were strangers in person but well connected online. 
The day also had a decent following by those who could not make it to the event. We were warned not to mention trending (though trending we were!!) as it encourages robots to add tosh and nonsense to the trending hash tag. To prove a point, a picture of a ladies bottom appeared on the giant screen amongst the live #WGT16 feed; much to the amusement of those in the room. 

One of my more selfish reasons for attending #WGT16 (aside from the obvious networking benefits) was to find solutions for my recent Twitter inactivity (I tweet as @toribird79 if anyone would like to follow). I have been working as a quality governance manager for almost a year now and a good proportion of my work is quite sensitive, either to patients, staff or the reputation of the Trust where I work. For these reasons I have felt stilted in what I can share about my working day on Twitter and given that my Twitter account is largely a professional one this has been quite a problem. I think I bored enough people with my story to realise that I can still be active on social media without breaking confidences and as a result I have already upped the Twitter engagement anti. 

My final pledge of the day, after far too long on the back burner , was to start a blog. So, jobs a good un!