The diagnostic leadership assessments at my first scholarship session allowed me the time to discuss my current portfolio through various assessment tools. For me it meant bringing everything together and allowed me to reflect and focus on deep thoughts about my personality, my experience, how I was perceived in my role and how I needed to prioritise my development. Following my assessments I was able to devise a portfolio of areas to focus upon to improve my leadership. Examples are mentoring shadowing, networking and working on a non -nursing project.
In addition to this having the opportunity to attend formal learning such as the LCOR and Stanford University I learnt about new models and theories that helped me to think about my leadership behaviours at work and how I could make changes to become a better leader. The opportunity to study overseas was invaluable, not only networking with leaders for across many countries having the time to learn from others and their experience was a real advantage.
The personal diagnostics that I experienced at the beginning of the leadership journey has made me very self-aware of my abilities and developments in the future. Understanding myself and then how others work has been truly invaluable in developing my confidence.
As I applied for the scholarship it was my ambition to place myself in the best position to become an Executive Nurse of the future.
As a result of assessments and mentorship I was able to set myself career leadership objectives and a portfolio of skills required to work at the next level in nursing.
One of my objectives for my career development was to understand the role of the Board of Directors and the relationship of the Executive and Non Executive teams. As a result of the scholarship I attended various Board of Directors meetings at two hospitals and enhanced my understanding of the skills required to become an Executive Nurse. I also had the opportunity to work alongside the chairman to understand the role of the NEDS and the key relationship required between both.
Nine months into my scholarship I gained promotion to Deputy Chief Nurse at a large complex city centre hospital with three sites. I began my new post in December 2014 approximately twelve months into my scholarship.
I have felt comfortable moving into the Deputy Chief Nurse role as I had experience of working at this level in my previous post brought about only by opportunities that the scholarship afforded to me.
My role now in supporting the Chief Nurse is to ensure that our three hospitals meet the quality agenda, ensure patient safety, to keep an eye on operational divisions and develop a strong future-nursing workforce. To enable this I will to continue using all of my learning both theoretical and experiential gained from the leadership scholarship.
The Nursing & Midwifery Strategy (2013 – 2018) was launched at Wirral University Teaching Hospital in December 2013. The strategy was based upon the principles of achieving the delivery of modern nursing with traditional values and embraces the 6Cs that are outlined within the National Nursing Strategy, “Compassion in Practice” (2013).
Literature about the 6Cs explains that in the main most of the Cs have measurable outcomes, with the exception of compassion.
The project that I completed was titled enabling a compassionate Workforce.
There is a belief that in all caring organisations compassion is a given but can we be so sure?
Exhibiting compassion is truly the right thing to do for our patients as post Francis (2013) there is evidence of a huge diluted need for compassion in organisations. The patient experience data within the organisation was showing Trust that although the number of complaints’ responses has reduced their remained a theme of a lack of caring and poor attitude across disciplines. The Friends & Family Test net promoter score I was not rising for inpatient wards at the pace it needs to be.
As a result of the use of the congruence tool, I was able been able to find 3 categories of cause for this:-
- Employees did not have a shared definition of compassion
- There was emotional flattening amongst the staff
- We have not embedded the Trust values and behaviour across the organisation
The project group met monthly and initially scoped all current work then agreed milestones and work streams to measure compassion with the organisation.
The Enabling Compassionate Workforce Group came to a really exciting time in November 2014 when it organised a Trust wide ‘Culture Day’ to launch the 5 workstreams (outputs from the project) which were-
- Testing the organisational culture
- Compassion-patents
- Compassion- staff
- Introduction of Schwartz Rounds
- Leadership Behaviours
The Culture Day was sponsored by the Trust Executives and was streamed on Twitter @ WUTH (#CICday14).
The most significant output that has influenced and improved patient care is the introduction of Compassion cards awarded to staff that display compassion in their everyday practice. They have been introduced across two organisations and the principles of the cards and the project were published in the British journal of Nursing in April 2015.
A simple tool invented by Nurses and Health Care Workers has gone a long way in beginning to measure compassion and kindness in two successful organisations.
It is difficult to put into words the appreciation of my growth and development that I have experienced as a result of the scholarship.
I have had the opportunity to complete a full set of personal diagnostics that guided me on a realistic journey to improve as a leader.
I have attended many leadership courses and have expanded my experiential learning across the NHS and wider health economy.
I have shared my learning in terms of my project with other organisations and have published my work to ensure sharing to a wider audience.
I have grown personally and professionally and believe that the scholarship has opened doors for me that otherwise may have remained closed. After 30 years of working in various nursing roles in the NHS attending the Florence nightingale Leadership Scholarship is akin to attending a finishing school for nursing.
Thank you to the Florence Nightingale Foundation for believing in me.