I would like to thank the Florence Nightingale Foundation for the opportunity to develop both professionally and personally. The scholarship has provided a year of opportunities in networking and being exposed to educational programmes of international reputation such as Harvard Business School in the USA. I would also like to extend my gratitude to the Burdett Trust for Nursing who funded the scholarship.
I would like to sincerely thank Stockport NHS Foundation Trust for initially supporting my application for the Florence Nightingale Foundation Leadership Scholarship, and Aintree NHS Foundation Trust for subsequently supporting me throughout the programme.
I also wish to thank and offer my personal gratitude to Helen Thomson, my mentor, for her wise counsel, advice and expertise throughout the year.
This leadership scholarship has provided me with an opportunity to gain professional and personal development through internationally renowned educational programmes and also to develop new networks and contacts which provide advice and support in times when resilience is needed. Leadership at executive level is increasingly challenging and I have found this support to be invaluable.
I had rich learning experiences from attending programmes such as the Leading Organisational Change from Stanford, Making Corporate Boards more Effective from Harvard Business School, RADA, and the leadership summit at Cranfield. The formal education gained on these courses was extremely varied and rich, opening the mind to new concepts and ideas, and revisiting theories already known, but with new perceptives from a range of professionals. I benefitted from meeting people from all over the world, from different backgrounds, cultures, roles and professions. More locally, the scholarship group made strong relationships and the networking across the United Kingdom continues.
From early on in the scholarship I had clear objectives in mind for the three aspects of the scholarship; personal leadership, career development and the patient care project and this helped me remain focused throughout the year. I am delighted to report that the scholarship has been hugely beneficial in all three areas yielding positive results professionally, personally and for the project.
At the point of applying for the Florence Nightingale Foundation Leadership Scholarship I was also looking to progress my career and knew there may be a chance I would move organisations during the scholarship. In fact I moved just three months in to the programme. It is partly for this reason that I chose a project that could be transferrable. I decided to look at care for patients with dementia in the acute setting. This is an area that is close to my heart as my grandmother has advanced dementia; it is also an area that is ever expanding in terms of the numbers of patients we see in hospitals with the condition and the related legalities such as the mental capacity act and the deprivation of liberty safeguards. The scholarship afforded me networking opportunities as well as educational learning, and we have used “go, see” methodology to bring back excellent practice to Aintree University Hospital. Throughout the year I have progressed the project in a number of ways:
- Excellent work was underway to develop pathways in a beautifully designed Acute Frailty Unit (AFU). The team held a stand at last year’s Patient Safety Congress in relation to the work undertaken around dementia pathways and in particular the design of the AFU, incorporating arts and crafts for the patients and their relatives. The AFU also has a dining room and a reminiscence room. It has been decorated in soft, relaxing colours.
- Lead Nurse for Dementia Care.
- Forget Me Not Scheme Trust wide.
- A Dementia Care Steering Group was set up, chaired by myself and with the lead nurse and clinician for dementia, and also with representatives from community colleagues and also those voluntary sector partners such as the Alzheimer’s society and Age UK.
- I met with the Director of Nursing from the mental health trust to look at how we can better work together to improve outcomes for our patients and their families.
- At the Chief Nursing Officer’s (CNO) summit Aintree won a Compassion in Care award for promoting independence
- In terms of end of life care, we have worked with our volunteer service which has also been recognised by the CNO compassion in care awards where we were finalists for the companion service the volunteers provide.
- The Trust achieved the national and local CQUINs for dementia FAIR assessment which was a fantastic achievement.
- Drop in listening clinics for patients and families
- We hold Listening into Action events in the community periodically listening to our local population about what it is they would like to see in hospitals for themselves or their families helping us to plan our services
- We have worked with the League of Friends and identified funding to build two family rooms two of our specialties which will mean more flexibility of visiting for families who wish to be near to support their relatives with dementia while they are a patient in our care
The Florence Nightingale Foundation Leadership Scholarship has provided me with a fabulous opportunity to develop myself both professionally and personally. I have benefitted from being able to undertake the scholarship when embarking on my first director post and the scholarship along with the advice and support from my mentor and fellow scholars has developed my skills and personal resilience making the transition from deputy to director in a pressured environment much smoother than it may have been without this programme.