About 8 weeks ago I decided to write a blog, as with most ENTP’s I wanted it now! In true “Dawber”style, when excited about an idea I collared Chris Horner and insisted that he dropped everything to show me how to do it. Unfortunately, with all good intentions of doing over the weekend I did a million and one other things first, so sorry Chris 🙂 but here it is.
So I suppose my theme on this roller coaster week is good intentions….
No one comes to work wanting to do a bad job, I believe everyone in the NHS has “good intentions”, no one wants to make a drug errors, cause harm, have a patient develop a pressure sore, delay an appointment or cancel an operation. Yet we know this happens, so why?
I come to work with good intentions, to do no harm, treat staff well do the best for the patients. Yet most days something doesn’t always go to plan.
The week started with an unannounced visit from the CQC, the organisation with the role to register and monitor our hospitals, they arrived at 6pm on Monday and left at 5pm on Tuesday after observing practices and talking to staff, patients and relatives. The inspectors fed back at the end of the day, one saying that one of the wards had “inspirational staff” a moment to be very proud.
Wednesday was Trust Board day, large agenda nursing strategy and dementia strategy presentations, watched by the board and all of the senior nurses showing support, in uniform, truly awesome.
Everyone on a complete high, proud and excited for the future. We also formally signed up to the Nursing Times NTSOS campaign, encouraging staff to speak out when concerned and feel safe to do so.
It came to my attention later that day that some of the staff, in some areas, are concerned about staffing levels and staff being moved to different areas, that’s the low point.
So back to good intentions, we all want everything to be perfect, never be criticised, never get it wrong and always do our best. But sometimes things go wrong, don’t always go to plan and we all think how could we have done that better / prevented that from happening / anticipated that event.
The NHS is a hugely complex organisation, with risky things undertaken, high risk factors, potentially catastrophic consequences when we make a mistake. We must mitigate these risks to the best of our ability.
Hind sight is a wonderful tool but what we actually need is to all keep our good intentions but add to that a dose of tolerance, respect for each other and a culture that allows us to speak up, speak out and do the right thing for the patient.
No one works in the NHS to do harm or a bad job, everyone counts and everyone wants to make a difference.
karendawber 