Dr Emma Roche
Emma Roche is a paediatric intensive care doctor at Birmingham Children’s Hospital. She trained at Hull York Medical School before beginning foundation and general paediatric training in Oxford and London.
Currently, she works in a clinical role in a busy multi-speciality unit, which includes a high proportion of cardiac surgical care. She works with a large and incredible team, with the variety of co-ordinating long-term plans for complex patients, to managing life-threatening emergency situations. Her non-clinical roles include acting as the well-being representative for medics in this department, with a project on entrance interviews.
Emma Roche has a deep interest in leadership and quality improvement, and has undertaken a post-graduate certificate on innovation in healthcare, and the Edward Jenner King’s Fund programme. Her interest in behaviour and cognition led her to undertake an intercalated Psychology BSc.
She has worked with the Academic Health Sciences Network on a patient safety project for paediatric feeding devices in the community, and has acted as clinical governance trainee representative in a previous general paediatric department.
Volunteering in Myanmar for 6 months with the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health gave her invaluable insight into how healthcare systems impact local healthcare delivery, and involved clinical work, quality improvement projects and teaching. During this time, she very much enjoyed being involved in setting up a high dependency neonatal area at a local hospital, and training local doctors and nurses in emergency care.
Outside of work, she enjoys fitness, nature photography, and travelling.
During 9 years of clinical experience gained mostly in general paediatrics and paediatric intensive care, she has developed a multifaceted interest in leadership: from the perspective of ‘the self’, the impact leadership has in creating effective teams, and leadership within the context of modern and emerging healthcare system organisation. She sought the opportunity to formally develop her learning around these themes through the FMLM fellowship scheme.
Emma Roche has a deep belief that people are the core force for positive change, particularly in a complex and dynamic organisation such as the NHS. Enabling, valuing, and supporting the NHS workforce enhances their strengths and therefore improves patient care. As such, she would like to make a tangible difference through workforce and engagement projects.
Applying the scheme to her own role as a paediatric intensivist and future consultant, she aims to develop skills in how sustainable change is applied to future projects and leadership roles.
Emma Roche is inspired by so many of the people she has met in medical leadership and management and really values being given the opportunity to learn from, and collaborate with colleagues as a clinical fellow on the FMLM scheme.
