Day 28: Bring Your Bear To Work Day (Guest Blog)

Hi there, I’m Pooh Pooh Bo Bo Baby Bear (don’t ask!) and I am guest writing David’s blog today on Bring Your Bear To Work Day.

This pales into insignificance with World Mental Health Day tomorrow 10 October:  One in four of us will experience a mental illness during our lives.

The Mental Health Foundation’s theme is older adults and the positive aspects of mental health in later life.  Mental health problems are not an inevitable aspect of ageing.

Rethink will launch a guide to staying well with bipolar disorder.

Mind is asking you to tweet them your pictures to help in the fight for support and respect using #WMHD.

See Time To Change and join 45,000 people who’ve pledged to help end mental health stigma.

However you’re affected, we all need to know more for prevention, support & recovery.

Thanks for having me,

Pooh

Day 27: Learning When Things Go Well (Appreciative Inquiry)

Safeguarding Masterclass today in Leeds, led by NHS England’s @HilaryGarratt.

Learned loads about different ways safeguarding’s being managed across England and particularly liked the way Appreciative Inquiry’s being used in the North East.

Appreciative inquiry turns the problem solving approach on its head.  It focuses on achievements rather than problems.  It is great to see that time is specifically being set aside to learn from what works and spread good practise rather than just concentrating on where things have gone wrong in the past.

I will be sharing this with colleagues locally to see if we can do something similar.

(exactly 100 words again; I must be getting better at this!)

Day 26: A shameless plug

For today’s blog, I’ll take advantage of you with a job advert (sorry).  Do you want to come and join my team working in quality in commissioning in the role of Quality & Safety Manager?  If you’re interested in being part of an evolving team focussed on improving services and outcomes for patients, then this role may be just for you.

Band 8A, based in Luton, this is ideal for a ward sister/matron, district nurse, specialist nurse, therapist or any other senior clinician with relevant experience.  Get your application in quickly; it closes Friday 11 October.

Thanks for letting me take advantage of your attention; tomorrow I’ll post on a different subject, I promise!

Day 25: The Courage to Follow – #WeNurses

It was amazing how many people, particularly student nurses engaged in last night’s leadership #WeNurses Twitter Chat (If you don’t know what a Twitter Chat is or have never joined on before, visit the WeNurses Twitterversity to lean more). Student nurses are future leaders and need support in growing as leaders, not just ‘trained’ in management.

Leadership isn't about who shouts loudest, has the fanciest job title or biggest office.  Leadership is being clear and courageous to stick to what you believe in and enthuse others in your vision.

I was reminded today (thanks @BethSwanson6) by a YouTube clip I first saw three years ago that it isn’t all about leaders.  Early followers who resolve to stand out and act on what they believe in are as, if not more, courageous.

A leader will be defined by his or her followership; be inspired, have the guts to be the first person to stand up and follow a cause who you believe in.

Day 24: Listening – National Poetry Day

Today was my first all-staff meeting at the CCG,

An opportunity for me to meet people who didn't already know me.

I ran a brief workshop to listen to what they thought,

About what we can do better for patients from ideas they had brought.

We discussed barriers to being effective day-to-day,

And how we might overcome them in a positive way.

There were ideas aplenty for a better patient-focus,

But no magic solutions or hocus pocus.

Listening to our staff was time well spent,

Now to make changes that are well-meant.

I will feedback what I heard our staff had to say,

And how this will change what we do for our patients every day.

Day 23: “Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen” Winston Churchill

I spent time today thinking about courage (one of the 6 Cs in the NHS’s aim to improve compassionate care).

I had an induction meeting with our local Director of Adult Social Services and reflected afterwards how some of the integration we need to do will take courage

I thought about the courage displayed today by members of my team in dealing with difficult situations and challenging the established way of doing things.

I am also hoping for courage tomorrow from CCG staff when we undertake a listening exercise at our monthly staff meeting aiming to identify barriers to change and how we overcome them.

Day 22: Asking 'Carefrontational' Questions

Today was the first meeting of the Hertfordshire & South Midlands Area Safeguarding Forum.  This brought together medical and nurse safeguarding leaders from NHS commissioners and providers to determine how the forum will support our collective future work on safeguarding and to agree priorities.  At the end of the session we had an inspiring presentation from an independent Chair of a local safeguarding board. In this presentation I was taken by the concept of developing capacity in front-line staff to ask ‘carefrontational’ questions.  This involves all 6C’s: Care, Compassion, Competence, Communication, Courage & Commitment, to ensure we are able to support effective safeguarding of children and vulnerable adults.