Mentorship in healthcare and research: Role modelling for excellence

Mentoring, coaching, role modelling, training…. leading….Whatever you want to call it, I would be nothing without it. That phrase was once hurled at me as an insult…

YOU WOULD BE NOTHING WITHOUT ‘X’ – Well yes..That is true.

Workplace cultures in healthcare and research are created and shaped by what we do rather than what we say. Simply put, the way we behave is how we end up living. Although we can all be influenced by what we see, hear and experience …YOU can choose how you will and won’t behave. You can equally decide what behaviour you will and will not accept from others. But who will show us the way we want to go?

As I remember training to be a midwife, many people said …”‘take the good bits and leave the bad bits’ out of your own practice, as you develop and grow alongside your mentor”. I did this, and yet it took me a long time to define who I wanted to be as a professional. Some mentors were good, and some mentors less so – personal preference perhaps?… Many tried to direct the way in which they wanted me to go, and it took great courage for me to challenge this directive behaviour. However, as my career progressed, I was able to study Leadership in health and social care at Masters degree level. This really helped me to understand the theories behind good and bad mentorship…

A good mentor:

• Has confidence in you
• Trusts you
• Empowers you
• Gives constructive feedback
• Wants you to succeed
• Supports your new ventures
• Listens to your new ideas
• Identifies your strengths and helps you develop them into constructive outputs
• Identifies your weaknesses and helps you manage them effectively
• Shares their wisdom
• Gives you wings to fly
• Behaves with integrity, professionalism and dignity
• Inspires you
• Is kind to you (and others)!
• Feeds your passions and thirst for new opportunities
• Invites you into their network of expertise
• Grows with you as you as a professional

A bad mentor:

• Is concerned only with their own success
• Talks about doing things that never happen ‘All talk’
• Is always negative about everything and everyone
• Is never around
• Cannot commit to your development
• Bullies you
• Dictates how you must behave
• Doesn’t pay attention to the way you would like to develop professionally
• Never admits when they are wrong
• Refuses to believe that you may know more than them in certain areas
• Compares you with others (negatively)
• Never lets you progress
• Kills your confidence
• Makes you feel bad about yourself

Once you find your way, it is important to find the courage to decide which behaviours you are willing to accept, and to role model yourself for the benefit of others. These are important choices to make, as they will contribute to the cultures in which you and your colleagues will be working. Ask yourself the following:

• What do you need in order to be productive?
• What do you need from others in order to thrive professionally?
• How do you want to behave?
• What are you willing to accept?

The answers to these questions must be acted upon. Have the courage to communicate these needs…Others will want you to succeed, they will appreciate this information…

…If not…..are you willing to accept that?

My final tip for ultimate success is to find your flock. Gravitate towards those who inspire you… hang around with those who allow you to fly…. learn from those who lift others up and share your thoughts with those who seek out change.

I would be nothing without my ‘Flock’…my wonderful mentors and my inspiring colleagues.

Each and every one of us ‘mentor’ a growing professional every day (whether we realise it or not)! Therefore each and every one of us needs to decide how we want to behave every day..We all create the workplace cultures, leaders and workforce of the future. Lets create something wonderful…

Thank you to all of you wonderful mentors out there….

Until next time, look after yourselves, and each other 💙💜💚

Why the health, wellbeing & engagement of #NHS staff matters..financially, practically & morally speaking…

I spend a lot of my time talking to clinicians, managers, commissioners, those outside of healthcare and leaders about the importance of promoting and supporting staff wellbeing within the #NHS workplace. Some are already on board with the reality that excellence in healthcare simply cannot happen in the absence of a workforce that is cared for and nurtured to thrive. Others feel discomfort at the thought of caring for staff when the ‘patient comes first’ and some simply don’t know what to do for the best. In any case, nobody seems to want to destroy the NHS workforce (correct me if I am wrong)!… and everyone seems to want to learn more.

A good staff experience where staff feel ‘engaged’ is critical to  achieving excellence in healthcare…What do we mean by ‘Staff Engagement’?

‘Institute for Employment Studies (IES), defined staff engagement as a positive attitude held by the employee towards the organisation and its values. An engaged employee is aware of business context and works with colleagues to improve performance within the job for the benefit of the organisation. The organisation must work to develop and nurture engagement which requires a two-way relationship between employer and employee (Robinson et al 2004, p 4).’

Recently, I was asked to provide some evidence as to why the wellbeing of NHS staff matters by someone else who was keen to make a difference in this area. They needed to make the case to others in order to make change happen. I imagine that lots of other change makers will be needing to provide evidence too, and so I have set out some arguments for the case below. I hope many of you will find it useful to have some of the arguments in one place.

Please feel free to share this evidence widely with others…. If you have other evidence to add to this, please feel free to comment below…

(There can never be too much to share)!

Financial reasons to care for NHS staff:

Over 2014/2015, the NHS Litigation authority (NHSLA) paid over £1.1 billion to patients who suffered harm and their legal representatives, this coming year it will be c £1.4 billion and with accumulated provisions in our balance sheet of over £28 billion further significant increases are already in the pipeline. When staff are unwell, in psychological distress, communication is hampered by poor working cultures and there is a lack of staff engagement, NHS staff are more likely to make medical errors (Hall et al, 2016).

Good staff health, wellbeing & engagement = reduced medical errors = reduced litigation costs

Estimates suggest that recruiting a nurse from overseas costs between £2,000 and £12,000 and return-to-practice costs some £2,000 per nurse, while training a new nurse costs around £79,000. Additionally, recruitment costs to replace staff who leave owing to work-related stress and/or poor job satisfaction is estimated to be £4500 (More for senior posts). As such, in order to get best value for money, the NHS will need to work hard to retain and recruit a high quality workforce.

Good staff health, wellbeing & engagement

= Increased recruitment and retention = Best value for money

Staff sickness absence rates cost an estimated £3.3million annually per NHS organisation. When staff are absent, there is the added cost of agency staff to fill in gaps (The NHS Improvement team now expect the NHS to spend a total of £3.7 billion on agency staff by the end of the 2015/16 financial year).The Francis inquiry into Mid Staffordshire also exposed the consequences for patients and staff of not addressing this issue of staff morale and sickness. Typically, if an NHS organisation reduced staff sickness rates by a third,it would provide an additional 3.4 million working days a year for NHS staff, equivalent to 14,900 full-time staff, saving an estimated £555 million.

Good staff health, wellbeing & engagement = Decrease in sickness absence = reduced agency/sickness spend & therefore, improved patient care

(Image source :http://www.slicedbread.co.uk/solutions/employee-engagement/)

Practical reasons to care for NHS staff:

Ultimately and practically, the NHS exists to provide high quality and safe care to patients. Evidence so far shows that better staff health and wellbeing is associated with improved patient outcomes.

Some of the many benefits to improved NHS wellbeing is that better staff health results in lower infection rates and lower standardised mortality figures. The Keogh review of 14 hospital trusts with high patient mortality rates found all these trusts also had higher levels of staff sickness, compared to national average.

Good staff health, wellbeing & engagement = Safer and higher quality patient care

When an NHS organisation invests in staff health, wellbeing and engagement, they improve their ‘Brand’. Branding is one of the most important aspects of any business, large or small, and its impact shouldn’t be underestimated when it comes to engaging staff with health and wellbeing initiatives.

Good staff health, wellbeing & engagement = Your NHS organisation looks good & therefore attracts more staff

A report from the Kingsfund suggests that job satisfaction, organisational commitment, turnover intentions, and physical and mental wellbeing of employees are predictors of key organisational outcomes such as effectiveness, productivity and innovation. Everyone wants more of these things..right? They all have the potential to save money and improve the safety and quality of care.

Good staff health, wellbeing & engagement = Higher productivity, staff effectiveness and innovation = Cash savings and better services

Moral reasons to care for NHS staff:

Staff are entitled to a psychologically and physically safe professional journey. Caring for them is not an optional issue, it is an ethical one.

 

When staff are well cared for, they experience greater job satisfaction, improved morale and general wellbeing. Few aspire to be ill, and many feel great shame in letting others down or asking for help.

Where the emotionality of distressing work  remains unrecognised and void of support, distorted thinking, emotional distress, reduced productivity, increased sickness rates, poor decision making, and maladaptive patterns of behaviour may present. Physical symptoms can also result, where severe job stress evokes irregular menstrual bleeding patterns for female healthcare workers, poor sleep quality and bodily exhaustion.

The NHS workforce is one of the largest work forces in the world. They are patients, they are the public, as are their friends and families. As such, by caring for this group, we are also caring for a large part of society. Moreover, there is also a strong statistical link between the wellbeing of staff and patient satisfaction. This means that if we are failing to care for staff, we are also missing an opportunity to improve patient satisfaction.

Good staff health, wellbeing & engagement = A nice and decent thing to do for all.

There are many more reasons for NHS organisations to care about the the health, wellbeing & engagement of their staff..Financially, practically & morally speaking… Please feel free to add these below.

I hope that these few facts and figures can be shared and used to convince everyone throughout the NHS of these facts. Many will say that it is the patient that must come first. However, I argue that excellence in health and social care may only be achieved if both the staff and patients are cared for equally, as they work in partnership to achieve the best outcomes.

Looking for ways to turn this vision into practice? See my blog on 20 ways to create a thriving NHS workforce here

Until next time, look after yourselves and each other 💛💙💜💚.

20 Ways to Create a Thriving #NHS workforce: #Leadership Lessons from @BSC_CCG

One head of Midwifery and one clinical matron have come to me this week asking for hints and tips about how they can support their staff (Great!) – They reported high sickness rates, clinical errors, high staff turnovers and stressed out staff. I am, as always, sorry to hear this. So I thought I would put together 20 hints and tips which have been proven to reduce mistakes, reduce complaints, reduce sickness and absence rates, improve retention rates, increase innovation and enthusiasm and create positive working cultures where staff are happy to be at work.

I have been on my travels again this week, one leader I met with in particular inspired me to learn more about how every NHS organisation can drive improvement through leading with compassion and actively supporting their staff in the workplace.

Cherry Dale is currently working within Birmingham South Central CCG (@BSC_CCG)….and her journey towards promoting healthy working cultures and staff well being is truly inspirational . I believe that her example now shines as an exemplar model for us all to follow. She doesn’t just talk the talk either…Her sickness rates are currently down to 0.2% in comparison with 4.44% average within the NHS, her staff engagement is high, recruitment and retention rates are high and the way her organisation can now innovate is amazing.

As I listened to Cherry’s words of wisdom, trying to take it all in…She pointed me to her latest published paper and her transformation journey -> How to get apples, not cactuses: an organisation fit for purpose: Meeting the well being needs of staff and community. By Cherry Dale.

Cherry had a dream to create a “Very different sort of service”…Knowing that performance and well-being were “inextricably” linked, she looked to prioritise mental well being, and was keen to make sure that the needs and resources of staff as well as those using the healthcare services were “at the heart” of the way her organisation worked.

How can we all ensure that this comes to fruition? 20 Hints & Tips:

1. Ensure that decision making is shared between all operational staff so that everyone is empowered to “Lead and act upon good ideas”
2. Adopt the management style, promoted by the concept of the “Sunao Mind” (Untrapped, calm and highly adaptable)!
3. Ensure that there are “No Dark Corners” – Share all knowledge and cascade it throughout, right from the top….This actively promotes ‘no blame cultures’.
4. Embrace “Stand up meetings” Where staff are encouraged to share what went well, be down to earth and collaboratively share everything openly (30 mins in length).
5. Imagine your organisation as a “Jigsaw” in which everyone holds a vital piece of the puzzle – encourage them to nurture this and take responsibility for it.
6. Ensure there are no “Departments”, instead refer to “Natural working areas” so that boundaries are no longer in force and silo working becomes thing of the past.
7. Ask “Who has the capacity?” to perform a task and “Who needs help?” – staff may be reluctant at first to share when they are at capacity, but in time the culture can metamorphosise into a supportive and emotionally intelligent culture, where staff are given extra support by colleagues whilst they are stretched to capacity.
8. Ensure that staff realise that this is how you want and expect them to behave…You set the tone in communicating “This is how we do things here!”
9. Erase the concept of ‘Grades’ or ‘bandings’ – If someone has the talent, motivation and capabilities to do the task…They can and should be empowered to do it! (Follow this with active talent management)
10. See leaders as coaches and invest in training… for effective communication, ask coaching questions and avoid simply ‘directing’ people.
11. Ban internal emails! – (A scary thought!) – This promotes conversations, movement and positive staff relationships.
12. Promote open office spaces where senior staff are situated in the centre to promote open collaborations and discussion.
13. Listen with interest and encourage staff to speak openly about concerns.
14. Develop a ‘Human resources working group’ with members from each of your natural working areas to develop guidelines, policies and strategies with those at the top.
15. Recognise and celebrate achievements, new ideas and acts of kindness.
16. When staff are not quite themselves..Snappy…Tearful etc… encourage yourself and others to notice and check it out..”Is there anything you would like to talk about?…Feel free to come over and offload”
17. Consider training all staff in the ‘Human Givens approach’…from this develop a staff wellbeing strategy, wellbeing days and events.
18. Movable office furniture and bright colours inspire innovation.
19. Link with the community and #GetInvolved with local fundraisers, initiatives and activities.
20. Take this leap, make these changes and believe in them. Ripples will occur, people will notice…and your #NHS organisation can reap the same rewards.

As some of you will know… I have strong feelings about the term ‘Resilience’…But I do like this model below:

 

Things to ask your team on a regular basis…

Have you laughed today at work?

Do you have someone you feel you can confide in at work?

Do you feel able to contribute to decision making?

Do you know what is really happening in your organisation?

Do you feel able to influence the direction of travel?

(Discuss your findings and create an action plan in response to results…Monitor progress!)

“Don’t expect apples when you have sown the seeds of a cactus!”

 

Activity: Making the best of me…

1: Ask yourself how others can get the best out of you

2: Offer what you can realistically do

3: Communicate what inhibits your productivity with others

4: Actively describe what you need from others in order to thrive

 

A Sunao Mind: Having a sunao (untrapped or open) mind means being tolerant without selfishness, being open to the teachings of others, and being able to find joy in any circumstances. It also means being quiet yet dynamic, dynamic yet quiet. It is a state of mind that leads to the truth.

I hope we can all learn and embrace these lessons within our everyday lives. We know that the mental well being of #NHS staff directly correlates with the quality and safety of patient care…So let’s all create cultures in which we can thrive!

We are all leaders…so let’s all lead the way and leave our foot prints in the sand for those who wish to follow….

Until next time ❤