Abi Ososanya, the Trust’s latest Chief Registrar, is no stranger to the NHS in the north west having spent a number of years working for Trusts in Greater Manchester and Wigan. With her new role at Blackpool Teaching Hospitals, Abi is determined to take advantage of the Royal College of Physicians programme and gain a greater understanding and awareness of strategies at executive and board level.
By having greater access to discussions and decision-making processes at a higher level, it is a good opportunity for a clinical lead to help diminish the bridge between non-clinical and clinical staff.
We caught up with Abi to find out more about her plans for the coming months at Blackpool.
What is your background?
Hello, my name is Abi and I’m an ST6 Specialist Registrar in Gastroenterology with a special interest in Endoscopy, Hepatology and medical education. I have been working in the north west for just over five years and I am currently the Chief Registrar here at Blackpool.
What is the Chief Registrar role?
As a medical registrar for the last seven years, I have taken on increasing levels of responsibility as I have progressed through my training. However, a lot of this experience has been from the clinical side of the fence. The Chief Registrar role is incredibly multifaceted and varies from trust to trust; the crux of it is learning and developing leadership and management skills through engagement in Quality Improvement to drive tangible real-world change. The role also serves as a conduit allowing junior members of staff access to senior executives working together to decrease that perceived chasm.
Taking on the Chief Registrar role has allowed me the opportunity to really explore the multi-level NHS management systems right to the executive level. Through quality improvement work and the access the role brings I am able to engage stakeholders and changemakers at all levels in our Trust.
Why are you passionate about QI?
Improvement Science as a way to deliver better quality is great as the methodology and techniques allows grassroots frontline workers to take charge of change in their own domains. It allows clear review of a process, data collection, and analysis to make rapid, real-time changes to improve the system. QI highlights the importance of teamwork and using the resources we all have, all around us, to really make a positive change to our patients, their families and the way we all work together. I’ve already met so many inspiring people through the Clinical Quality Academy and there is some really great work going on here at Blackpool.
Initial thoughts on Blackpool?
It is big! It is friendly and there is so much enthusiasm here for improvement. Everyone has been so incredibly welcoming to me and the concept of my role and I am really enjoying working here.
What are you hoping to get out of the post?
There are lots of technical skills you learn through the Chief Registrar role but more importantly there are some softer skills that I can see that I am already acquiring. Skills like public speaking, team building, communication to name a few and those are really skills that are difficult to teach specifically.
The projects I have been working on so far have taken me to the wards, the Swan suite, the bereavement centre and to the Medical Director Dr Gardner.
I am currently working with a team on the process of completing death certificates which on the surface one would think would be straight forward, but it isn’t. Speaking with members of staff from the Swan suite and hearing the experiences of bereaved families has been a revelation; our care for our patients doesn’t stop when they pass away! Through improvement science we plan to develop long lasting and self-sustaining change that supports the needs of our patients and staff.
What have you experienced in your first month at Blackpool?
It is clear that the hospital is under unrelenting pressures but the spirit of people who I have come across here really is unyielding! The Chief Registrar post is a 12-month programme, I hope my time here will be successful and pave the way for future doctors in training to practice leadership and quality improvement while remaining in clinical practice.