This leadership journey has been truly transformational, and in the course of the scholarship I have moved 120 miles, changed job twice, lost a dog, met some life-long friends and had a unique opportunity to develop as a leader in healthcare. I am very grateful to those who have helped with this journey, including The London Network for Nurses and Midwives Dame Christine Beasley Leadership Scholarship, Liz Robb from the Foundation, Hilary McCallion and all my friends at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, new colleagues at Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust, fellow scholars, especially for the Seattle experience, Jane Neubauer who challenged and supported, and Alexander Mackenzie, Kristine Kanson and my fellow students at Cranfield who have helped me become fearless.
When I started the scholarship, I had ambitions for building on my previous work in developing systems for excellence in nursing into establishing a national centre for mental health nursing development. Circumstances and ambitions changed (one of the things I’ve learned to cope with much better over the course of the scholarship has been the certainty of uncertainty), and I spent seven months acting into a Director of Nursing and Education role before leaving the organisation I had trained and worked in for 26 years to take up a substantive role as Director of Nursing and Quality in a Trust 120 miles away, moving house and life in the process. To say this has been a challenge would be an understatement, but the support and learning I have gained through the scholarship have helped me to re-focus on new priorities. I have come to realise the importance on acting on ones values, and various aspects of the development programmes I have attended have helped me to articulate this vision, although there is still much work to do.
I have focused on exploring and developing the role of the Ward Manager as a leader of clinical care, looking at the barriers to this and the mechanisms by which these can be overcome. Having conducted a comprehensive review of the role, recommendations for improving the effectiveness of the role in delivering quality care have been produced. The change of job halted progression of this work for a while, but implementation of the recommendations is now planned, and results will be reported.
This report outlines my experience and how I developed as a leader during my Florence Nightingale Scholarship. The report identifies the key activities and courses that I experienced some of which were prescribed by the Foundation and others that I identified as being specifically relevant to me.
This scholarship has been the most influential personal journey of my life; one that has struck at the very core of who I am and how I react and respond to the world around me. It has created great insights and made me challenge many of my strongly held beliefs and values.
The entered the scholarship with a basic understanding of what I thought I needed and wanted but soon realised that there were many aspects of my personal development that I had not considered. The initial profiling helped me gain this baseline appreciation of what I truly needed to focus on to improve my ability to be an influential leader.
At first, I found the choses and opportunities open to me were somewhat overwhelming; I would equate how I felt to that of a child in a sweet shop. The scholarship had opened up the whole world to me to choose what I wanted to do. It therefore took me a few months to navigate my way through the options and decide what I wanted to do. In the meantime, I emerged myself in the organised activities and began my meeting with my wonderful mentor, Sir Keith Pearson.
I felt (and was) so privileged to have such an eminent person as Sir Keith Pearson as my Mentor and knew from my very first meeting that I was extremely lucky. Sir Keith helped me to develop my thinking and begin to understand the fundamental elements of who I was and what I needed to be to grow as a leader. Through his guidance and counsel I was able to navigate my way to identify the opportunities I could create through the scholarship; this approach helped to inform the specific aspects activities I chose.
The framework provided within the scholarship enabled me to triangulate understanding my personal development needs. Professor Liz Robb, the CEO of the Florence Nightingale Foundation offered me guidance and support; the profiling activity with Sue Machell gave me tangible personal insights and Sir Keith provided me with great personal insights. This approach encouraged me to reflect and challenge my thinking and perceptions.
As a result, I chose a range of activities that have enabled me to become the leader I aspired to be. Through the scholarship I met all my objects which included gaining a Chair and becoming a Dean.
While on the scholarship I experience some turbulent times in my personal and professional life and had to deal with some challenging issues that were unrelated to the scholarship. However, the scholarship helped me through those challenges and provided me with a supportive framework that helped me to understand the dynamics I was encountering. Through this process I have become a stronger and more insightful individual.
My report outlines how the scholarship far surpassed my expectation; I feel proud and privileged to be associated with the Florence Nightingale Foundation and know that my experience will continue to enable me to grow and develop as a leader.