This report outlines my experiences and how I developed as a leader as a result of the Leadership Scholarship from the Florence Nightingale Foundation / The Burdett Trust for Nursing during 2015-16. It will include a brief summary of my personal and career development goals, achievements during the scholarship and of the improvement project I worked on during my scholarship. The report identifies the key activities and courses that I underwent, some of which were mandated as part of the scholarship and others that I chose for being particularly relevant to me and my development.
In 2014 I had been a Clinical Matron in my Trust for over six years. Following a gap analysis of my then knowledge and skills, I was aware that I needed some leadership development in order to achieve the head of Nursing post that I aspired to. Liz Robb had visited my Trust’s nursing awards day and had talked about the scholarship to the delegates so that when the Director of Nursing suggested that apply I was inspired to do so.
My objectives for the scholarship year were:
- To increase my self confidence
- To achieve a Head of nursing post
- To learn new knowledge and skills that would improve patient care
- To get out of my comfort zone.
The diagnostic assessments at the beginning of the scholarship helped me understand my strengths and areas to focus on for my development. This was a constructive meeting which helped me refine my choices for the scholarship.
The activities and experiences during my scholarship year include:
- Leading Change through Organisational Renewal (LCOR)
- Florence Nightingale Conference
- Co-consulting group
- RADA – Communication skills for leaders
- Ashridge Leadership Process
- Visit to Virginia Mason and the Swedish Medical Centre, Seattle
- Mentorship
- Improvement project
My improvement project was to increase the percentage of patients discharged before midday on the surgical wards from a baseline of 13% to 33%. This was initially an internal objective to improve patient flow in the surgical services but was identified as a CQUIN for the Trust in April 2015 to achieve 25% of discharges before midday throughout the Trust and my project has helped inform this work. Currently the surgical centre discharge over 33% of patients before midday.
Whilst I have been on the scholarship, my Trust has commenced a large scale, transformational restructure and this has been very difficult for me both on a personal and a professional level. I achieved the post of head of nursing that I aspired to and then six months later this role was disestablished and put at risk and the seven previous centres were changed into five. I then successfully went through the process of applying for an associate director of nursing role in the new structure. At times it has been difficult to juggle the time requirements of work, home and the scholarship; however I strongly believe that the scholarship has helped me develop the skills, confidence and resilience to meet the challenges ahead.
In conclusion the scholarship has enabled me to understand and develop a plan to meet my professional goals and has supported my personal development. The experiences I have had and the people I have met and learned from have changed me. I am now a better leader with a depth of underpinning knowledge that I can translate into practice within my Trust, this has helped me enormously whilst undergoing transformational change in my organisation. I believe that the scholarship has exceeded my expectations and has vastly improved my self-confidence, directly influencing my career as I have been promoted twice whilst on the scholarship and am now an Associate Director of Nursing.