I would like to thank my sponsors, the Burdett Trust for Nursing, and the Florence Nightingale Foundation for the unique opportunity this scholarship has given me to develop both personally and professionally. In particular I would like to thank the Foundation for having the faith in me to initially select me for the programme and for the ongoing support and guidance it has provided me throughout the scholarship during what have been some difficult times for me. I would like to thank Liz Robb for her tolerance and understanding of me during the programme. I am sure I have not been the model FNF scholar and have been a source of some frustration at times, but have found Liz’s support and encouragement of me to be incredibly helpful and to have kept me on track.
I would like to thank my mentor Ruth Carnall for the advice and guidance she gave during my scholarship. Although we didn’t meet very often, I valued highly her thoughts on both my direction during the scholarship and my career choices.
Finally I would like to thanks Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust for initially supporting my application for the Florence Nightingale Foundation / Burdett Trust for Nursing Leadership Scholarship and for enabling me to pursue the programmes of study with time away from work, and Southport and Ormskirk NHS Hospital Trust for subsequently supporting me throughout the programme. In particular I would like to thank Elaine Inglesby and Peter Murphy, both former Nightingale Scholars, for their support and constant encouragement during the scholarship and for their many informal mentoring sessions; they have been invaluable during some challenging times.
The scholarship has provided me with a wide range of opportunities which have enabled me to grow personally and professionally and which have challenged me significantly at times. It also gave me the opportunity to meet a wide body of professionals from both within the healthcare system as well as from a wide range of non-healthcare settings. The insight and network opportunities this has given me as well as the personal and professional growth I have experienced during the scholarship have helped me develop a resilience which has proved invaluable in the increasingly demanding landscape of the NHS. Becoming a Nightingale Scholar has provided an unparalleled network of individuals who are often experiencing similar challenges and who have different, often highly innovative solutions to the challenges we face.
I was clear from the outset of the scholarship of my personal and professional objectives. I knew I wanted a broad range of experiences which would provide a challenge to me and which would enable me to develop as a more effective leader through personal growth in terms of my confidence and self-belief. I firmly believed that my personal growth in confidence and self-belief would enable me to successfully make the career transition from Deputy Director of Nursing to a first Board level post and that what I wanted from the scholarship was less about abstract management and leadership theory and more around personal development and authenticity.
My patient care improvement project has undergone a number of iterations during the course of the scholarship and this was primarily due to my changing professional circumstances during this period. During the scholarship I changed roles and took up an appointment as Director of Nursing at Southport and Ormskirk NHS Hospital Trust.
In my new Trust I was obliged to rethink my approach to a patient care improvement project. My focus therefore has shifted to these two main strands:
- The stability of the nursing workforce: how to recruit the right numbers and how best to integrate them into the life of the Trust.
- How to engage and motivate an often disenfranchised workforce
I commenced my post as Director of Nursing at Southport and Ormskirk in February 2015 and during that time have developed these themes with a number of outcomes:
- A successful large-scale, international recruitment initiative, both independently and in partnership with external bodies, in Europe and the Philippines resulting in the appointment of approximately 100 nursing staff.
- In a partnership model with the Trust’s main HEI, the development of an innovative model of staff integration and support which will enable newly recruited international staff to contribute to trust values and the provision of safe, effective and high standards of care by encouraging new internationally recruited nurses and existing staff to work together to foster a culture of community and inclusion.
- A programme of staff engagement through the utilization of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s Breakthrough Series Collaborative model.
- The introduction of a fortnightly senior nurse walkabout model aimed at improving the visibility of the senior nursing group across the organization and fostering better communication between front-line nursing staff and senior nursing management.
- The development of the ‘DoN at handover’ model initiative
- The introduction of a ward-based accreditation programme, underpinned by the theory of shared governance, a model of nursing practice designed to integrate core values and beliefs that professional practice embraces, as a means of achieving quality care.
Whilst this approach is still in its infancy, it is anticipated that it will lead to far greater stability of the workforce, much improved staff engagement and experience and significantly better patient outcomes.
My scholarship has not been without its difficulties. As alluded to in my introduction I spent a period of time towards the latter third of my original scholarship period off work due to ill health and this had a significant impact on both my personal and professional circumstances. This meant me needing to extend my scholarship period until November 2016 and I am grateful to the Nightingale Fellowship for their support of me during this time.
The Florence Nightingale / Burdett Trust for Nursing Leadership Scholarship has been a unique opportunity for me, allowing me the opportunity for both personal and professional growth and providing me with the skills and resilience I need to pursue my career in both a local and nationally challenging environment. Through it I have had the opportunity to gain learning from educators at some of the most prestigious business schools and have had the opportunity to develop invaluable networking opportunities from within and outwith the NHS.
The experience I have gained during the scholarship has, I believe, enabled me to achieve my desired professional aim of appointment to an Executive Director of Nursing position and to provide leadership to a nursing and midwifery workforce.