The opening three days of the Clinical Quality Academy are complete, and the participants have had time to reflect on the intense and sometimes exhausting first sessions.
Our colleagues heard from the Chairman, Chief Executive, Medical Director and Director of Nursing as well as listening and engaging with brilliant sessions from the lead faculty – Brandon Bennett, Mohammed Mohammed and Zoe Egerickx.
The keynote speech from Maureen Bisognano, President Emerita of America’s Institute for Healthcare Improvement was possibly the highlight of the week, but what did our CQA colleagues learn from the opening three days?
Dr Daniel Lokko, Trust Grade SAS Doctor
Key Learnings?
There’s so much I have learnt. What really stands out is the fact that teams were getting to know each other and appreciating the values of teams.
I think the methodology that we can use to achieve improvement been well applied, especially with the processes. The bit about understanding the process of the service and dealing with setbacks associated with it helps us to make a positive impact.
Highlight?
Just being on this course has been good. The highlight has been appreciating the values of the team members, that is the take home message. Whoever is part of the team has something to offer and we have to appreciate everybody in a team.
Dr Alison Seed, Cardiology Consultant
Key Learnings?
It has been fabulous. It is exhausting. It has been challenging both in terms of education but also emotionally. You are getting to know yourself but there is also huge value in getting to know other teams and being reassured that the Trust is full of folk with ambition and desire to improve things.
My experience of fail forward; fail, learn, try again, it is really exhausting to do that if you are on your own and you don’t think anyone else is doing it. It feels like there will be a comfort blanket around us to allow us to fail forward.
I’ve been reminded that whatever theories I have with regards to what is wrong in the process I am looking at, I need to check that, and I need to really understand the system that the problem sits in and that I can use data to redirect my effort.
The value in talking and being honest is very there on the wall in the last three days. It is exhausting but the more we can do that over the next 12 months the better and we will bump into each other on corridors and give each other a virtual pat on the back.
Highlight?
We had a talk from Maureen Bisognano, who is a very influential woman in the world of healthcare, and I was just humbled by her humility. The fact that she spent an hour telling us about what other people had done, not what she had done, or what she thought was right. She obviously had created that one hour talk strategically, with her experience and intelligence, but the fact that she had chosen to get the messages across that she wanted to get across, by telling us what other people had done was beautiful. You got a real sense of how she has learned what she knows, it is by getting out there and meeting folk and spending a real length of time with them. It was inspiring.
Aoife Connolly, Specialist Cystic Fibrosis Dietician
Key Learnings?
For us, if I can frame it in the context of our team, what has become really clear to me is that we all have different strengths and weaknesses. The debrief on our Whatsapp at the end of the day, the things that got me completely energised and enthused really drained some of the other team members. That made me think, actually this is why we are an MDT, because we each do well in different areas. It made me realise that the bits that drained me, other team members were buzzing, so that gave me a relief. It was not my area but they love it and we are going to have this rounded pie because that is why we are all different and that is why we are together as a team.
The other thing that was really good was getting to network again. I used to try and do what I could within the Trust by going to training days, but it is actually getting to speak with other people like Dr Seed said, it is that buzz that there is this community at the Vic trying to make change. We will just be more powerful together and learning from each other’s failures. We all don’t have to have the same failure, we can look at that other team did this and it didn’t work and having that space.
I am really enthused and energised again.
Highlight?
Without sounding like a sheep but Maureen’s was just fantastic. I absolutely loved it. I had to go and Google her, look at her YouTube stuff. I really felt empowered. I suppose without being a big feminist, I really felt that we can all do it. If you look at Blackpool there is few women at the top in management, so I do quite like the fact that there is lots of us raring to go.
Mr Anoop Anand, Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon
Key learnings?
The quality of the programme delivery has been excellent, first class, the faculty and the content is first class. I would like to thank for the Trust for the opportunity to provide this in-house. If you wanted to go and do something like this outside there are a lot of financial implications and time etc.
It is exhausting but thoroughly enjoyable. It is very difficult for clinicians to sit in a room, for three days in a row, but we have done this in a virtual setting and hats off to the QI team for running it so well – technology can be difficult.
The QI science doesn’t come naturally to clinicians, at least for me it was not natural at all. You always try to do improvements and change is difficult, QI is difficult, so to link the QI science with what you do is probably the highlight and one of the main things I have learnt over the first three sessions.
Highlight?
Maureen’s talk was amazing. The statistics part, I always struggle with statistics, most surgeons do usually, they suffer with stats. So the stats session was an eye-opener for me and that opened up a lot of avenues for me.
Erica Diaz-Santos, Advanced Clinical Practitioner
Key Learnings?
Everything that everyone has said about learning, yes I have learnt that as well. I have learnt that I have got a community here, of people that are raring to improve the service that we are trying to provide as a Trust.
Highlight?
The highlight for me was the breakout groups because I get to meet all the different people from other specialities and share in a safe space.
I very much appreciate that we are all here together and in the breakout rooms we get to really meet each person and I really like that.